Halloween recipes

Pumpkins, squash

We think of pumpkins as an autumnal North American food, although I was disappointed to discover that they usually buy canned when baking pumpkin pie. There is a wide selection of pumpkins and squashes: from giant pin cushion style of Turban Squash, to spaghetti squash, or the dense sweet flesh of acorn squash and butternut.

Pumpkin can be found in Mexican, Japanese, Indian and Italian cuisine. Squash are a vegetable that improves with time: they can be matured over from last year, deepening in flavour, if kept in a cool dry place. Note that the enormous pumpkins that are carved into lanterns aren’t the best for eating, being watery and tasteless.

Halloween occurs as autumn turns to winter: the wet amber leaves have been swept up and the nights begin to frost. Here are a few tips and recipes to expand your pumpkin repertoire and a couple of wine suggestions.

Interesting squashes/pumpkins you should try:

• Butternut squash. I love it roasted and tossed into salads or served with couscous, a few pomegranate seeds and parsley. The ‘coquina’ variety is nicely sweet.
• Spaghetti squash. Once baked, the centre can be forked into spaghetti-like strands. You can treat it like courgetti, a gluten-free replacement for pasta and the latest trend for fashionable ‘clean’ eaters. Or add lashings of salty butter and parmesan, as I do.
• Tromboncini. Trombone-shaped Italian squash. When young, slice up and use like courgette; when older, use like squash.
• Gem squash. Wonderfully sweet: stuff and bake.
• Acorn squash. Another small squash. Can be pureed into soup or stuffed.
• Onion squash. Small, baked, mixed with cheese. This is great on toast.
• Kabocha squash. Popular in Japan. Perfect simply roasted with soy sauce, ginger, sesame seeds and served with sushi rice.
• Hokkaido. Teardrop-shaped, deep red/orange squash. Use in a tart, a soup or simply roasted.
• Delicata squash. Italian from Lombardy. Difficult to find in the UK but it’s easier to chop up than other squashes and the skin is edible so no peeling required. Roast with a little salt.
• Crown Prince. Large blue/grey skinned squash with sweet orange flesh inside.
• Harlequin. Pointy decorative squash is also good to eat.
• Turban squash. Spectacular – looks just like a Turkish hat.

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Pumpkin Soup Recipe

The classic pumpkin recipe, you can use most pumpkins for soup. Decorate with herbs chopped finely into oil, pumpkin seeds, croutons, a swirl of yoghurt or a grating of parmesan cheese. Serve with bread and you have a warming autumnal meal.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, diced
• one medium pumpkin, seeded, peeled, chopped roughly, approximately a kilo of flesh
• 1.5 litres of vegetable stock
• 1/2 tsp mace
• 100 ml of single cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Using a wide, tall, large saucepan, heat the oil then soften the onion. Add the pumpkin chunks, cooking until slightly golden on the edges. Then add the stock and mace. Cook for 15 minutes then use a hand blender or a table top blender to process the chunks into a soup. Add the single cream. Season to taste. Serve warm.
• To make it vegan: replace the single cream with coconut milk. You can add a finely diced red chilli to add an exotic vibe to the soup.

Notes

What to drink with this soup: I'd choose a medium bodied red wine or a sherry to match this hearty soup.

 

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Pumpkin curry recipe

In India they tend to use small 'tinda' pumpkins for curry (try Tayyabs in London's East End for a fantastic version) but I like to use a firmer fleshed squash such as butternut. This recipe uses up other autumnal ingredients such as green tomatoes - the ones that haven't had enough time to ripen on the vine before blight attacks the plant. Serve with rice and yoghurt for a full meal.

Serves 5

Ingredients

• 3 dried kashmiri chillies, soaked, deseeded.
• 50 ml ground nut or vegetable oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 large black cardamom
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• A pinch of cloves, ground
• 1 Butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed
• 3 tbsps tamarind paste
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 cm fresh ginger, grated
• 3 cm fresh turmeric root, grated
• 10 green tomatoes, red or yellow can also be used but green adds a little acidity
• 1 tbsp sea salt, less if using table salt
• 250 ml coconut milk, buy a good brand without thickeners or additives
• 30 g fresh coriander leaves, or one pot

Instructions

• Soak the chillies in boiling water. In the meantime, heat up the oil a deep frying pan or saucepan.
• Add the mustard seeds and wait until they pop. Add the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, bay and cloves. Add the butternut squash to the pan, stirring on high heat then lower the heat to medium.
• Remove the chillies from the boiling water, snipping off the stems and seeds. Place them in a blender with the tamarind paste and a little water. Blend until you have a watery paste. Add this chilli tamarind paste to the pan and stir.
• Add the garlic, then grate in the ginger and turmeric. Add the green tomatoes, followed by the salt and coconut milk.
• Cook on a medium to low heat until the butternut squash is tender. Finally, add the fresh coriander leaves and serve with rice.

Notes

What to drink with pumpkin curry: A crisp but full bodied white is just the ticket to stand up to the spices and slight heat of this recipe.

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Spaghetti Squash Recipe

This is a fun squash: once baked, you fork over the inside flesh (having removed the seeds), and it resembles spaghetti. Add butter and cheese and you have a low carb meal with little effort.

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash, whole
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Butter
• Cheese, either parmesan or cheddar.
• Jalapeno peppers, sliced.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC for 20 minutes.
• Place the entire squash in a baking tray and roast for one hour or until soft when poked through with a metal skewer.
• Remove from the oven and slit lengthways down the middle. Scoop out the seeds and fork over the flesh.
• Add the toppings of your choice.

Notes

What to drink with spaghetti squash: A white chardonnay is often recommended for spaghetti squash.

What do you like to drink with pumpkin?