Stuffed Pumpkin

Ever since we had our first Challengers' potluck a couple months ago, I have been aching to make a stuffed pumpkin. Darci made the most delicious stuffed pumpkin. I could not wait to try it and I think my sister in law got inspired when she saw the the post from Darci. I don't blame her. I was inspired, too (my post is upcoming).

I have to let you know that my sister-in-law, Michelle, beat me to the punch. In fact, she sent me her pictures and recipes WEEKS ago and I have been remiss in not posting this sooner.

Michelle in the middle, with her hubby, Phil, and me! They came out to cheer me on for the Honolulu Marathon!

Michelle was gracious to share her recipe:

Liana,

First, thank you to So Duck Soup for the wonderful photo (and recipe).
I'm a big believer in "you eat with your eyes, first" and the photo was inspiration.

Found that I had to cook the kabocha pumpkin longer than suggested.  Definitely for an hour in the water. (Pumpkin seeded and placed directly into water.)
After stuffing the pumpkin I dumped the water from the pan and cooked it for another half hour and it made the kabocha softer and a nice crispy crust to the stuffing.

Because I am making three pumpkins (1 medium, 2 small)
I needed to have a lot of filling.
To help the budget along I bought from:

Cost Co.
1   container dried shiitake mushrooms

Whole Foods
1   box of organic mushroom broth

Foodland Farms
1  Whole Wheat Round with flax and the bonus whole pumpkin seeds on crust

Safeway
1   yellow onion
3   stalks of celery from a bunch
3   cloves from a bulb of garlic
1   bag dried cranberries

In cupboard:
    Organic onion powder
    Organic curry powder
    Organic turmeric

Stuffing:
Rinsed the dried mushrooms (half of the container)
In a large sauce pan:
3 cups of mushroom broth.
Cooked the rinsed shiitake mushrooms till soften and absorbed some of the broth.
Drain in a bowl to collect leftover broth. Turned out to be 1/2 cup which you will cook with the onion, celery and garlic.
Used the food processor to make the shiitake into a tapenade consistency.  The shiitake mushrooms can be a little rubbery otherwise.  (It yielded two batches in my food processor.)
Cooked the chopped (I used the food processor so it was minced) onion, celery, garlic in the broth.  Next, fresh rough cut button mushrooms.  Then add the shiitake.
For additional flavor I used onion powder, curry and tumeric. (To taste.)
Last item to the mix a bag of cranberries.  The broth mix plumps up the dried cranberries.
In a x-large bowl added the mixture to the hand torn bread and mixed.
Voila... stuffing for the pumpkin.

I took the pumpkin out of the water and stuffed it.
Then dumped the water and replaced the pumpkin into the oven.
The second bake was for about 1/2 hour.  The additional baking time gave the stuffing nice brown and crispy crust and soften the pumpkin as well.

To serve... cut it like a pie/cake.


Here are some notes she added in a later email:


LEAVE OUT the tumeric.  KEEP the CURRY.
The curry has a more familiar taste... the tumeric gives it a "hippie" flavor that doesn't resonate with everyone especially those resisting the green eating.
Also, I am adding fresh chopped apples and fresh rosemary to the already made stuffing tomorrow.  Trying to give the stuffing some interest.  There is definitely enough salt from the broth but the stuffing needs some depth.  Not having fats and/or dairy makes it little challenging.  What I would give to have a pound of bacon and portuguese sausage in the mix.  Hee hee.


Gotta love the Michelle humor!

Michelle's Pumpkin