Local and Seasonal: Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good

Pumpkin fresh from the oven.

It's September 2010.  My friend Stacie calls me, and in a voice full of excitement, tells me, "NPR just did an interview with a chef who makes a recipe you have to try.  It's called Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good.  I know you'll love it!"  Stacie was correct, and that was the day I discovered and fell in love with Dorie Greenspan.  This recipe comes from Around My French Table, which I am very sorry to say I still don't own.  That day, though,  I went to google.com, and a quick search yielded up a version of this recipe on Epicurious.com, (which I encourage you to use if you have not already tried it, though I prefer allrecipes.com's ratings system). 

Flash forward to October 15, 2011, when I'm on my second go with this recipe since the pumpkin season hit.  While pumpkin growers in the Northeast had their crops devastated by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, I still managed to find two PA pumpkins at the Whole Foods in Mt. Washington, MD, and I shipped them back home with me.  I like the "bonne idée" section at the end of the recipe; both times I've used chard, the first time I subbed in 1.5 cups of brown rice, and this time I left out the thyme and added in about a tablespoon of ginger to complement the Star Anise and Ginger Chicken that I'm going to have as the main with my stuffed pumpkin tonight.

Try this recipe!  If enough people eat Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good, maybe stores will carry pie pumpkins after Halloween!


Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good
recipe by Dorie Greenspan, adapted from epicurious.com

Makes 4 side servings with 4-lb pumpkin

Wonderfully flexible and chatty recipe, if you read Dorie's introduction online--note that this makes a fabulous veggie main if made without the bacon, ideal for the Thanksgiving table (if you can still find pie pumpkins then).  Here I'll just present how I did it both times!
Notes: I used cheddar and scallions, and I used 1% milk because I did not have cream.

1 pumpkin, about 4 pounds
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks or 1.5 cups cooked rice
1/4 pound Gruyère, Emmenthal, Cheddar, or a combination, also in 1/2-inch chunks
2-4 cloves garlic (I always use 4)
4 slices bacon, cooked till crisp, drained, and chopped
4-5 Swiss chard leaves, stems and leaves separated, stems chopped small
1/4 cup sliced chives or scallions
1 Tbs minced fresh thyme/1 Tbs minced ginger/another flavor to complement meal
1/3 cup heavy cream (or milk)
Healthy pinch nutmeg (fresh if you have it)

PA pumpkin!

1.  Place pumpkin on a baking tray and stick it in the oven.  Remove all necessary racks so that it will fit comfortably.  Take pumpkin off tray, and put either a baking mat or piece of parchment on the tray (the first pumpkin of Fall 2011 left a stain on my Silpat, so you are warned).  Be SURE you never grab tray with pumpkin with one hand--that's a recipe you don't want, Pumpkin Unstuffed And On The Floor.

Proper hole in pumpkin

2. Using a big, sturdy knife, preferably with a recently-sharpened blade, start cautiously cutting a cap out of the top of your pumpkin.  Choose your cap size wisely! A too-small hole creates a problem in both getting the seeds out and then getting the stuffing in, so be sure you Think Big here!  I learned the hard way, as you can see on the right.  The second pumpkin is much more like it, as you can see to the left.

Once you have gotten as many seeds and strings as you can out of your pumpkin (a battle that I feel like I lose every time), salt and pepper it generously.

Sautéing chard stems.

3. This is the optional step, though I recommend that if you're going to fry the bacon, you then use the bacon grease to sauté the chard.  This is the glory of reusing!  First fry the bacon--I place four strips in my cold iron skillet, and cook on medium heat till crisp.  During that time, I de-stem the chard chop the stems small, and when the bacon comes out of the pan, the stems go in.

Filling made with rice.

4. Toss the bread or rice, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl.  Season with pepper, but taste before adding salt (especially if you have added bacon).  Pack the filling into the pumpkin--the pumpkin should be well-filled.  For me, this amount of filling tops off a 4-lb pumpkin, but I have leftovers with a 3-lb pumpkin--but if you by some chance have room for more filling, make more!

Now, mix the cream or milk with nutmeg, and pour that over the filling in the pumpkin. 

Bread stuffing prior to cooking.

5.  Put the cap in place (it's fun to realign the cap with the body!), open the oven door, and with two hands place the tray in the oven.  Bake for 2 hours--check after 90 minutes--or until it's all bubbly wonderfulness and the pumpkin is tender enough for the tip of a knife to slip in with no resistance.  If you like, you can uncap for the pumpkin for the last 20 minutes or so of cooking to brown the stuffing a bit and bake off some of the liquid.

Cooked and partially eaten.

6.  Carefully bring pumpkin out of the oven and either start gutting it there or use the most exquisite care (and possibly a second pair of hands) to transfer to pumpkin to a serving platter.  It's best eaten then and there, but I know from experience that you can scoop out what you don't eat and heat and serve later (and if you had leftover stuffing, you can now mix it in with the leftover stuffed pumpkin).