Pumpkin Stuffed with Jeweled Rice -- Uzbekistan

When my daughter went to Uzbekistan last year, she brought me back barberries to try, because she is a good daughter who knows how to shop for me.

She also received, as a gift, a book on Uzbek recipes, titled Samarkand, Recipes and Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus, by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford.

One recipe that sounded so inviting has been on my mind to try for a long time.  The only issue was getting a pie pumpkin instead of a jack-o-lantern pumpkin.  The former are edible and the latter are bitter and tasteless.  My persistence and patience paid off recently as I found a little side-of-the-road produce stand that had what I've been looking for.

So now I can make the

Pumpkin Stuffed with Jeweled Rice

1 pumpkin (about 2 1/4 pounds)
olive oil
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 scant teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon dried chile flakes
1/2 cup dried barberries or unsweetened dried cranberries
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
generous pinch of saffron strands
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
1 orange
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup dried sour cherries
1/2 cup basmati rice, rinsed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Cut a lid off the pumpkin and reserve it.  Scrape out the seeds and straggly strands and discard.  Continue scooping out more of the flesh, leaving the shell about 1-inch thick (save the flesh for soup).  Rub the inside of the pumpkin with a little olive oil and the cinnamon, cardamom, and dried chile.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the barberries into a bowl of cold water and let soak for about 15 minutes, then drain.  Put the orange blossom water into a small bowl and crumble in the saffron.  Set aside.  Toast the almonds and pistachios in a dry pan.  Set aside.

Use a peeler to remove half the orange zest in strips.  Slice these crosswise into thin slivers.  Bring a small pan of water to a boil, drop in the orange zest, boil for 1 minute, then drain and refresh under cold running water (this removes the bitterness.)  Return the pan to the heat and add the sugar and a generous splash of water.  Heat to dissolve the sugar, then add the orange zest and cook the liquid down to a syrup.  Remove from the heat and stir in the toasted nuts, barberries, and sour cherries.  Set aside.

Partially cook the rice in fast-boiling water for 6 minutes.  Drain.  Stir the fruity nut mixture through the rice, then drizzle with orange blossom water.  Season well.  Spoon the jeweled rice into the pumpkin, top with the butter, and place the lid back on top.

Tear off a piece of aluminum foil large enough to double wrap the pumpkin and lay out on a baking sheet.  Sit the pumpkin on top, rub the skin with a little olive oil, and wrap the foil around it.  Roast for another 30 to 60 minutes until the flesh is tender and a knife goes in easily (allow more roasting time if there is resistance to the knife).  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

My Notes

I used barberries, of course!  My sour cherries were whole, seeded, and frozen, not dried, so I used about 1/2 cup.  The pistachios were already dry roasted and salted, so when I toasted them, I just barely got some of them browned.  I used regular rice, not basmati, and about 1 tablespoon of butter instead of 4.

My pumpkin weighed about 4 1/2 pounds before cleaning, and the shell was less than 1 inch thick, so I didn't scoop out any of the flesh.  I mixed the cinnamon, cardamom, and chile flakes in a bowl then added some salt and pepper.  It was this I spread on the inside of the pumpkin before roasting.  The spice mixture was surprisingly thick.

Post-first-roasting.

Here are the barberries soaking and the saffron infusing the orange blossom water:

I forgot to crumble the saffron.

My orange was very small so I used the whole zest.  Plan the zest cooking steps carefully so you can do them easily:  To "refresh" the boiled zest, I first drained them in a small sieve, rinsed them under the faucet, and then left them in the sieve to continue draining while I returned to the pan and added the sugar and water.  Once the sugar was completely dissolved, I put in the zest and boiled the mix until it was reduced to looking just slightly syrupy.

While boiling down to syrup

I added the nuts and fruit right into this pan and stirred well.

The fruity nut mixture before the rice was added.

Once the rice was boiled, I drained it and put it into the pan with the fruit and nuts and mixed well.  After drizzling on the saffron and orange water, I added some pepper (not salt because the pistachios were already salted) and stirred well.

