An Ode to a Pumpkin

Since today is a day that thousands upon thousands of pumpkins will sacrifice themselves for the sake of yummy pie, I thought that I should write about my latest pumpkin creation: Picadinha na Moranga or Beef in a Pumpkin. When I was growing up there were several vegetables that would make it off my plate only with great difficulty. Brussle sprouts, turnip, squash, sweet potatoes, and cooked green peppers being the main culprits with pumpkins only being eaten in pie formation. Oh, how the times have changed! Well, I still don't eat many brussle sprouts, or turnip, or sweet potatoes, but since moving to Recife, I have eaten so many pumpkins -- which really is just a variety of squash -- that's its hard to reconcile these two versions of me. So without futher ado, I introduce Picadinha na Moranga as suggested in Brazilian Cooking by Carla Barboza Pinto:

Ingredients
1.75 - 2.25 kg pumpkin
450g beef
4 Tbsp brandy
6 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil
4 onions shredded
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 green peppers, cubed [I used red -- use above]
salt and ground black pepper
12 ripe tomatoes, peeled
1 red pepper
6 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3 Tbsp tomato purée
2 Tbsp Worcestireshire sauce
4 Malagueta peppers [optional]
200g can sweetcorn, drained
2 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

1. While this recipe suggests cooking the washed and seeded pumpkin on a baking tray at 160ºC/325ºF for 20-30 minutes, I actually followed Chef Cesar Santos' suggestion of cooking the pumpkin in a bain-marie for thirty minutes. It worked the first time and as they say, if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it.

2. Mince the beef [or buy ground beef directly from the store as I did]. Put the beef in a saucepan, pour the brandy over it and set aflame [I didn't have any brandy so I skipped this step....].

3. Heat the oil in a heavy sauce pan. Fry the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and beef and then the green [or red!] peppers and salt and pepper.

4. Blend the tomatoes with the [original] red pepper in a blender or food processor. Pour into the sauce pan together with the parsley, tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce and cook for ten minutes more. Add the hot peppers if desired. Once the meat is cooked add the corn and chopped egg.

5. Fill the pumpkin with the meat mixture and cook for ten more minutes. Serve with rice!

Karen's Test Kitchen Notes: The ingredients as listed are waaaaay too much to fit in one little pumpkin. Twelve tomatoes?? One pumpkin?? I halfed the ingredients and still managed to freeze half as it didn't all fit in the pumpkin. It was great since the second time around, I only had to cook the pumpkin. The rest was ready to go! Obviously the ingredients are flexible. I had corn but not eggs and used all red peppers instead of red and green. It's all good!