French Milk with Baked Pumpkin -- Two Pinedo recipes

It is fall and that means pumpkin season!  I went to a favored produce stand and bought a small sugar pumpkin, which is a variety fit for eating.  Standard jack-o-lantern pumpkins taste terrible, so you should always aim for a variety designated for pie fillings.  I didn't want a big one, so this was just right.

On page 43, Pinedo offered instructions on how to bake a pumpkin where the result is ready for adding to cakes, pies, or empanadas, which are small hand pies.  Once I had it baked, I needed to do something with it.  Fortunately, on page 143, she offered a recipe for "French Milk", which looks like a pumpkin-flavored rice pudding.

Her recipe, page 43:

My Translation

Pumpkin for cakes or pies

         A pumpkin is cut through the middle, and through the cut take out the guts and the seeds; add sugar inside thickly and cover well with the same piece that was cut out: when this has been done, put it in the oven; let it cook.

         Once cooked, the shell is removed, and [the rest is] ground, passing it immediately through a sieve in order to pour it into a little milk and put it back on the fire until it has the point of paste.

My Redaction

4.5 lb sugar pumpkin

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cut the pumpkin to form a lid that is easy to remove and replace.  Use a spoon to remove the seeds and strings.  Coat the inside, including the lid, with sugar.  Put the lid on.  Place in a baking dish.  Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until the sides are easily pierced with a fork.

Remove from the oven and let cool until it is easy to handle.

Pour any liquid inside the pumpkin into a food processor or blender.  

Using a small paring knife, remove the outer skin and discard.  Cut the cooked pumpkin meat into chunks.

Working in batches, puree the chunks until very smooth.  The liquid helps to start the process; leaving some of the puree in the processor helps the next batch.

If you puree it well, you don't need to pass the pulp through a sieve.

Put the puree in a saucepan and add the milk.  Cook it over low heat, stirring often, until it is very thick.  Remove from heat and refrigerate.  

My Notes

I cut it open like I cut for a jack-o'lantern.

Seeds and guts removed!

Miss Pinedo probably used more sugar, but I knew my pumpkin was probably tasty without much.  I coated the sides and lid.  Some of the sugar was dissolved in the pumpkin's moisture before I took the picture.

Cooked.  You can see the fork holes where I tested it for doneness.

The cooked pumpkin interior.  See the accumulated liquid?

Chunks, followed by puree.

The about 5 cups of puree was pretty thick, so I didn't feel I needed to cook it much longer to thicken it.  I mixed in the milk and cooked it just a little while.  Once it was thick enough to create a "canyon" in it with a spoon, I declared it done.

Mixing in the milk.  Not quite to canyon stage.

Now it is ready for the next recipe, French Milk!

Her Recipe, pg 143

My Translation

French milk.

         Add some clean, ground rice to a quart of milk, some egg yolks and sugar to taste. Everything together is passed through a sieve and cooked with a stick of cinnamon.

         Having boiled well, a piece of cooked pumpkin is put on it and passed through the sieve, agitating it until it is about to white manjar.

         Then a little orange blossom water is added and it is emptied into a plate, garnishing it on top with almonds and cinnamon.

My Redaction

5 tablespoons ground rice

1 quart whole milk

5 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)

3 egg yolks

1 stick cinnamon

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon orange flower water

Garnish:  chopped or slivered almonds and ground cinnamon.

And the pumpkin and garnish.

Mix egg yolks, milk, sugar, and ground rice together.  Pour through a sieve or strainer into a saucepan.  Since the idea is to break up any lumps, if some of the rice stays in the strainer, pour the milk mixture through again to push the rice through it.  

Add the cinnamon stick.

Cook over medium heat until the mixture starts bubbling, then turn the heat down so the mixture simmers.  Cook until the rice is soft and the mixture is thickened. (For me, a total of 40 minutes.)

Remove the cinnamon stick.  Add the pumpkin and mix well.  Continue cooking until the mixture is thicker (but not necessarily very thick).  Remove from the heat.

Stir in the orange flower water.  Put the French Milk into the serving bowl.

If you want to serve it warm, sprinkle on the garnish.  If you want to serve it chilled, cover and refrigerate it, then add the garnish just before serving.

My Notes

I wasn't sure what ratio of rice-to-milk I should use in order to get, but a walk around the internet suggested the 5 tablespoons of rice.  

