Bringing botanicus festivus (Hasselback pumpkin) to your Christmas table
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Nothing says Christmas feast like pumpkin.
Well, actually maybe glazed ham, turducken, or goose are more readily identifiable as Yuletide staples.
But the thing is, not everyone wants a meaty Christmas. So we are coming up with a few recipes to help you create a menu that is botanicus festivus.
First is this glazed Hasselback pumpkin dish loosely based on a Diane Morrisey recipe of a few years ago.
Cutting slits into the pumpkin is admittedly a high-risk knife manoeuvre, but pays dividends in allowing the pumpkin to cook evenly and with the glaze seeping into every crevice. It looks beautiful on the table and tastes suburb. Perfect as a main for a vego and as a side-dish for the carnivores. If you have a big family you might even need two.
What you’ll need:
Half a large butternut pumpkin.
Sour cherry jam or something similarly red (cranberry, pomegranate, and grape all acceptable but do NOT use strawberry. Marmalade will also taste great but won’t give you the Christmassy colour palate…)
Half a cup of pecans
Two tablespoons of butter (I guess you could use coconut oil if you are vegan)
A teaspoon of crushed garlic
Finely grated rind of one orange
Chives
Marinated goat’s cheese (we use Meredith Dairy religiously)
Instructions:
Carefully peel the skin off your pumpkin bearing in mind that I read most kitchen knife injuries are caused by pumpkin and it makes me extra nervous.
Use a large knife to cut slivers out of your pumpkin about 1 cm apart. Be careful not to cut through to the bottom.
In a saucepan create a glaze by melting two tablespoons of butter with two tablespoons of red jam. Add a teaspoon of crushed garlic, salt, pepper and orange rind. Bring it just to the boil and then take off heat. Throw in your pecans.
Slather some (but not all) of the glaze over the pumpkin and chuck it in a 180 degree oven for 30-45 minutes depending on how big it is. Feel free to brush on more glaze throughout the cooking process.
NOTE: The fruit in the jam will burn from the sugar, as will the nuts, so try and use only the liquid during the main cooking period.
When your pumpkin is golden and soft, use the remaining glaze (use all the fruit and all the nuts) and cook for a further ten minutes (making sure not to burn the nuts!)
Remove from oven and sprinkle with goat’s cheese and chives.
