‘Buffalo’ hot wings with creamy blue cheese dip
Serves 2 greedily

900g-1kg chicken wings
1/2 x 148ml bottle Frank’s red hot sauce
25g gram flour
1 tsp cayenne
15g butter

For the brine:
1 litre water
3 tbsp sea salt
3 tbsp chilli flakes

For the creamy blue cheese dip:
100g soft blue cheese (e.g. creamy gorgonzola)
100g sour cream
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 rounded tbsp mayonnaise
pinch salt

First make the brine by dissolving the salt in the water (this is easiest if you dissolve the salt first in a splash of boiling water, then top up with cold water), then stir in the chilli flakes.  Immerse your chicken wings in the brine, ensuring they are completely covered – weigh them down with a small plate if necessary – and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, make your blue cheese dip: simply place all the ingredients in a mini food  processor or in a tall jug with a stick blender, and process until smooth.  Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and place a large roasting dish in the oven to heat at the same time – the dish must be large enough to take the wings in a single layer.

When the oven is hot and the wings are brined,  add a large spoonful of fat – schmaltz, lard or ghee are best, to maximise flavour, but vegetable oil will do – to the hot roasting dish, and return to the oven to get piping hot. Drain, rinse & pat dry your brined wings. In a large bowl toss them in 2 tbsp of the hot sauce then in the flour and cayenne. Carefully place the wings in the hot fat, skin-side down and bake for 50mins-1hour until tender and crisp, turning once (carefully – the skin is fragile!).

In a small saucepan or in a microwave very briefly heat the butter with the remaining  hot sauce until the butter is just melted, then pour over the crispy baked wings and toss well to coat.  Serve with the blue cheese dip and lots of napkins. Go Nicks!

This is my entry for round 5 of the Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge – Game food.

Heston does a couple of variations on his cheese sauce (one involves infusing parmesan rinds into the wine, which I wished I’d remembered as I have a freezer full of the things) , all of which make quite a small amount, so I used a double quantity of the recipe as done for cauliflower cheese. As with other recipes of Mr Blumenthal’s I’ve tried (spag bol, chilli con carne, chicken tikka masala, all from the In Search of Perfection series), I’ve found that the predominant problem for home cooks is not actually the techniques, or even the availability of the ingredients, but the cost, and once again I was blown away with how much money he assumes the average Joe (even the average foodie Joe) is willing to spend on dinner at home. Reducing nearly a whole bottle of good quality wine (there’s no point using a cheap bottle – it’ll taste like rancid vinegar by the time it’s reduced sufficiently) to make half a pint of cheese sauce feels like a painful extravagance to me, particularly given the current economic climate (which I must assume is not affecting Bray).

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Heston Blumenthal’s ultimate cheese sauce (adapted from the original)
This double quantity made enough sauce for a lasagne to feed 6.

1 litre quality chicken stock
600ml white wine
240g grated cheese (two-thirds hard cheese, one-third soft goat’s)
40g cornflour
40g sour cream (Heston uses soft cheese but I didn’t have any)
Knob of butter

First reduce your chicken stock to 400ml in a small pan (if you do it in a large pan you’ll be cleaning burnt stock off the sides for weeks). In a separate, even smaller pan, reduce the white wine to 60ml. This takes quite a while so get it started nice and early, but make sure it is still warm when you continue to the next step.

Add the reduced wine to the reduced stock. Mix the grated cheeses and cornflour then stir into the liquid on a low heat until melted (following Heston’s advice as given on the show I added the hard cheese first, then when that was melted I added the goat’s cheese, which just as he said doesn’t melt totally). Finally stir in the knob of butter and the sour cream/soft cheese.