I guessed at 5 tablespoons of sugar, too.  I didn't want it too sweet as that usually dulls the other flavors, and I wanted to taste the pumpkin and the orange flower water.

The purpose of the egg yolks appears to be to add richness.  You can adjust the amount to your liking.  

Keep an eye on the mixture as it cooks -- mine almost boiled over at one point.

Mixed, sieved, and ready to cook.

Cooked, thicker.

With the pumpkin.  Pretty!

Garnished and ready to serve.

The Verdict

The first time, I served it warm.

My guest taster loved it and thought it was perfect just the way it was.  He thought the sweetness level was just right.  While he couldn't identify the orange flower water flavor, he recognized there was a floral component to the overall flavor profile.

I thought it was good, too, especially the light pumpkin flavor.  However, I felt it needed more sugar and more cinnamon.  Once I added that to my bowl and mixed it in, I felt it was right.  I could taste the orange flower water and liked how it complemented the pumpkin.

We both thought the almonds were a good addition, since they added a crunch to an otherwise completely smooth texture.

The second time, I served it cold.  It was thicker and had a robust mouthfeel, and I realized it was just right.  It did not need any more sugar or cinnamon.  

I thought the pumpkin and orange flower flavors were better blended, too, which I liked.  

I declare it a success!  

Here are my recommendations:  

If you are going to serve it warm, use more ground rice to make it thicker.  Add another tablespoon or two of sugar and be generous with the cinnamon garnish. 

But if you will serve it chilled, don't change the ratios.  It was a delicate dessert even with the more robust mouthfeel.

If you really love pumpkin, you might add in more, but I wouldn't add more than 1/2 cup extra.

As a side note, this recipe made me think of a recipe from the 14th century, in England, in a book called "The Forme of Cury."  

Notice that it uses almond milk instead of cow's milk - a common practice in the days when cow's milk was not always healthy to consume - and it is thickened with "flour of rys", ground rice.  It is flavored with ginger, sugar, and salt.  

This is so similar to what French Milk is, with upgrades to include egg yolks, other flavorings, and a garnish.  I view it as a proto-type rice pudding.  It always gives me a thrill to see a connection to a recipe going back (in Pinedo's case) 500 years.

Using one cup of the pureed pumpkin left me with 4 cups, so I made a pumpkin bread (from The Joy of Cooking book) and pumpkin soup, from my own design.  Yum!

Pumpkin Tian

My friends MS and SS gave me this interesting book they found on a trip:  Simple Cooking by John Thorne, which was published throughout the 1980s.

ISBN 9780865475045

Mr. Thorne has written a book where he gives us his opinions of cookbooks, the people who write them, and ways of cooking during a time of changing goals and techniques due to technology and convenience.  He makes some good observations along the way:

My goal as a cook has always been not so much to attain some specific sense of mastery as to be able to go into the kitchen, take up what I find there, and make a meal of it.

If you're in sympathy with this notion, you'll know from your own experience that such simple cooking isn't easy cooking, or the supermarkets wouldn't be as stuffed as they are with convenience foods.  You may also have discovered that an impromptu, impulsive, and ever-adaptive cooking style is not one that the cookbook - of whatever sort, it seems - is by nature equipped to explain. 

He shares with us the idea that cooking is not so much the following of a recipe but an understanding of the concepts, and even then knowing that it is (and should be) an art:  "opinionated, argumentative, contradictory, with each cook making the exact same 'traditional' dish in his or her own particular way".  From this, we transcend the constricting recipes:

Observing, listening, tasting, we feel inside ourselves a shifting of that complex balance of option, opinion, and taste - the living logic of the dish - as it settles itself into the shape that we will want to make.  And then we find ourselves on the other side - the before side - of the recipe, which is just where, I think, a good cook wants to be.

I know that I have achieved that level of cooking, at least sometimes.  I see the concepts of the recipes in front of me, and I occasionally feel like I can take those concepts and use them with other ingredients not called for on that piece of paper.  I think my experience redacting historical recipes that come with minimal instructions and often no measurements helped pushed me to that level:  you have to use your imagination and your sense of what is right.  When you listen to that, you are more likely to reach success.

