by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab
Rather than waste the pumpking why not make mac 'n' cheese out of it!? Here’s a good use for your pumpkin once you’re done hollowing and crafting! (And a gory idea for serving it!)
Obviously you can use normal penne if making a normal mac ’n’ cheese in a baking dish. I used curly pasta so it looks like the a brain in the pumpkin!!
The basic idea is to make a soup with the pumpkin pieces and thicken it with cheese & a touch of cornflour before serving!
When cutting decoration into the pumpkin, leave a layer at the back to stop it’s brains coming out through the eyes. Unless you’re into that of course!! Alternatively you can put a bowl inside your pumpkin to hold the mac 'n' cheese.
ingredients (serves . . . a bunch of small portions)
for the head
1 medium/large pumpkin (hollowed out, keep the flesh) 190C / 90m - halves face down
yields ~1kg flesh + pumpkin seeds
some candles & halloween decor & some spooky music
for the brains
75ml olive oil
20g thyme (picked)
6 garlic cloves (crushed & chopped)
15g ginger (peeled, then grated)
1 lemon (zest & juice)
-
1 tsp running honey
250ml dry cider
450g (3) medium onions (fine dice)
-
1kg pumpkin flesh (from hollowed out pumpkin, coarsely chopped)
-
750ml vegetable stock
(or chicken stock - sauce of the bones of many chickens whuar har har)
-
50g cornflour (dissolved in 30g water - NB: 145g will thicken 2L milk!)
250g red leicester (or other cheese, grated)
50g butter (cubes - optional)
-
500g curly macaroni (cooked)
~
Make the red pepper sauce (below)
Add the oil, garlic, ginger and thyme to a large pot and cook on a medium heat until fragrant.
Add the runny honey and cider and cook until the alcohol has burned off. (It will stop smelling of alcohol!)
Sweat off the onions in the same pot. (Add them to that pot, put a lid on and cook until translucent.)
Then add the pumpkin and stock bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes with the lid off, stirring frequently.
In a separate pot of salted boiling water cook the macaroni to your taste (more on that here)
Test the pumpkin with a pointed knife to see if it’s soft.
Once it is, remove the pot from the stove and blitz the mix with a stick blender until it’s super smooth. (You can pass it through a sieve if needs be.)
Have the grated cheese at hand for the next step.
Return the mix to the heat and add the cornflour / water mix and whisk continuously, once the mix starts to thicken add the grated cheese, and continue whisking for 5-10minutes on a medium heat. This should result in a smooth homogenous sauce. If it’s too thick you can let it down by adding a little milk and whisking some more!
Add the cooked pasta and mix well to get the sauce inside pasta tubes - we love sauce!
Sterilize the inside of the pumpkin with a blow torch - this also adds quite a nice flavour to the mac 'n' cheese - then pour the the macaroni into the pumpkin, decorate with a piping bag filled with red pepper sauce or ketchup!!
for the red pepper sauce
30g olive oil
1.5 red peppers (deseeded, sliced)
1 red onion
1/2 chilli (all in - fine dice)
-
200g dry cider
25g sugar
25g white wine or cider vinegar
-
50g butter (soft cubes)
~
Add the oil to a saucepan and the peppers, onion, chilli and cooke on a low heat for 25mins until soft (lid on) stir frequently to stop it catching.
Add the sugar, wine & vinegar and simmer lid off until all liquid evaporated
Blend with a stick blender until smooth, then add the butter, blend again and pass through a sieve.
You might want to leave the chilli out for the kids version, or use ketchup . . . .
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