Great gourd: The humble pumpkin
Curried pumpkin soup made by Lisa Hemenway.
CRISTA JEREMISASON / PDPublished: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 25, 2010 at 11:47 p.m.
The humble and homely pumpkin, a member of the winter squash family, is rolling back into the center of the harvest table this fall.
Take a trip to a farmstand or farm market and you'll discover all kinds of heirloom varieties, from white Fairytale pumpkins and bright orange Cinderella pumpkins to the deeply scalloped Muscade de Provence pumpkin.
“People are getting much more adventurous about trying the different varieties,” said Liza Hinman, executive chef of Santi restaurant in Santa Rosa. “It's not just acorn squash anymore.”
Pumpkins, which were first discovered in Central America, boast a deep-flavored flesh that provides a rich source of vitamins A and C, potassium and beta carotene. The wild pumpkin helped keep the Pilgrims from starving during their first winter in America. Later, it became a favorite food of the American colonists, who filled the inside with milk, spices and honey, then buried it in coals to bake.
In Wine Country, chefs enjoy adding their own twist to the latest crop of pumpkins and other winter squash, which are harvested in the fall but will keep up to six months in a cool, dark place. Their sweet, meaty flesh can be utilized in all kinds of hearty soups and stews, risottos and raviolis, cheesecakes and baked goods, including the quintessential fall favorite: pumpkin pie.
At Fresh restaurant and deli in Santa Rosa, chef/owner Lisa Hemenway roasts fresh pumpkins and winter squash and purees them into a Curry Pumpkin and Apple Soup with Almonds.
“I've been making this soup for 30 years,” said Hemenway, who has owned several restaurants in Santa Rosa. “I first made this at The Courthouse Cafe with John Ash.”
To make the soup, Hemenway sources pumpkins and squash from local farmers. She is partial to Red Kuri because it has a dense flesh.
“Sometimes we'll boil the chunks first,” she said, “and then finish baking it in the oven.”
If the puree turns out watery, she will add a little canned pumpkin, to thicken it up. Hemenway starts the soup by sautéing apples, onions, carrots and celery in a pan with the roasted pumpkin and the spices. Along with the stock, she adds coconut milk instead of cream, a trick she picked up while cooking in Asia.
She finishes the well-balanced soup with a splash of Nana Mae's Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, then garnishes it with creme fraiche or sour cream and a sprinkle of toasted almonds.
For special occasions, she likes to cut the top off mini pumpkins and bake them in the oven, then use them as soup bowls.
“That way, you can eat the pumpkin with the soup,” she said.
Kay Baumhefner of Petaluma, founder of the Come Home to Cooking school, serves a stuffed pumpkin dish every Thanksgiving for the vegetarians in the crowd.
She splits a pumpkin in half and stuff it with a rich and savory blend of bread and butter, wild mushrooms and onions, eggs and cheese.
“People go nuts over this, and it's very dramatic,” she said. “The stuffing is filled with all kinds of good yummy stuff and lots of fabulous autumn flavors, and it really creates a full meal.”
Baumhefner is partial to organic Muscade de Provence pumpkins, which she buys at the Marin Farmers Market in San Rafael. She also likes to use the Cinderella pumpkins — also known as Rouge Vif d'Estampes — but suggests people find a grower and go from there.
“I've tried the same variety of pumpkin from different growers and they've had very different tastes and textures,” she said. “So a lot has to do with the farming method.”
Sometimes, farmers will sell you pieces of a larger pumpkin, so you can take them home for a trial run, she said.
Although it's possible to stuff a pumpkin whole, Baumhefner suggests cutting it in half, for a greater ratio of stuffing to pumpkin flesh.
“When you do it whole, you can't get as much stuff in,” she said. “And you can't get it as caramelized.”
Baumhefner's Stuffed Pumpkin is hearty enough to stand alone as a vegetarian entree, and its richness marries well with a simple green salad of arugula or spinach and a refreshing citrus vinaigrette.
“You could add some color and fruit, with pomegranate seeds or sliced pears and persimmons,” she said. “And some figs would be nice.”
The recipe works equally well with a winter squash such as butternut or Hubbard. You could also substitute dried porcini for the fresh mushrooms.
Just be careful at Thanksgiving, Baumhefner said. This dish is so good, it can easily trump the turkey.
At Santi, Hinman showcases heirloom pumpkins and winter squash from Shone Farm and other local farms on her fall and winter menu.
For the restaurant's new brunch, which debuts on Halloween, Oct. 31, Hinman plans to serve a sweet crepe stuffed with a mixture of pumpkin and mascarpone cheese. She will top it with a caramelized maple syrup and some roasted pumpkin seeds, for crunch.
To roast a pumpkin, Hinman uses a heavy, butchering cleaver to cut it in half. Then she roasts it cut-side down in a roasting pan, turning the halves over during the last 10 minutes to release some of the water as steam.
Next, she pulls the skin off, scoops the seeds out and blends it into a puree, letting it sit in cheesecloth overnight to drain if it's too soggy.
When she picks out a pumpkin, Hinman looks for a good ratio of flesh to skin, a dense texture and a nice, rich flavor.
She suggests knocking on the pumpkin, to hear if it's dense and solid, or hollow and thin.
“Sometimes there's a pretty thin layer of flesh,” she said. “You want something that will really demonstrate what it is in a bite.”
This recipe is from Lisa Hemenway of Fresh in Santa Rosa.