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This was definitely the least complicated of Heston’s recipes that I’ve come across, and not much more faff than making a proper Mornay sauce, but was it worth the expense and the washing up? (Pans used for meat reductions tend to need what my husband calls ‘overnight soaking’ – i.e. leave it in the sink until someone else gets sick of the sight of it and scours it herself!) The flavours of the cheese certainly came through bright and true, so much so that I realised how much they are lost in a classic cheese sauce, and the texture was indeed intensely velvety. However I felt it wasn’t a total success: The sauce is seriously intense from the reduced chicken stock, and I imagine if you used shop-bought cubes it could be quite overpowering; this is definitely one for your homemade stock. When I used the sauce in my standard beef lasagne recipe I also found I missed the calm creaminess of a normal cheese sauce, that dense blanket of bechamel and cheese. The sauce IS delicious though, which begs the question….what would I use it for? Heston’s suggestion of cauliflower cheese I feel would also suffer from the lack of milk in the sauce, so thus far all I can think of is to use it as fondue….in very small quantities! Suggestions on a postcard….

P.S. If you look closely at the credits for ‘Heston at Home’ you’ll notice the illustrious name of Harold McGee listed as ‘Food Science Consultant’. Not familiar with Harold’s work? Reacquaint yourselves with Mr B’s first series and he pops up quite a lot, as the man who gives Heston most of his ideas, or at least the scientific basis behind them. For a fascinating read into all the ‘whys’ behind Heston’s ideas give Harold McGee’s ‘McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture‘ a go.

When I was planning some accompaniments to go with my Leek and ginger pork gyoza with soy dipping sauce which I posted last week, I turned for advice to Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking and although I can never resist making a few tweaks to any recipe I follow, it turned out perfectly.  The pickles are a variation on hers too, and go wonderfully both with rice and dumplings, plus they keep for several days in the fridge so you can nibble them with anything else you have lying around – cheese or ham for instance.

Egg-fried rice
Serves 2

I love to put a little smokey prosciutto in my egg fried rice, as together with the soy it really gives you an umami whack.

135g uncooked basmati rice
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
4 spring onions
1 tbsp finely diced fresh ginger
3 slices prosciutto (or 2 slices smoked streaky bacon), roughly shredded
2 tsp caster sugar
1 & 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
splash sesame oil (or pumpkin-seed oil if, like me, you’re not a big fan of sesame)

Put your rice in a jug and check the volume. Tip into a medium saucepan and add twice the rice’s volume in cold water. Add a pinch of salt, bring to the boil, cover and cook on the lowest possible heat for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, cover with a clean teatowel then leave to steam for 10 more minutes, then tip onto a large plate or baking sheet, and chill (it’s even better if you can leave the rice overnight to chill – I think it’s because the fridge dries it out, helping it keep its bite later on).

When you’re ready to eat, finely chop the whites of the spring onions, then the green tops but keep the two separate. Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok until almost smoking, pour in the eggs, allow to cook for 30 seconds then flip and cook for 30 more, then remove to a chopping board & roughly shred (leaving the oil in the wok on the heat). Fry the whites of the spring onion, with the prosciutto and ginger for 1 minute, then add the sugar and cook for another half minute. Add your cold rice, spring onion greens, soy sauce, nut oil, and shredded omelette then cook for 2-3 minutes on high heat until piping hot.  Serve at once.

Carrot & cucumber pickle

3 smallish carrots, peeled
1/2 cucumber, deseeded
2 tsp sea salt
75g + 2 tsp caster sugar
125ml rice vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
juice 1 lime
pinch fresh red chilli, finely diced

Slice the carrots & cucumber into fine batons. Toss with the salt and 2 tsp sugar and set aside for 1-2 hours, then drain off the juices (this ‘degorging’ process is not essential but it helps the veg keep their crunch).

Now dissolve the sugar with the vinegar in a small saucepan over a low heat, then increase the heat and simmer vigorously until it has reduced by about a third and is quite syrupy. Cool, then stir in the fish sauce and lime juice and taste to check the seasoning.  Pour the pickle liquid over the drained carrot and cucumber, and stir in the chilli.  This can be served immediately, or kept in the fridge until needed.

Next up was Clarion of Preventing Culinary Amnesia with her classic Arrabbiata, a word which incidentally is Italian for ‘angry’, perfect for a dish of such spicyness:

Ruth, Queen Bee of Presto Pasta Nights and blogger over at Once Upon A Feast, contributed this delicious woodland-inspired ‘taste of the forest’ pasta with mushrooms, pancetta & arugula (that’s ‘rocket’ to you and me!)