The quantity of jeweled rice fit the inside of the pumpkin perfectly!

Nicely portioned.

Important:  The pumpkin was still pretty hot from its first roasting when it was time to rub the skin with olive oil before wrapping in foil.  Be careful!  I had to rub quickly to avoid burning my fingers.

After 30 minutes of the second roasting, the pumpkin was cooked to tender.  I tested it by stabbing it with a knife through the foil.  : )   The pumpkin rested its ten minutes while I finalized the accompanying meat dish.

The Verdict

I served it as a side dish to the Pork Roasted in Milk, and accompanied by a tossed green salad.  I first served it with the lid on but that made it hard to serve, so I removed the lid, which looked pretty good.

The text suggested cutting the pumpkin in wedges for serving, which I did.

A lot of the rice mixture fell out during the "transfer from the pumpkin to the plate" but it was easy enough to scoop it back up and pile it on the wedge and on the plate around the wedge.

It was an attractive presentation -- we all agreed that the jeweled rice was dramatic and the pumpkin wedge with it intriguing.  I will describe the flavors of the two separately.

The rice stuffing was very tasty:  The fruits (cherry and barberry) were tart and kept the filling from being too much like a dessert, but still added a sweetness that kept it from being too tart.  The nuts and the barberry seeds added a lovely crunch to offset the softness of the rice and fruits.  The orange zest and orange blossom water flavors were very muted but, I think, added a dimension of flavor that rounded out the overall taste experience.

The spices on the inside surface of the pumpkin contributed to the flavor blend, although I was not pleased with the occasional bite of the chile flakes.  My guest tasters liked it, though, and I know I am a "flavor, not fire" person, so I decided I could live with it for their sake.  I thought it was interesting that those spices were there and not mixed into the stuffing at all.  It seemed to be an interface that brought the two parts, pumpkin and stuffing, together.

The pumpkin itself was not exciting.  I think it added something flavorwise to the rice mixture but I think it would be better to stuff a squash that had more flavor of its own.  We discussed the idea of fixing the stuffing without the pumpkin and thought, while it might be good, it would be missing something.  I suspect the pumpkin provided moisture to help finish cooking the rice, too.

So, success!  It paired well with the pork and the salad.  The leftovers await my attention for another day and I look forward to having them.

I think it would make a good stuffing for a turkey or a chicken, too.  The meat juices would add a lovely, savory dimension.  Perhaps I will give it a try.

Oh, the drama!

Non Bread -- Uzbekistan

This conversation went through my head when I was thinking about writing up this post:

"This is about non bread.  No, not non-bread, non bread!  Seriously, it is about bread.  Non bread."

So rather than subject you to the silliness of the conversation, I would like to show you how I made a bread called Non.

Not too long ago, my daughter had the good fortune to visit Uzbekistan.  Being a good daughter who knows me well, she returned with various food-related items, like barberries, spices, roasted apricot pits, and these dried, salty yogurt balls called kurt.  She also brought me two (yes, two!!!) bread stamps that are used on the popular bread of the region.



She subsequently acquired a cookbook for the region (it is hers, but it lives in my house for the time being) called Samarkand, Recipes and Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus, by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford.

ISBN 978-1-909487-42-0

The beautiful pattern you see on the book's cover is a picture of a fabric they call ikat.  If I understand it correctly, the warp threads are tied into groups and the dye is applied, then the threads are separated for the weaving.  You get that interesting jagged look to the fabric.  Lovely!

I felt the need to use those bread stamps.  I also felt the need to try the bread!  My daughter said she loved eating it. 

The recipe is on page 152.  The author began it with this:

Non is the flatbread that is made the length and breadth of Central Asia.  It is usually baked by being slapped onto the searingly hot clay walls of a tandoor oven.  At home, using a pizza stone and the oven cranked to maximum is the best way to achieve the characteristic chewy, elastic texture.

I decided I would take them up on their challenge to crank my oven up to the maximum!

