Baked stuffed pumpkin

Individual zucchini rice gratin-stuffed chestnut pumpkins

Hello!

Thanks for being here! This month has been a slower one for me, so I’m focusing on getting my cooking juju back, and looking at baking formulas in a more in-depth, analytical way. Both of which have been really fun. I love figuring out the science of what’s really going on in simple baked goods like cookies, and I’m hoping to write a post on that soon, once I’ve nailed a cookie that is pleasing and unfussy. Cooking is all sorts of fun for me and currently I’m really thinking about using vegetables in ways that I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve been thinking of local vegetables in salads, but I haven’t actually attempted them because I’m quite intimidated. You’ll be the first to know when I’ve succeeded.

A week or two ago, on my grocery run, I picked up a box of little pumpkins. They weren’t expensive at all — a box of 6 was way cheaper than buying just one or three, and I figured I’d do something with them either way. I’m poorly proficient in Chinese so I couldn’t really understand what the label meant; I just knew that there was the word “chestnut” in it, followed by “taste”.. chestnut-tasting pumpkins? They are called “bei bei nan gua” — "something” pumpkin.

A quick google search led me to this page, which detailed these chestnut pumpkins as having a fluffy texture, similar to chesnuts. OOOH. Being the skeptic I am, obviously there wasn’t an ounce of me that was buying that. Although I’ve had great produce from China, I’m generally quite skeptical of the fruits and vegetables that originate from there, although I happily buy them in anticipation of being surprised, because you never know.

These chestnut pumpkins are adorable and fit into the palm of your hand!

I was going to roast them and use them in salads, but I’ve recently been thinking about a stuffed pumpkin recipe in one of Dorie Greenspan’s best books. She’s known for her baking but I think that Around My French Table is a fantastic, scrumptious book. It’s one of the first cookbooks that I got my hands on and the recipes in it are timeless, approachable and straightforward. It’s an all-rounder as you can basically put a 3- or 4-course meal out with it, and it’s hard to find a book that has solid recipes from appetizers to desserts.

what a sight! roasty, swollen pumpkins stuffed with delicious rice

I haven’t cooked out of it much as I don’t crave french food often — it feels heavier and more indulgent, so I save them for celebratory occasions which actually just means Christmas. One of the first things I did make several years ago, though, was the stuffed pumpkin. It intrigued me greatly in those days (think 10 years ago) as I had never thought to utilise pumpkin in that way. Sidetracking: I thank globalization greatly because I remember hunting down Frangelico back in those days and could NOT find it anywhere. But now it’s everywhere and at just $40 a bottle! And I still haven’t bought it in those 10 years. Ha.

Anyway, I somehow remembered that the pumpkin recipe in Dorie’s book was stuffed with rice. But it wasn’t. But I knew I wanted to stuff it with rice. A while back, I stumbled on Smitten Kitchen’s zucchini rice gratin, by way of Julia Child and knew I wanted to make it right away (ergo some time within a span of 12 months). I had zucchini in the fridge, and so the cogs in my brain were FIRED.

is there anything CUTER.

Let’s get to the recipe!