Thus far all the pasta dishes have been pretty darn speedy supper recipes, but then in swept Nupur of UK Rasoi with a lovely step-by-step guide to making one of my favourite weekend meal projects: Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni:

The meatiest offering of the week came from Jules of Pictures of a princess, a spicy yet creamy Chicken Paprikash served on spätzle – the Germanic equivalent of Italy’s noodle, the name of which means ‘little sparrows’ for goodness-only-knows reason why!

Shellfish got a rather glamorous makeover with this impressive entry from Tandy of Lavender & Lime – it’s time to apply for your fishing permit and do battle with the invading red signals so you can make this:  Crayfish ravioli with a bisque sauce

I’m not normally a big fan of vegan food (I do so love my cheese!) but Deb of Kahakai Kitchen might just have converted me with this scrumptious Super quick tomato basil ‘cream’ bucatini in which blitzed cashews take the place of dairy to make the sauce rich and creamy:

Shelby, aka ‘HoneyB’ over at The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch broke with the so-far distinctly European vibe to produce this fabulous east-meets-west fusion of Beef & Broccoli with Black Bean Mushroom Sauce on linguine:

More globe trotting on the pasta front was going on over at Cook.Craft.Enjoy where the order of the day was a Paprika chicken stew with Pierogies – the delicious Polish dumplings that are halfway between ravioli and potato gnocchi:

Joanne of Eats Well With Others joined in with an inspired healthy-meets-comfort food offering of Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese:

With a twist on a classic in a similar vein to Joanne, Ruth of Once Upon A Feast deserves super-praise for contributing not just one, but TWO entries for this week’s round up – her second one being her Insanely Delicious Mac ‘n Cheese with Kale:

And lastly, but hopefully not least, is my own contribution – an Asian cousin of ravioli – Leek and ginger pork gyoza with soy dipping sauce:

That’s it!  I’ve loved hosting this week’s Presto Pasta Nights and hope you’ve enjoyed my roundup.  Next week the roundup returns to Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast.

This has to be one of the easiest blogging events to join in with ever – no picky rules or tricky themes, and no restrictions on how many events your entry can be entered into -  just a love of all things noodle-y. Here are the guidelines:

1) The dish must have some sort of noodle, it doesn’t have to be traditional Italian type pasta, it can be hot, cold, salad, soup, main, dessert, or anything else, but it must have some kind of noodle

2) You must mention Presto Pasta Nights and link to it, as well as linking here to Souperior, as the host is different each week.

3) Publish your post and email your entry to the me at souperior.blog{at}gmail.com with a link to your post no later than midnight on Thursday 26th January GMT, and please CC ruth(at)4everykitchen(dot)com in your email.

4) If possible please include a jpeg of your dish in your email, or a link to the image you wish me to use in the roundup. If you wish to use the PPN logo in your post, please  copy it from the top of this post.

I look forward to receiving your entries.  We’ve already had the first, from the lovely La Caffettiera Rosa and it’s a cracker!

Making these gyoza is super-easy if – like me – you keep a packet of gyoza ‘skins’ or wrappers in the freezer. Commercially sold gyoza skins are so much thinner than anything you can make at home and are perfect for quick steamed dumplings like these (though if you want to pan-fry these you could of course make up a batch of your favourite dough – I like Ken Hom’s recipe). The wrappers take half an hour or so to defrost at room temperature (during which time you can be making the filling and the dipping sauce), but be sure to keep them under a damp cloth to stop them drying out.

Leek and ginger pork gyoza with soy dipping sauce
Serves 4-6

550g minced pork (absolutely NOT the kind sold as ‘lean’ – it’s essential to have fat in there or the dumplings will be too dry)
1 large leek, finely diced
2 tbsp finely diced fresh ginger
1 tbsp white peppercorns, freshly ground
2 spring onions, finely diced
1 tbsp sea salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
35-40 gyoza wrappers (I use Imperial Dragon brand, bought from Wing Yip), defrosted if frozen

For the dipping sauce:
125ml rice vinegar
75g caster sugar
2cm ginger, finely diced or grated
2 spring onions, finely diced
1 hot red chilli, finely diced (a scotch bonnet, though not authentic, is tastiest, use a birdseye chilli – seeds and all – for a more traditional flavour)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
juice of 1 lime

Start the dipping sauce first, as the gyoza are actually very quick to make. Start by dissolving the sugar with the vinegar in a small saucepan over a low heat, then increase the heat and simmer vigorously until it has reduced by about a third and is quite syrupy. Allow this to cool then stir in the remaining ingredients.