Non

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
sunflower oil or melted lard
1/2 teaspoon black onion seeds



Put the flour in a large bowl; add the dried yeast to one side, and the salt and sugar to the other.  Make a well in the center, pour in 1/2 cup cold water, and mix thoroughly.  If it feels stiff, add a little more water to make a sticky dough.  Turn onto an oiled surface and knead for 10 minutes until the tackiness has gone and the dough is silky soft and smooth.  Form into a ball and put in an oiled bowl.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for about 2 hours, or until at least doubled in size.

Knock the air out of the dough and form it into a domed round.  Sit it on a floured wooden board lined with a piece of parchment paper and cover again with the kitchen towel.  Let prove for another 45 minutes, or until doubled in size again.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F, or as hot as it will go, and put a pizza stone or baking sheet in to heat up--it needs to get really hot before you bake the non.

Make an indentation in the middle of the bread by pressing with the heel of your hand, leaving a doughnut-shaped ring around the edge.  Pierce a pattern in the middle using a non bread stamp or the tines of a fork.  Brush the top with oil or lard and sprinkle with the onion seeds.  Trim the excess parchment from the sides of the bread.

Put a handful of ice cubes on the bottom of the oven--this will create steam.  Use the board to lift the bread to the oven and carefully slide it (still on the parchment paper) onto the preheated stone or pan.  Bake for 15 minutes.  The top should be golden and the load should sound hollow when tapped underneath.

My Notes

I used regular granulated sugar, canola oil, and white sesame seeds instead of the onion seeds.  My daughter assured me that most of the non she ate had sesame seeds on it.

Yeast on the left, well in the middle, sugar and salt on the right

I was astonished that the water was to be cold; I had expected it to be warm to start the yeast.  It was easy to mix the dough and adjust the water to make it sticky.  Kneading it was just fun:  the ball of dough is small so it truly did not take a lot of effort to get it moving and to keep working it for ten minutes.  It turned out beautifully soft and smooth. 

Sticky dough

Silky soft and smooth

The timing on the two risings was just right.  I put the dough in my oven set to "Proof" for the 2 hours rise and then just left it on the counter for the second rising.

It has risen!

I chose the decorative bread stamp to pierce the center. 

The stamp I used

The stamp I didn't use

It flattened to about 6 inches diameter before the second rising.



This is my hand imprint after the second rising.



Here it is stamped, oiled, and sprinkled.



Now comes the time for true confessions:  I ended up making this recipe twice. 

The first time, I set my oven for as hot as it would go, which turned out to be 550 degrees F.  When the bread went in, it puffed up considerably, and in about 7 minutes, was burning.  Yes, too brown and some of the sesame seeds were burnt. 



The inside looked pretty good but I thought it was still too wet.



My daughter thought I hadn't flattened the dough enough, and that it should be wider and thinner.  This loaf was too puffy.

So I tried it again, which was still fun to mix and knead.

I flattened the dough to about 8 inches in diameter this time.



I set the oven temperature to 475 degrees F as the recipe specified.  After 10 minutes of baking, it was the perfect golden color and sounded hollow when thumped.



And when I sliced it, I thought it had cooked just right.



The Verdict

I had my daughter try it because she alone had tasted it in Uzbekistan and could correctly judge the results of my efforts.

Her response?

The flavor and texture were just right.  Hooray!  Chewy, like a bagel, with a classic bread taste highlighted by the slightly toasted sesame seeds.

She still thought the bread was too thick and should have been pressed out to a wider diameter than 8 inches.  Also, I did not make the center indentation thin enough.  She said it should be very flat, without any puff at all.  So the next time I make it, I will aim for 10 inches diameter at the least.

We cut it into little wedges and ate it for several meals, with a sausage stew, with grilled pork chops, and at breakfast along side poached eggs.  We all thought it was perfect with a light spread of cream cheese and a dab of our favorite fruit jam.

Even the first attempt tasted pretty good, although I dislike burnt seeds.  They were easily brushed off, so it wasn't a big problem.  But the second attempt was much better.

Success!  Easy and simple to make, wonderful to eat. 

Now I am excited about trying other recipes from the same book.  Something with barberries, perhaps!