Mr. Thorne includes a chapter titled "The Tian", which describes this Provençal dish as

a vegetable casserole, a modest penny-stretcher meant, whether served hot or cold, as the main course or a side dish, to provide the bulk of the meal at the least possible cost. ... The defining characteristic of a tian -- slow cooking in olive oil and seasonings -- brings out the best of taste and texture in a host of vegetables. ...

Originally, the tian was a simple peasant dish of vegetables that took its name from the vast, heavy earthenware terrine it was cooked in -- a tian. 

A look around the internet shows a variety of recipes and the adaptability of the technique.  No pumpkin?  Use whatever vegetables you have on hand, like spinach, Swiss chard, red bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, or tomatoes -- singly or mixed together. You can include other ingredients like rice, cheese, eggs, chickpeas, or bread crumbs.  For seasoning, pick whatever you think would go well with the vegetables you have, and that includes fresh herbs, wine, milk, cream, and spices.

Mr. Thorne gives us citations for other cookbooks and chefs to explore for more ideas.  Since the concept of a tian is an old one, there are many ways to approach it, and many different outcomes that can be like a gratin or more like a frittata.  Ratatouille can fit into this category (and so I think of the cute and fun movie!).

I chose to make his recipe that focuses on just one vegetable, the pumpkin, and aim to have it "cooked to perfection."  I love pumpkin and this looks just amazing.

Pumpkin Tian (pgs 43-44)

One small pumpkin (3 to 4 pounds)

1/4 cup flour

6 cloves garlic, finely minced

Generous pinch fresh thyme (approx. 1 teaspoon)

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Remove seeds, string, and rind from the pumpkin flesh, then cut flesh into 3/4-inch cubes.  Set the pumpkin cubes in a colander and toss with the flour until the cubes are coated and the excess flour has escaped.  Toss again with garlic, thyme, Parmesan chees, and season with salt and pepper to taste (pumpkin is sweet and bland and requires a fat pinch from the salt box).  Rub the interior of a casserole with a generous amount of the olive oil, pack in the floured and seasoned pumpkin cubes, and dribble the remaining oil evenly over the top.  Set in the preheated oven and bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  The top of the dish will form a dark rich crust; the pumpkin within dissolves in the mouth into molten succulence.

My Notes

The author comments, 

Although pumpkin is quite fine in this dish, the actual squash used for it in Provence is courge rouge, which is similar but more flavorful and less sweet.  It is just now starting to appear in American markets, somewhat pumpkin-shaped but of a deeper, reddish hue.  

I know from experience that the pumpkins in the market are intended to be for jack-o'lanterns and not for eating.  They taste terrible!  It was after Halloween when I went to look for pumpkins for this recipe, so I hoped to find one labeled as a sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin.  

Alas, no such luck.  All items that looked like a standard pumpkin were missing from the store's produce section.  However, I recalled the author's comments about courge rouge, and I looked for something like that.

What I found was kuri rouge, or red kuri squash.  Also known as the Hokkaido pumpkin, it is supposed to be sweet and the cooked flesh tastes like chestnut.  The skin is edible after cooking.  I decided to give it a try.

I bought three (at nearly 5 pounds total) but found that only two were needed to fill my casserole dish (about 3 1/2 pounds total).  

Even though the skin is edible after cooking, I chose to follow the instructions and peel it.  It was very easy to peel with my veggie peeler; then I trimmed off the ends, cut it in half, and removed the seeds and strings.

Peeled and trimmed.

I'm saving the seeds for eating and possibly planting.  Here are the pumpkin pieces:

Dusted with flour

Seasonings on top

I put in about 3/4 teaspoon of salt.  

Well-mixed, packed into the casserole dish, and oiled.  Ready for baking.

I cooked it for two hours.  Note that the dish is not covered, as the idea is to cook off much of the vegetable's moisture.  I think the oil will keep it from becoming dry.

The Verdict

While it was cooking, my kitchen smelled wonderful!  The garlic came through the most, but it had my mouth watering and I wasn't even hungry.

Mmmmmmm!

The pumpkin cooked down further than I had expected.  I think I could have used the other kuri, overloaded the dish, and still have it fit after cooking.

I thought the crust would be more developed, which it might have been had I cooked it another 1/2 hour as was my option in the recipe.  But this looked fine to me.

My guest taster and I ate it as a light dinner -- just the tian and wine.  It was excellent.

