For Halloween eats this year, I was saying we’d need one pumpkin for this, or one for that — two if we were planning to prepare both the hearty entree, Bonnie’s dinner in a pumpkin from Cindy, and Isabelle’s favorite baked whole pumpkin, a luscious custardy dessert. (Both recipes appeared last week, in the Oct. 21 Forum column.)
We might want to make that a three-pumpkin pick and purchase, though, so we can also construct this savory layered concoction that caught my eye in a recent edition of the Skagit Valley Herald.
The how-to is taken from an article by Tahlia Ganser, who noted, “Originally clipped from the San Francisco Chronicle, then adapted by Suzanne Butler, a culinary arts teacher at the Skagit Valley College and well-known Mount Vernon foodie.
“Also available at www.slowfoodskagit.org.’’
Here it is:
Roasted pumpkin stuffed with bread and cheese
15-pound cooking pumpkin
111/2-pound loaf country-style bread
1cup sour cream, divided
6ounces grated local cheese of your choice (Gruyere is recommended), divided
2tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Rinse outside of pumpkin and wipe dry. Using a sharp knife and cutting with the tip of the knife angled down into the vegetable, cut off top of the pumpkin to create a “lid.’’ With a large spoon, scrape out seeds from inside the pumpkin.
Cut bread into thin slices and toast in oven until golden brown. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Line bottom of pumpkin cavity with one layer of bread. Layer on 4 tablespoons of the sour cream, some of the cheese, and a generous sprinkle of salt and freshly ground pepper. Continue layering (4 layers in all), finishing with cheese on top. Set the top back on the pumpkin.
Cut a piece of aluminum foil large enough to wrap the entire pumpkin. Brush the pumpkin lightly with oil. Wrap pumpkin with foil and place in a baking pan. Set in oven and bake about 1 hour, 40 minutes. The pumpkin is done when skin has softened and a sharp knife can easily pierce through to the interior flesh.
Remove from oven, discard foil, and place pumpkin on a serving platter. Carefully remove lid and stir interior mixture, making sure to incorporate the pumpkin into the other ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
The Forum is always happy to receive your contributions and requests, so don’t hesitate to send them along to Judyrae Kruse at the Forum, c/o The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
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The next Forum will appear in Wednesday’s Good Life section.
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