Holiday Squash

This year's Christmas dinner at our friends, Ruth and Mark, was in their new home up in the hills above Nice.  They designed a fire barbecue, which when not in use, looks like part of the planter, with mint cascading into it.

pumpkin on bed of coals in barbecue

We decided to make something for Christmas on the barbecue, and so pulled out my favourite outdoor cooking book - Seven Fires, by Francis Mallmann.  There was a picture of a squash filled with vegetables and meat that looked very festive and we thought perfect for Christmas.  Once we read the recipe, we discovered that it recommended cooking the squash in an out door oven, sort of like a pizza oven, and realized we had a challenge.  Ruth found a piece of zinc flashing to jerry rig their barbecue into an oven and the problem was solved. 

We made this recipe twice, the first time using corn as called for in the recipe, and the second without.  I think it was better without the corn, however it could be that corn in France is not what we are used to in Canada.

The markets in Nice have large squash in December, so rather than the smaller individually portioned squash, we used one large pumpkin like squash.

Allow a few hours to prepare this recipe, it is not something to throw together at the last minute.   It takes time to prepare a good bed of coals,  the pumpkin takes awhile to cook, depending on the size and the heat of the coals, and the filling takes a couple of hours as well, as you need to cook it long enough for the meat to become tender and allow for the flavours to meld.  We were able to get everything started, go for a walk and then come back and complete the dish.

• 1 large cooking pumpkin, about 10 to 12 pounds
• coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 6 black pepper corns
• 1 cup of chicken or vegetable broth

filling

• 1 small can of plum tomatoes
• 1 2/3 cups of beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 8 ounces of pancetta, cut into 1/3" strips
• 1.5 pounds of tender stewing beef, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• 2 small onions, coarsely diced
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 3 carrots
• 1 cup of dry red wine
• 1 large potato
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 ripe peach or mango (frozen fruit works as well)

Prepare a fire to develop good bed of coals that will last at least an hour.

Cut the top out of the pumpkin to make a lid as though preparing for jack-o-lantern. Be careful to angle the knife so that the lid is larger at the top than the bottom, to ensure that the lid will not fall into the pumpkin later.    Clean out inside of pumpkin, removing all of the stringy bits and the seeds and discard.  If you are a gardner, you may want to save some of the seeds to plant next season.

Puncture the inside flesh of pumpkin with a fork being careful not to go through the outer skin.  Put the chicken or vegetable stock inside the pumpkin along with the butter, garlic, two bay leaves, and a sprig of thyme and rosemary. Set aside until coals are ready.  This could be done earlier in the day.

When the fire is ready, place the pumpkin on grill, including lid, slightly ajar,  and bake until tender on the inside and garlic looks soft and mushy.   It will take at least an hour.  If you don't have an oven type grill you will need to put some sort of cover over the pumpkin / fire to ensure the top of the pumpkin cooks.  

Meanwhile prepare the filling in a large heavy pot.  This could be done the day before.
Heat the pot and add pancetta.  Render until the fat is translucent.  Brown beef, then deglaze pot with with wine vinegar.  Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent.  Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer over low heat for at least an hour, or until meat is tender.  Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle filling into pumpkin, on top of the broth, gently stir.  To serve, scoop out filling and pumpkin flesh together.   Serve with a coarse bread.