The pumpkin was soft and flavorful, although the parts on top were a bit crunchy, making the whole dish more interesting.  Not a soft dish, but a mixture of soft and not.  The garlic had cooked to a mellow level, and the thyme added a nice understated note.  My guest taster loves salt, and he thought it had just enough.  I could not taste the pepper, but I suspect it added some depth to the mixture.

We also thought the Parmesan cheese added some crunch to the dish.  We weren't sure, but I think the cheese on the surface also got crunchy.  

It was not a spectacular dish.  It was flavorful, and I can see how it would be a good main dish, possibly with bread or buttered noodles and some fruit or a salad.  I can also imagine it as a side dish to some roast meat, like chicken.

My only criticism was that I think I could have used 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/3 cup.  The oil puddled up on my plate and there was some in the bottom of the casserole dish.  I know we needed at least 1/4 cup to keep it moist, but I think we didn't need 1/3 cup.  I'm not fond of food that seems greasy, and while this wasn't really greasy, I would have liked to reduce the amount of leftover oil.

Not that this stopped us for thoroughly enjoying it.  What started out as "We will taste it to see how it is." turned into "We ate it all because it was so good."  It was a lovely dinner. 

Success!

All gone!

Empanadas de calabaza sazonas -- Seasoned Pumpkin Empanadas

I had a wonderful sweet pumpkin sitting around and the time to make something with it.  I recalled that Miss Pinedo had some recipes involving pumpkin empanadas, so I decided to give it a try.  I have never made empanadas before, but I have eaten some with great enthusiasm.

From pages 91 and 92 in her book, I found and translated:

Empanadas--Dough for.

         To a pound and a half of flour, put two egg yolks and one white, a little bit of fat and salt: stir everything with cold water, knead well, and when it is of a regular temper, form the puff pastries, fill them, and put in the oven. 

Seasoned pumpkin empanadas.

         Put the pumpkin in large pieces to cook, and after cooked it is removed from the heat. It is mashed well and passed through a sieve, seasoning it with ground cinnamon and a very little clove and sugar.

         The dough is stuffed, folded, and crimped; cook them in the oven.

Time to experiment!

I didn't take pictures of the pumpkin cooking process, so I will just describe it:  I cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the seeds and strings, then cut it into quarters.  The pieces went into a big kettle to steam cook:  they rested on a pierced metal stand that had water underneath.  The water got to a slow boil (just enough to produce some steam) and I cooked the pumpkin for about an hour with a lid on the pot.  I checked it regularly to see if I needed to add more hot water (I did a few times) and to see if the pumpkin was tender all the way through.  

Then I turned off the heat, removed the lid, and let the pumpkin cool so I could handle it easily.  Using a spoon, I scraped the flesh off the shell.  The flesh went into the refrigerator until Iit was time to make the filling.

My Redaction

Dough:

I found that 1 1/2 pounds of flour was about 5 cups. 

5 cups flour (plus a little extra as needed)

2 egg yolks

1 egg white

7 ounces of fat (I used about 1/2 vegetable shortening and 1/2 butter)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

cold water

Pulse the flour, egg yolks and white, salt, and fat together in the food processor until mixed.  Add cold water and run the processor until the dough comes together into a ball.  Remove from bowl and knead gently.  Wrap or put into a covered container and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Basically, I treated it like a pie crust.

Filling:

The pumpkin chunks were put in a deep kettle and pureed with a stick blender.  I estimated it to be about 7 cups of puree.

7 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 pinches cloves

Gently warm the puree, adding in the other ingredients and stirring well.  Allow some time for the flavors to blend and let cool. It should be very thick.  

Before pureeing

After pureeing, and with the sugar and spices.

Making the empanadas:

Roll out the dough, cut into rounds, put a spoonful of filling on the dough.  Fold and crimp the edges.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown.

My Notes

I wanted to try my nifty little gadget that is supposed to make beautiful dumplings like empanadas.  

I rolled the dough to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick and used one part of the gadget to cut the circles.

The other part of the gadget is what folds and crimps the dough.

The dough sits on top and the filling sits in the middle.

It took some experimenting to get the dough thin enough and to find the right amount of filling to put in.  Too much filling squished out of the dough when it was folded over and crimped.  This is too much filling and the dough is too thick:

This is better on the dough thickness (although I kept trying to make it thinner) and about right on the filling quantity.

