The Great Pumpkin Recipe

RhumAndJerk

Here is a repost of last year's great pumpkin.[p]The Great Pumpkin[p]This recipe is loosely based upon a recipe that I found in a Native American cookbook. Pumpkin was a staple of both Colonial America and Native Americans. In my house, we have been eating pumpkin for some years, as it is very flavorful. This recipe is fun to make and has a great presentation. It is also a lot of work but relax and enjoy. You can also be creative as to what you put in the stuffing so substitute as needed. The original recipe called for ground buffalo or ground venison mixed with Italian sausage. One final note: it is actually my wife that gave me the idea to cook this.[p]Ingredients:
1 Pie Pumpkin, about 4-5 pounds
1 cup Long-Grain Rice
1 cup Wild Rice
1.5 pounds Bulk Country Sausage
1 can low sodium Chicken Broth (approx. 1 ¾ cup)
1 medium Yellow Onion, peeled and sliced
1 Leek, sliced in half, rinsed and sliced
1 clove Garlic, crushed
2 tbsp Butter
6 Mushrooms, medium-sized, cleaned and sliced
3 Green Onions, chopped
.25 pound Tasso Ham, diced
2 Apples, medium-sized, peeled and chopped
.25 cup p fresh Parsley, chopped
1 tsp Fresh Thyme
1 tsp Sage
.25 cup Bourbon
.25 cup Raisins
.25 cup Golden Raisins
.25 cup Dried Currents
.25 cup Dried Cranberries
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 Eggs, lightly beaten[p]Preparation:
· Cook the Long-Grain Rice as you normally would.
· Rinse the Wild Rice with cold water. Bring the chicken broth and wild rice to a boil in a saucepan. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Start checking after 35 minutes for doneness. It is ok if it is a little under done and all of the liquid is not absorbed.
· Brown the sausage in a skillet and drain most of the grease.
· Wash off the outside of the pumpkin. Clean the pumpkin like you would for a Jack-O-Lantern. Save the top and the seeds.
· With a fork pierce the inside of the pumpkin being careful not to break the skin. Sprinkle the inside of the pumpkin with salt and pepper.
· In a skillet, sauté the onion, leek and garlic in the butter for a couple of minutes
· Add the Mushrooms and Green Onions to the skillet and continue to sauté for a couple of minutes more.
· Add the Apples, Sausage and Ham to the skillet. Continue cooking until all is heated.
· Remove from heat.
· In a large bowl, combine the rice, wild rice, the mixture from the skillet and the rest of the ingredients (except eggs)
· Mix in the beaten eggs.
· Fill the pumpkin with the stuffing and put the top back on.[p]Cooking Instructions:
· Place the stuffed pumpkin in shallow baking dish or pie plate.
· Cook on the BGE, over indirect heat at 350 for about 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
· The pumpkin will tell you when it is done. When you touch the outside of the pumpkin, it should feel soft.
· Make sure that the stuffing reaches 180 degrees just to be on the safe side.
· Let the pumpkin rest for 15 minutes after cooking. This is important to allow the juices to be absorbed back into the stuffing.
· You can serve the pumpkin two ways, you can slice it or you can scoop out the contents making sure to include some of the pumpkin meat with stuffing. [p]Special Notes:
· The White Rice can be made the day before.
· I browned the Sausage the day before.
· I used a mixture of Apples: one Gala, ½ Granny Smith, ½ Cortland.
· I used a mixture of Mushroom: ½ button, ½ Cremini. You could use whichever kind you would like. Wild Mushrooms would be appropriate.
· You can experiment with the type of Sausage and Ham.
· To make this a vegetarian meal, just leave out the meat and add more mushrooms.
· Save the Pumpkin Seeds for the children to clean and roast.
· Place any extra stuffing in a covered baking dish and bake at 350 for about an hour or until the internal stuffing temp is over 150.
· If baking the pumpkin in a conventional oven, place the pumpkin in a shallow baking dish with some water in it to maintain moister.[p]

Squeeze

RhumAndJerk,
You think the native americans had any Jack around when they mad this? Sounds pretty good![p]-Kevin

Unknown

RhumAndJerk,[p]I've just dug this recipe out of my files and am thinking of tackling it with a little variation of ingredients. I'm working on Q.N.E. tyme to make one, too, but I'm not sure there are pumpkins in Arizona. :-)[p]Lee[p]

J Appledog

OH MY GOSH, Michael - I made a Great Pumpkin for our wine groups' monthly dinner. It was a Harvest Dinner featuring incredible wines, of course, and game. Utilizing what I had on hand I used venison & Italian hot sausage; for mushrooms - porchini, chanterelle, shitake, oyster, European brown (a.k.a. Crimini or Portobello) and plain old white ones. Instead of tasso I used Spanish (not Mexican) chorizo, and for dried fruits I used Michigan cherries, cranberries & golden raisins. The locally grown apples came from a bowl in my kitchen so I don't know what they were. And, for good measure, I added Mrs. Dog's Green Chile Pistachio Nuts, all of which was stuffed into a blue-white Ghost Pumpkin! When I cut it into sixths, so that it opened like a flower, it was, to quote my husband, "A natural masterpice of organic indulgence". [p]Thanks for sharing! JCA

Unknown

J Appledog,[p]Ah, so you served it in wedges? Great idea! What did you use for rice? Did all the flavors meld well together?[p]Lee[p]

QBabe

J Appledog,[p]WOW! That sounds incredible...![p]Tonia
:~)

BobinFla

RhumAndJerk,
You're killin' me here.
At the Florida Q-Fest, I baked a pie "in" the pumpkin, as a dessert. I had plans for a savory dish similar to yours at the March Q-Fest. Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board, err, uusual recipes file.
<VBG>[p]BOBinFla

J Appledog

QSis, [p]I opened it up into wedges so that people could scrape out part of the pumpkin with the stuffing. It was about a 10 pound pumpkin and just a small part of a multi-course dinner. Cutting it into wedges would be good for a small group. [p]As for the rice, I used some white long-grain Basmati rice, but mostly wild rice. My mother sends me (and a lot of other people she knows) a plethora of wild rice for Christmas each year and I've still got a good bit left. I think that this may be to make up for & overcome her embarassment for cooking thistle/finch food instead of wild rice at a big dinner party once.... The moral of the story here is to NEVER let my mother cook![p]JCA[p]

YB

RhumAndJerk,
I cooked your Great Pumkin last Thanksgiving and was a real big hit.
Larry
[ul][li]The Great Pumkin[/ul]

YB

RhumAndJerk,
Here is a picture of the pumkin cooked.
Larry
[ul][li]Thw Great Pumkin Cooked[/ul]

Smokey

RhumAndJerk,[p]That is a winner. A definite Thanksgiving treat![p]Honey, you smell "Smokey"

Birgit

thanks for the inspiration!!!  I have my egg for 10 days, and I tried your recipe !