“I’m gonna make a pumpkin dish!” I announced with an impish smile. We were planning a Thanksgiving potluck, and my mind was already floating on clouds of sweet starches and saturated fat. I elaborated excitedly, but only in a few words, having only a vague idea myself of what this amazing fat-filled pumpkin dish would look like. The words “butter,” “cream” and “lots” made appearances, in anticipatory finger licking.
I think he was disappointed that the dish I had in mind did not include anything even resembling a crust.
“I’m not making a crust. I don’t make crusts,” I said obstinately and, feeling his rising skepticism, repeated the word butter for good measure. I left him standing there, dreams of flaky pastry drooping down like fugitive drops of molasses down the exterior of a jar.
The day before Thanksgiving, I bathed my squash in ginger-infused pastured butter and maple syrup and roasted it in the oven. I scraped the fragrant, pillowy flesh from the skin and warmed it over a gentle fire with organic cream, mirin and freshly ground spices. I added lemon zest and egg yolks and blended everything into a rich, smooth puree. While it cooled, I fried pecans, cranberries and fresh ginger, added maple syrup and ground cinnamon and sprinkled the mixture over the mound of orange paste, along with a pinch of flaky Maldon salt. I considered my creation, tasting the various components, separately and then together. There was something missing. I climbed onto my bicycle and peddled to the Mediterranean deli. I found there what I hadn’t known that I looking for, the finishing touch, a generous dollop of Italian cream. Perfection.
Joëlle
Have dessert for dinner with this delectable creamed pumpkin dish, topped with pecans and cranberries fried in spiced butter and maple syrup, flaky sea salt and Italian cream.
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Ingredients
- 1 large kabocha (1 kg without seeds)
- 80g butter
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp minced ginger
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1.5 tbsp shio koji
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries (unsweetened)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Mascarpone
- Maldon Sea sSlt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Combine butter, maple syrup and ginger in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.
- While the mixture is simmering, cut the kabocha squash in half and remove the stem and seeds. Cooking it for a few minutes in the microwave first makes it much easier to cut through the tough flesh.
- Remove the mixture from heat, strain it through a fine mesh sieve and discard the solids. Brush both halves of the kabocha all over with some maple-ginger butter. Reserve the rest of the mixture.
- Place the halves skin-side down on a baking sheet, and bake until tender (30-40 minutes).
- Let the squash rest until cool to the touch, then remove the flesh from the skin using a large spoon. Discard the skin (or break them up into pieces, sprinkle them with salt and throw them back into the oven for a few minutes for a nutritious snack).
- Combine cooked kabocha flesh, leftover maple-ginger butter, mirin, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger in medium saucepan over medium-low heat. When the mixture is warm, add cream and puree everything with a potato masher or an immersion blender.
- Remove from heat and mix in shio koji and lemon zest. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Then transfer the squash puree to a serving dish.
- In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add pecans, dried cranberries and minced ginger and cook, stirring often, until the pecans are starting to brown and the mixture is fragrant. Add cinnamon and maple syrup, stir to combine and remove from heat.
- Serve creamed kabocha at room temperature, sprinkled with spiced maple pecans and cranberries, Maldon sea salt and a generous dollop of mascarpone.
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