Curry Pumpkin and Apple Soup
Makes 6 to 10 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 apples, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 small, fresh pumpkin, roasted, with skin and seeds removed
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ cup honey
4 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Salt and white pepper, to taste
Toasted almonds, for garnish
Sauté apples, onions, carrots and celery in olive oil, then add roasted pumpkin, curry, nutmeg and honey. Add stock and simmer for 45 minutes on low.
Puree the mixture and add the coconut milk. Season with salt and white pepper and finish with the apple cider vinegar. Garnish with toasted almonds and serve warm.
This recipe is from Kay Baumhefner of the Come Home to Cooking School in Petaluma.
Stuffed Pumpkin
Makes 8 to 12 servings
For pumpkin:
6 to 7pounds pumpkin (or winter squash)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Grey Salt and black pepper
For stuffing:
6 cups ciabatta or campagne bread, with hard crusts removed, cut into ¾-inch cubes (1 loaf)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
For mushroom mixture:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound wild mushrooms, thinly sliced (crimini, chanterelle, porcini)
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon rubbed, dried sage
For egg mixture:
2 to 3 large eggs
Grey salt and black pepper
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
2 to 3 cups mascarpone cheese or creme fraiche
2 tablespoons black truffle oil
2 tablespoons roasted pumpkin seed oil
¾ pounds cave-aged gruyere, grated
¼ pound Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
For garnish:
2 tablespoons Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Cut pumpkin in half horizontally, scrape out the seeds and put cut side down on parchment-lined sheet pans. Cut a small slit with paring knife through the skin in between each natural scallop shape. Bake at 350 degrees until barely tender but still holding firm shape (30 to 60 minutes). Pour off and reserve any extra juices. Invert into buttered shallow casseroles just big enough to fit skin side down. Cut small slits halfway through the inside flesh. Brush interior and rims with melted butter; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, evenly toss bread cubes with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment-lined sheet pan, stirring periodically until evenly golden brown and crispy, but not rock hard (20 to 30 minutes).
In a large sauté pan over high heat, brown the mushrooms with some of the butter in successive small batches until deeply colored and all their juices are evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, and remove.
In same pan, sauté the onions in the rest of the butter with the sage until very tender and golden. Season with salt and pepepr and add back in the mushrooms and any reserved pumpkin juices, reducing the juices until syrupy.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, and then whisk in the rest of the egg mixture ingredients. Stir in the cheeses, mushroom-onions and croutons; taste for salt and pepper.
Divide stuffing between two pumpkin halves, mounding it in the center. Cover tightly with parchment and then foil (or a lid), leaving an air pocket at the top so the stuffing is not smashed. Bake at 350-375 degrees until the pumpkin is completely tender (but not turned to mush) and the stuffing is golden brown, set and puffed up in the center (about an hour).
Sprinkle parsley around perimeter of stuffing and cut into wedges to serve, spooning juices over the top.
This recipe is from Liza Hinman, executive chef of Santi restaurant in Santa Rosa. The crepes and filling for this brunch recipe can be made a day or two before the meal, and then assembled and warmed for the brunch.
Pumpkin Mascarpone Crepes
Makes 6 to 8 servings
For crepes:
1½ cups whole milk
6 organic large eggs
1½ cups all purpose flour (can use unbleached)
Pinch of salt
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup butter, browned and cooled
For the pumpkin filling:
16-8 pound pumpkin
1cup mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
To finish the crepes:
1 cup maple syrup
Reserved pumpkin seeds, cleaned and dried
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
For the crepes: Place milk and eggs into a bowl and whisk until combined. Sift the flour into the liquid, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in sugar, salt, and brown butter until combined. Place in a container in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
To cook the crepes: Heat an 8-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat. Spray the pan with non-stick spray, and then ladle a thin layer of batter over the bottom of the pan. Allow the batter to cook for 15 seconds, until it appears to be set, and then gently flip the crepe. Cook for another 20 seconds, and slide onto a cooling rack. Repeat until all of the batter is used. After cooling, the crepes will keep in the fridge, wrapped in Saran wrap, for up to 3 days.
To make the filling: Preset the oven to 350 degrees.
Carefully cut the pumpkin in half. With a large spoon, scoop out the seeds and set aside. Place the pumpkin cut side down in a baking pan, rub with vegetable oil, and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, and flip over. Return to oven to finish baking for another 15 minutes, llowing all excess moisture to release. Once the pumpkin is fork-tender, remove from the oven, and cool to room temperature. With a large spoon, separate all the flesh from the skin and then discard the skin. Place the pumpkin into a food processor, and blend until smooth. Once smooth, place into a bowl and mix in the mascarpone, sugar, salt, and spices. Combine well and taste for seasoning. Adjust as needed.
To finish the crepes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Toss the seeds in oil, and spread in a single layer on a baking tray. Place in the oven, and toast until lightly golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove and pour straight into a mixing bowl. Toss with the salt and sugar and set aside.
Warm the syrup gently in a pan and hold.
To serve: Lay out 3 crepes at a time (1 serving) and pipe or spoon a thick row of pumpkin filling on the crepe. Roll the crepe from right to left into a cigar shape, and set into a buttered baking dish, seam side down. Continue filling crepes 3 at a time, until you have the servings you desire. Place the baking dish into the oven, and heat for 8 minutes.
Place 3 crepes next to each other onto a plate, spoon some maple syrup over, and top with a few pumpkin seeds. Or serve family style in the baking dish, with the syrup and seeds poured over the top.
You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.
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