Last summer, 2017, I reviewed Adam’s Big Pot by Australian Adam Liaw. It’s a great book with an important subtitle: Easy Meals for Your Family. If you need to feed several mouths, and they want food Monday-Friday when you are off working, then you need this book.
Here’s a recipe that immediately caught my eye. We have Thanksgiving next week. Pumpkin is mandatory. But what if you don’t like pumpkin pie? Or you want something different? Here’s an idea to combine roasted pumpkin with coconut custard. Cooked very long, it will be very soft and appropriately sweet.
The recipe calls for a Kent pumpkin, also known as a Japanese pumpkin. Here’s a link to explain what that Kent pumpkin looks like and what you might look for. Actually, I think any pumpkin can function well here. You cook it for so long!
https://alittlebityummy.com/what-is-japanese-pumpkin-and-is-it-low-fodmap/
Don’t fear. I’ll post a grand pumpkin pie recipe tomorrow. You can go pie or custard or both.
Pumpkin Custard
Yield: serves 8
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Kent or other Japanese pumpkin (as close to 5 pounds as possible)
- 5 eggs
- 7 ounces thick coconut cream, scooped from the top of an unshaken can
- ¼ cup grated palm sugar
- ½ cup caster sugar
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 350°F. Holding a small, sharp knife at an angle, carefully cut a large ‘lid’ around the stalk of the pumpkin and remove it. With a strong spoon or melon bailer, scoop all the seeds and membrane from the center of the pumpkin.
Beat the eggs until smooth and add the coconut cream and sugars, whisking constantly. Pour the custard mix through a sieve into the center of the pumpkin, filling up to the inside edge of the hole where the ‘lid’ was removed.
Place the pumpkin in a large round cake tin just big enough to fit it, and place the cake tin on a larger baking tray. Bake the pumpkin for 2 ½ hours, checking its firmness by tapping the side of the pumpkin and watching for the wobble in the top of the custard. If you like, you can bake the ‘lid’ separately, removing it from the oven after about 45 minutes, or when it is cooked through. When the custard begins to firm, turn off the oven and leave the pumpkin inside to cool for a further 2 hours or overnight. Slice and serve.
Source: Adam’s Big Pot: Easy Meals for Your Family by Adam Liaw [Hamlyn 2017]