Clip this recipe: Dinner in a pumpkin
Published 3:39 pm Thursday, October 25, 2007
Originally, today’s column called for tips. You know the kind — easy-peasy tricks for making perfect bisks, and for making perfect pasta, too.
No way now, though. Instead, in direct response to an amazing flurry of requests for a reprint of a certain pumpkin main-dish specialty, we’re going to go with it again.
Here’s the story: Some years ago now, longtime Forum helper-outer and Lynnwood cook Bonnie Teeters was, naturally, delighted to accept a dinner invitation from her daughter, Cindy Wilson.
A hightlight, foodwise, of this get-together was the stuffed pumpkin entree. And it was so good, Bonnie asked for the recipe.
With Cindy’s how-to in hand, Bonnie then shared it with Forum cooks, telling us, “I love it, and everyone who has eaten it, loves it, too. It really is delicious, and spooning some of the baked pumpkin out along with the filling is a must. Oh, it is just so good.’
There’s only one thing you need to know about this — be sure to get a big enough pumpkin. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with way too much filling.
Now, for those of you who have misplaced or somehow, admit it, flat out missed the Oct. 5 repeat of this concoction, here we go again with:
Bonnie’s dinner in a pumpkin from Cindy
1medium pumpkin, at least 4 pounds
1 1/2pounds lean ground beef
1/3cup chopped green pepper
3/4cup chopped celery
3/4cup chopped onion
1teaspoon salt
1/4teaspoon pepper
1/4cup soy sauce
2tablespoons brown sugar
1can (4 ounces) mushrooms, undrained
1can cream of chicken soup
2cups cooked rice
Optional decorations: olives, steamed carrot, whole cloves, fresh parsley
Wash, dry and cut lid from pumpkin; set lid aside. Scrape out the inside of the pumpkin well, discarding all seeds and membrane; set pumpkin aside.
In a large skillet, brown hamburger, green pepper, celery and onion. In mixing bowl, mix together the salt, pepper, soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, soup and rice, then add to the hamburger mixture. Mix well and turn into the prepared pumpkin.
Put lid on, place pumpkin on foil-lined, rimmed cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours.
To serve, be sure and scrape up some of the inside of the cooked pumpkin along with the hamburger mixture.
To decorate the pumpkin, use toothpicks to attach black olives for eyes, steamed carrot for the nose, and whole cloves for the mouth. For hair, use fresh parsley around the top.
The next Forum will appear in Monday’s Time Out section.
