This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good, caused me some serious issues. First, I didn't want to make a whole pumpkin, as I have no idea what I'd do with it. I then tried to buy a small pumpkin for one - I couldn't find one, which is why you see the far less dramatic half pumpkin that I settled for. When I went to sccop out the pumpkin, the hollow was only tiny, so I had to remove some extra flesh (not an easy task). And finally, while I can see that done with a full pumpkin, this would be a dramatic centrepiece at a dinner party for Halloween or Thanksgiving, the taste is not that exciting - I prefer roast pumpkin sprinkled with salt and pepper and herbs, and sprayed with oil before roasting.
That's my whinge out the way - now here is the cut pumpkin:
It tasted OK - I think the cheese makes it, although the filling also includes cubes of bread, cooked bacon, chives, cream and nutmeg.
Go look at some more pumpkins via the FFwD website - anyone who used a whole pumpkin will have prettier results than mine.
25 comments:
Way to be creative on the smaller gourd size. Your pumpkin has nothing to be ashamed of - it looks pretty good :-)
When I bought this book, I really wanted to make this recipe-it looks so good!
It sounds like a lot of work. But anything with cheese and bacon is good!
Hehe that is a funny name for the dish! Still it does look tasty! :)
You should try it again with a smaller pumpkin - sounds like the ratio of flesh to fillings was a little large? Still, your version looks good!
I love the name of this dish...so playful! :)
Dorie is clever when she gave the name to this pumpkin dish...truyly everything good is in it :) We love it and it is hit with Wild Boar. I used Japanese pumpkin which is not overly sweet so it was the perfect pumpkin for me to make this dish ! Yumm and yours looks mouth-watering too :)
I agree that the pumpkin flesh really needs to be well seasoned regardless of the stuffing. Maybe if there is a next time you could "par-roast" the pumpkin, scoop out some of the flesh when it is softer, and then roast it.
What a great idea to only do a half pumpkin. I was able to find a two pounder, which will last me a couple of days, but the half idea works even better!
I made this last week too and wasn't all that impressed. I loved the stuffing, but the pumpkin just tasted like plain pumpkin. I liked it best when I mashed the stuffing and the pumpkin flesh together. Then it tasted mostly of cheese. Good idea to use a half pumpkin. I used a whole one, but I do have 15 pie pumpkins to get through!
I wonder if this would also work with a little butternut squash? All these posts today are giving me so many ideas! Hopefully you liked it enough to try again!
I'd be frustrated if I had to scrape out pumpkin flesh to make enough room for my stuffing. I would think that baking it in a half pumpkin might effect the way it cooks--drying out the stuffing by the time the flesh is cooked, or something. Sorry this wasn't so great for you. Onward!
Your pumpkin's tiny and looks like mine! I like your idea of using half, but since mine was so small anyway, I went ahead and baked the whole thing. So glad I did because the whole thing was eaten in one sitting...it was REALLY good!
Looks really good. I agree...you need a dinner party or large family to eat this dish. I'll have leftovers for the week, but did a larger pumpkin.
I think maybe baking it covered in the pumpkin allowed the flavors to concentrate in a way they didn't for you? But yeah - what I would do with an entire pumpkin for just me is beyond me!
We only have small ones, so that is not a problem overhere. But half looks also good. Everything good is inside.
Good for you to try this anyway. I got way to excited and ended up cooking 2 pumpkins, which I thought were fairly small - but am still looking at quite a bit of leftovers ! Nana had fun with this one as well and we can't wait to try out some other combos of "everything good".....
I think your pumpkin looks perfect! Sorry it was only OK for you. We really loved it! I plan on adding it to my Thanksgiving menu. Happy Friday!
this wasn't a super hit with us either, but we were able to find a fairly small pumpkin and instead of saving the actual pumpkin after we ate half, we just saved the stuffing :) ... that was at least pretty good!
It's a dish worth trying again, and your pumpkin looks cute - it really was good! Hope you give it another chance!
Happy French Friday!
It does make a pretty presentation...and I really enjoyed the filling. As the rest of the family is anti-squash, I doubt this one will make our menu again! On to the duck for next week~
If I try this again, I was thinking of cutting up the pumpkin, mixing with the stuffing, and baking it in a dish (with the cream on top, of course!). Maybe something like that would work for you without having to use an entire pumpkin.
This was a hit for us, but we ended up with lots of leftovers. Yours looks beautiful, even if the flavour didn't quite get there.
I'm sorry this was just ok for you - it looks really good I like that you made it in a half pumpkin.
Sorry to hear that. I too am always trying to cut the recipes down to size, since there are just two of us in my house, and sometimes the recipe suffers as a result. I was lucky to be able to find baby pumpkins for this recipe and they were delicious. Better luck next time.
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