Little Halloween recipe to impress children and friends

Stuffed mini pumpkin

It is autumn and thus a period of year where we can find plenty of squashes of different shapes and colors. Personally, I love cucurbitaceae! They are so varied and offer all kinds of possibilities.

Last Friday, my favorite farmer at the local market was selling cute Jack Bee Littles and I was surprised to discover they were not only decorative but also eatable. Consequently, I cooked those little pumpkins for the first time last week-end, following the advice of the merchant. If, in my opinion, it was lacking a little something, I already know how I will cook them the next time.

Ingredients:

• 1 Jack Bee Little per person + 1
• 1 egg
• 1 clove of garlic
• Thick cream
• Emmental cheese (or similar)
• Salt and pepper

Here is how I did and how I will do next time.

Original recipe

• Steam cook the pumpkins during 10 to 20 minutes depending on the method used. The pumpkins should keep their shape while being soft enough to be cut easily.

Comment: It was really hell! The farmer told me to steam cook them for about 20 minutes, which I thought was huge. I have cooked them during 15 minutes in my steam pressure cooker, and it was already too much. They were overcooked and one was completely falling apart. Fortunately, I had a bigger one left and I could adjust the cooking time. Next time, I'll just put them 10 minutes to steam if they are big and 5-8 min if they are small.

• Cut the top of the squash and remove all seeds.
• Fill with a mixture composed of egg, grated cheese, salt, pepper, and eventually, some of the pumpkin flesh recovered when removing the seeds.
• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the top is nicely grilled.

Result
I was afraid that after passing trough the oven, the gourds will collapse on themselves. In fact, they kept their shape. The taste of stuffed pumpkins was very sweet and the mix of texture between the flesh of the squash and the stuffing was interesting. However, I found it a bit bland.

The next time

I will make use of one extra pumpkin and steam-cook it very well. I will fry the garlic in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and add the flesh of the cooked squash. Off the heat, I'll add the cheese (I prefer parmesan in stuffed vegetables), cream, egg, salt and pepper and mix it well. I will then stuff the others pumpkins with this mixture before baking them in the oven.

Another variation, that I already used with stuffed round zucchini, would consist of separating the yolk from the egg white and whip up the egg whites. Otherwise, the recipe remains likewise: garlic in the pan, squash, cheese, cream, egg yolk, salt, pepper, mix well and add the egg white at the last minute by mixing carefully before filling the pumpkins and bake into the oven.

Bon appetit

[image credit : mine!]