My Pumpkin Vessel Baking...Experience
So me and my sister intended on getting our grandma a pumpkin for Halloween (and her birthday) but did not hollow it out, just carved into the front. Upon giving it to her, she let us know she was happy to be able to BAKE IN THE PUMPKIN after the day was over. Well, we were asked if we had ever done that before and we said no. We then were given this...
So...we did the recipe as it was given to us by our grandmother. I have to say I was a little...nervous? I have to add here too...I DONT LIKE CARVING PUMPKINS or PUMPKIN GUTS. If I ever did so as a kid, it was to appease my mother. But let’s see how we go from paper to finished product.Â
Prepare the pumpkin: wash the pumpkin, cut the top off, scrape the insides of the pumpkin. This is a good time to get water boiling in a pan, enough to line the pumpkin outside with water.Â
Prepare the filling: SautĂ© onion (1/2) in oil, add garlic (2 cloves), parsely, Shrimp (1 1/2 lbs)-stir until shrimp is cooked through. Add stewed tomatoes (1 can), tomato paste (1 can), fill paste can 2 times with water-Cover and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat. Â
Poke the pumpkin outside with a fork, butter the outside of the pumpkin, 1/2 packet of cream cheese along the inner pumpkin walls. Place pumpkin in a turkey pan, and then place the turkey pan on a baking sheet.Â
Fill the pumpkin halfway with the filling and top with the other 1/2 of the cream cheese packet. Put 1″ of water on the outside of the pumpkin in the turkey pan.Â
Bake for 1 1/2- 1 3/4 hours. Keep the lid on while cooking.Â
When I told others I was doing this, they told me to equivocate it to making stuffing in a Turkey...its not the same. We were not told how to serve it, and the mix inside was...tasty but you really could not discern one flavor from another? And I ended up trying to eat the pumpkin itself and it was good but we were not sure how one was supposed to go about that, every one just grab a spoon and dig in? Also, it was quite filling but not sure how this would work for more than two people?Â
Some changes we would make, would have to make to do this again is this:Â
Add vegetables and herbs, and even take it in more of a stew direction
scrape the pumpkin walls cleanly, no strings left
maybe even use flavored cream cheese
Cut the pumpkin for serving in a way you eat more of it
Increase the amount of people it can feed (somehow)
As much as the experience was an odd, it would make for a great party with lots of people to have an interactive dinner experience...paired with wine and gossiping while the pumpkin cooks.Â