The extra dough tears off easily. All the scraps that didn't have filling smeared on it got rerolled and cut.

They were so cute on the baking sheet!

Before baking, some batches were sprinkled with sugar.  Other batches has a little cream brushed on top and were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  And sometimes I just put ginger sugar on top.

This is cream with cinnamon sugar.

I had problems with them opening up, both before and during baking.

Look at the one at the top.  It is opening up.

Not the result I wanted.

I also tried sealing them up with my fingers instead of using the gadget.  I also tried brushing water along the edges to help them seal.

None were very successful, although I did think of open clams or oysters when I looked at them (no pearls, though).

The Verdict

I kept making empanadas until I ran out of dough.  I still had filling left over.  

So some were open and some were closed and I tasted both kinds (and all of the toppings!).  

They were good!  I liked the thinnest dough with the most filling -- not surprising because the filling was the best part.  The pumpkin flavor came shining through and it was lightly sweet.  It had just enough spice to keep it from being bland; it was a good balance with the pumpkin.

The dough needed to be crisper, I thought, but it still did the job.  Not heavy in any way.  It just didn't have much crunch.

The ones eaten after the first day were heated until the outside crisped up a little and got more brown.  This was fine. 

I will call them a success for my first attempt.  And I forgot to take a picture of any in a decorative way.  

The leftover pumpkin filling got turned into a savory soup with corn, onions, and pieces of chicken.  It was really, really tasty.

I think if you wanted to put in more spice, you could do so and it would still be good.  I was really looking for the pumpkin flavor, which influenced my measurements.  A really cinnamon-y filling would be fine.

Playing with Pumpkins, Part Two

My last post was taking a pumpkin and filling it with a stuffing made of pork sausage, apples, onions, bread, and spices.  It was tasty and the pumpkin had a mild flavor that was, fortunately, not bland or bitter like previous pumpkins I have cooked.

Now I want to cook with the other pumpkin I bought at a farmer's market.  The vendors said this would be such a sweet pumpkin and I was hoping they were right.

I decided to try it with a custard inside, studded with fruit and nuts.

I decided not to use the cream

I used Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio to help me plan the custard.  I chose the 2 to 1 ratio of half-and-half to eggs for a creamy but firm custard as the base for my dessert.

Ingredients

1 pumpkin, washed and rinsed
12 ounces half-and-half
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 ounces sour cherries, coarsely chopped
1/4 ounce slivered almonds, chopped

My Notes

Before I knew how much half-and-half and eggs to use, I had to prepare and measure the pumpkin.

I cut off the top, putting the knife in at a slant, to make a lid and to leave as much of a bowl-like interior as I could.  Then I scraped out the seeds and strings from the inside and off the bottom of the lid.

When I rinsed the inside of the pumpkin, I filled it with water and measure how much it comfortably held.  It seemed like 15 ounces was about right, so I planned on a total of 18 ounces to work with Ruhlman's ratio:  12 ounces of half-and-half with 3 large (so 6 ounces) eggs.  I knew that could overfill it but I didn't worry about it.

I just guessed on the amount of sugar, extract, cherries, and nuts.  I wanted it mildly sweet and I thought the extract would compliment the cherries more than vanilla extract would.

Ruhlman suggested putting the half-and-half, eggs, sugar, and extract into some sort of blending device to make it smooth.  I used a stick blender.  I put the pumpkin into my Dutch oven.

Then I poured the custard mix into the pumpkin and stirred in the cherries and nuts.  This made the pumpkin very full so I put the lid on the side instead of on top.  Then I poured boiling water around the pumpkin, put the lid on the Dutch oven, and put the whole thing in a preheated 325 degree F oven.

After one hour, I took the lid off the Dutch oven to let the custard finish baking.  I notice the custard had risen and occasionally leaked out over the edge of the pumpkin bowl but I didn't worry about it.

It took another hour before I felt the custard had set enough to remove from the oven.  It wasn't entirely firm and I saw a lot of liquid around it, which I assumed was from the pumpkin itself.

I used two slotted spoons to remove the pumpkin from the baking pan and placed it in a bowl.

I then covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The Verdict

The next day I tasted it.  The custard was firm, the pumpkin was tender, and the whole thing sliced beautifully.  It all stayed together when moving a slice to a plate for serving.

