Got a pumpkin? Stuff it!

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Arcanaut

Fall is my favorite time of year. Don’t get me wrong. Lazy summer evenings are nice, but DC is too warm for my taste. Fresh tomatoes almost make it worthwhile. Wintertime has its own pleasures, particularly snuggling under the comforter. Spring is a wonderful awakening and I love the arrival of fresh greens and strawberries.

Ah, but fall. It’s relief from that long, hot summer. I can enjoy the clear warm days and love the cool rainy ones. And comfort food comes back on the menu along with those fruits and vegetables that have been growing all year, just waiting for me to happen by.

We went apple picking out in Front Royal last year. It’s a long trip, so we’ll see if we can find something closer this year. One of my favorites is homemade apple sauce. It’s so easy. Good apples, a bit of sugar and spice, heat and plenty of time. This stuff is to the jarred as a summer tomato is to the ones you see in the supermarket. I bought a food mill specifically for the aim of making apple sauce. I used a potato ricer last year. It works, but it’s messy.

I’m looking forward to our annual Thanksgiving bash. That’s a post in and of itself. I tried my first organic turkey last year. It was pretty good, though I think my favorite of the meal was the beets I picked up a MoM’s (My Organic Market) in Del Ray.

Perhaps the purest fall food for me is the pumpkin. I remember that I used to make an occasional pumpkin pie and have it for breakfast for the better part of a weak. There are other things you can do with it, though. My favorite of these is to stuff it. Here is an absurdly simple recipe a former Post food writer (Kim O’Donnell) clued me into three years ago.

The first time I ever made this, Primo and Secondo were sick and so I had to leave the pumpkin in a warm oven. An interesting thing happened. The skin began to fall away from the pumpkin, so I peeled it and served it all mixed. It’s cheesy, pumpkin goodness. Here are a few of source links:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2008/11/the_great_sugar_pumpkin.html

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/fall/autumn-supper-savory-stuffed-pumpkin-099843

http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/2008/09/pumpkin-packed-with-bread-and-cheese-a-recipe-in-progress.html

http://blog.streaminggourmet.com/2009/10/25/ruth-reichls-cheesy-bread-in-a-pumpkin/

BB

Stuffed Pumpkin

Ingredients
1 sugar pumpkin, 2 – 3 pounds
4 – 6 oz. of stale bread, cut into ½” chunks
4 – 6 oz. of cheese, cut into chunks
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
½ – 1 cup whole milk
Seasoning (nutmeg or herbs)
Method
Cut a cap off the top of the pumpkin. Cut off any seeds and strings off the cap and scoop out everything from the pumpkin. Give the inside of the pumpkin a good rinse.
Combine the stuffing and, well, stuff that pumpkin. Put the pumpkin in a baking pan (or oven save pot) and place into an oven at 375 degrees. Bake for about an hour or so.
Notes
The seeds are a great snack if you wash them off and roast them.
Go with whatever you like for the cheese. Gruyere works well. I love a good blue cheese in this recipe. I’m guessing that some cooked bacon, broken into pieces, would add additional yumminess.
The recipes that I’ve seen call for using half and half, but I think it works fine with milk. You can also mix the dairy with chicken stock.
I’ve seen nutmeg used for the seasoning, but I prefer to use a dry herb mix such as Herbs de Provence.
I’ve seen different cooking methods to be used. One can go with a higher temperature oven and that’ll add a nice char to the pumpkin. Just keep an eye on it and reduce the temperature as needed.

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7 Responses

  1. Unknown's avatar
    lmsinca, on October 16, 2011 at 3:53 pm said:

    That looks and sounds really yummy and is right up my alley FB. Looks like a great opportunity for experimentation as far as cheese and spices go. I use a lot of condensed non fat milk for recipes like this so I bet that would work out great also. I didn't get my pumpkins planted this year but I always buy a few for carving and roasted seeds.We're going to our sons for a little Halloween pot luck on the 29th so I think I'll make this and take it. I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch about 40 years ago and I remember it felt like it weighed about 5 pounds, luckily I've perfected both the crust and the filling recipe since then.Thanks

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  2. Unknown's avatar
    Michigoose, on October 16, 2011 at 4:19 pm said:

    Nothing isn't improved with a little bacon! :-)Mmmmmmmm. Thanks, FB!

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  3. Unknown's avatar
    suekzoo, on October 16, 2011 at 4:23 pm said:

    Waaaaa!I have three small sugar pumpkins sitting in the breezeway right now. Guess what's for dinner?Maybe it's because I was born near Thanksgiving that I have a deep and abiding love of pumpkin. I could eat it in some form everyday. I like to add some pumpkin puree to pancake and waffle mix. It's the best!I'd bet this recipe could also work with other squashes. Ever tried that, Paul?

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  4. Unknown's avatar
    suekzoo, on October 16, 2011 at 4:53 pm said:

    Bacon! Good idea!

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  5. Unknown's avatar
    Fairlington Blade, on October 16, 2011 at 4:58 pm said:

    I think it would work really well with a squash that has some space in the middle of it. One could partially hollow out a butternut squash and tie the whole thing together with some twine.Primo and Secondo were born the Monday following Thanksgiving in 2005. The turkey wasn't the only thing that looked stuffed that year!BB

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  6. Unknown's avatar
    lmsinca, on October 16, 2011 at 5:38 pm said:

    I said condensed milk instead of evaporated non fat milk, big difference.I love the fall too, of course out here we always get our Santa Ana's and fires in Oct/Nov but we call it birthday weather as our daughter's birthday is the day before Halloween.My favorite day in the fall is the day after Thanksgiving. We have a really big artisan fair out here that weekend and we always go that Friday and I buy a lot of unusual Christmas gifts. They make the best ginger cookies in the world and sell the dough in frozen balls so you can pop a few in the oven whenever you want, and the house smells fantastic.

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  7. Unknown's avatar
    Fairlington Blade, on October 16, 2011 at 6:57 pm said:

    The recipe for my favorite mac & cheese uses evaporated milk. I'd love to use it, but it's a bit too rich. I think evaporated, non-fat milk would work well here.BB

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