Stuffed pumpkin

I had this nice round small pumpkin (kabocha squash I think, not particularly sure). Recently I was going through these recipes of stuffing. Therefore bringing both together to make a stuffed pumpkin was the next idea. I have also taken a fancy on celery recently. Though the flavor is a bit too strong for me, I like it a lot when used in minimum to give a hint of subtle aromatic flavor. And since winter is almost here, the sausage had to form a part of the dish too. I am sure to cook it again in future during the pumpkin season. In the meantime I will be use the stuffing to stuff other things or incorporate in some different way in my food.

 

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Serves 4)

1 small round pumpkin (~1.5kg)

1 small onion

1 large carrot

1 red bell pepper

2 green apples

2-3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 cured pork sausage (in pair)

1/4sp celery seeds

1/4sp fennel seeds

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2tbsp chopped sage

Salt

Pepper

Oilve Oil

METHOD:

1.     Cut open the lid off the pumpkin. Clean the inside of strings and seeds. Brush with oil, salt, pepper.

2.     Bake the pumpkin in preheated oven at 180°C for 20 mins. Set aside.

3.     In meantime, dice the carrot, peppr, apples, onion. Crush the garlic cloves.

4.     Remove the casing of the sausage and gently crush it.

5.     In a skillet, heat oil.

6.     Add the onion and sauté a couple of minutes.

7.     Add the remaining vegetables, celery and fennel seeds. Season with salt. Add 1tbsp of sage and 1/2 of the parsley.

8.     Cook on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring often.

9.     Add the sausage meat. Break with the wooden spoon and cook until no longer pink.

10.  Lightly whisk the egg in a bowl with the milk. Add the vegetable-sausage mixture. Add the remaining parsley and sage. Make everything into a moist mixture.

11.  Fill the pumpkin with stuffing.

12.  Bake it at 200°C for 20-25 minutes, until the egg is cooked and the stuffing has risen a bit.

13.  Stand for 5 minutes, and serve with the lid on top.