As I had expected, the cherries and nuts were mostly on the surface, but there was enough of them that it was easy to get a bite of them even when scooping up custard from deep in the pumpkin bowl.

And the flavor? 

First, the custard was just right.  Creamy, smooth, lightly sweet.  I couldn't taste the almond extract but that was okay by me.  The cherries weren't as sour as they were uncooked but still flavorful and added a nice bright sparkle of flavor to the mild custard.  The almonds did exactly what I wanted:  they were a bit of crunch that was much needed to balance the texture. 

The pumpkin was absolutely the best, sweetest pumpkin I have ever eaten.  No bitterness, sweet without being cloying, tender and smooth.  Even the rind was tender and easy to eat.  It worked so well with the custard that each mouthful was a pleasure. 

Oh my, Success!

I am saving the seeds in hopes of growing more of these pumpkins.  I wish I could remember what the vendors at the farmers market had called the variety!  I've done more reading on tasty pumpkins and I wonder if this is the variety called "Cinderella's Carriage."  It looks a lot like the description and it is soooooooo tasty. 

I wish more farmers grew this pumpkin.  It could start a trend for pumpkin-eating!  Like the nursery rhyme:  Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater! 

Playing with Pumpkins, Part One

This post is the tale of two pumpkins, both of which were purchased (at separate times) from a local farmers market and a local produce stand.



You see, I want to cook with pumpkins but the ones I've bought in the grocery store are just icky in flavor.  Jack-o'lantern pumpkins are bitter and nasty.  Even the last "pie pumpkin" was pretty mediocre in flavor.  So when I found these pumpkins grown locally, I knew I had to try them.

What to do with them?

The orange one was still called a pie pumpkin but I decided to stuff it and make a savory main dish from it.

I used foods I like for stuffing, but I put them together rather haphazardly.  This means I wrote down what I used but didn't take a picture of all the ingredients before I used them.  Here is the list:

1 pound pork sausage (bulk)
1 apple, cored and cut into small pieces
1/4 large onion, sliced into thin pieces
1/2 bagel, cut into cubes and toasted
1/4 teaspoon powdered mace
1/2 cup red wine

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Any bread will do, I think.  I just happened to have a bagel handy.

The key to stuffing something (a bird, a pumpkin, whatever) is to have your stuffing completely cooked before the whole thing goes into the oven.  So brown the sausage and break it up into smallish pieces.

Partially cooked; still needs to be broken up more.

Saute the apple and onion together until tender.

I love apples and onions cooked together!

After the bread bits are toasted, break them up into smallish pieces, if they aren't already so.

I used my fingers to break them into small pieces.

Mix the sausage, apple and onion, bread cubes, and mace together in a big bowl.  Then sprinkle the wine over the top and mix it in.

Smells yummy!

Wash and dry the outside of the pumpkin.  Cut open the top -- make the opening wide -- and scoop out the seeds and strings.  Trim the strings off the inside of the top, too.

Using 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, sprinkle the inside surface of the pumpkin to spice it.

Sprinkle them separately or mix them together.  Tilt the pumpkin to get all the inside covered.

Stuff the pumpkin.  I had to push to get it all to fit, but it did fit.



Put the lid on the pumpkin and place the pumpkin in a deep pan, like a Dutch oven.  Add 1/2 cup water to the pan.

Put in oven and bake until the pumpkin is tender when you push a pick into the side.  I baked mine about 2 hours.  I checked it after one hour and added a cup of water to the pan.  The original 1/2 cup had evaporated.

The Verdict

After two hours, the pumpkin was tender but not falling apart.  I served it as a main dish and had grilled brussel sprouts as the side dish.

When I took off the lid, I could still smell the wine.  Yum!

It was easy to slice the pumpkin into wedges for serving.

The taste?  The stuffing was enjoyable:  The sausage was flavorful as a good pork sausage can be. The apples and onions added moistness and sweetness while also complementing the pork. The bread added bulk and held the wine while shifting the texture away from just meat.

The pumpkin itself was, fortunately, not bitter.  It had a mild pumpkin flavor that went well with the stuffing.  I am glad that I spiced the inside of the pumpkin before stuffing because I could taste the salt and pepper, and I liked what I tasted.

Overall a good meal.  We both liked it and are looking forward to eating the leftovers.  Success!