For the gyoza, simply mix together all the filling ingredients, then assemble them one at a time (to stop them drying out too much) by placing a heaped spoonful of filling in the centre of each gyoza wrapper, running a wet finger around the edge (this becomes the ‘glue’), then folding over into a semi-circle and pressing together gently to seal, expelling any air as you go. Place them on a baking tray and keep them covered whilst you do the rest. They keep for a day in the fridge, tightly covered with clingfilm, or they freeze well. To cook, line a large steamer basket with a sheet of greaseproof paper and lay the gyoza onto it in a single layer, not touching each other (they stick easily). Steam for 4-5 minutes until the pork is just cooked through – it is important not to overcook them as the filling will become bouncy and tough rather than tender and meltingly soft.

This recipe makes around 35-40 dumplings, a generous 4 portions if accompanied by rice and pickles, or they will obviously serve more if you are having them alone as a starter.  I served them with egg fried rice and some speedy carrot & cucumber pickles, the recipes of which will follow soon…..

Although fabulously tasty by itself, I accompany this chili with a super-spicy salsa, to be dolloped on each bite, or stirred in to taste at the table, to add fire strictly for those who wish for it. At the heart of the salsa are tomatillos – sharp green fruits that look like a cross between unripe green tomatoes and the papery lantern-wrapped physalis – but these are hard to find if you don’t spend your spare time frequenting chilli festivals (or growing your own under glass), so you can happily substitute nice ripe tomatoes, and just add a little extra vinegar or some lime juice to give it bite.  The ‘finishing butter’ adds a delicious richness and also limey freshness at the end, especially for those who are eschewing the salsa. Dried anchos are the key to the stew’s smokey depth and yes – I know they are technically a chilli – but this classification is misleading: they have the same heat punch of a bell pepper, which is essentially what they are! Pork skin may seem an odd addition to a stew (and is totally optional), but it melts down and vanishes during the long slow cooking, leaving a gorgeous richness and lending extra body to the sauce, and as pork shoulder in the piece almost always comes skin-on it seems a crime to waste it by omitting it.

Adjustable-heat Chili con Carne
Serves 8

1kg tomatoes, halved
3 dried ancho chillies
2 red or orange peppers
900g pork shoulder, in the piece, skin removed but not discarded
600g beef mince
2 large onions (white, red or a mixture), diced
3 sticks celery, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground clove
2 heaped tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp tomato puree
500ml beef stock
1-2 cans red kidney beans, drained & rinsed (quantity depends on how much you like beans, I like a lot of meat with a bit of bean, some like lots of bean with a bit of meat)
Beef dripping or olive oil, for frying
Cider vinegar, to taste
Optional extras: grated cheddar, sliced spring onions and sour cream to serve

For the supercharged salsa:
3 tomatillos, diced (if you cannot get these use regular red tomatoes, just use a little extra vinegar, to taste)
3 long red chillies, deseeded & finely diced
3 scotch bonnets, deseeded & finely diced
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar

For the finishing butter:
125g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
2 limes, zest & juice
15g parmesan, finely grated

Method:
Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200C/fan180. Roast the halved tomatoes with just a drizzle of olive oil on a shallow baking tray for 1 hour. Meanwhile soak the ancho chillies in boiling water for 20-30 minutes until completely soft then remove the stem, core and seeds (do not discard the soaking water). Blacken the skins of the red or orange peppers by placing under a very hot grill, or directly onto your hob if you have a gas burner (use tongs to turn them), place in a heatproof bowl and cover with clingfilm and allow to cool, then scrape off the blackened skin, chop the flesh into large dice and set aside.

In a large casserole dish, melt a spoonful of beef fat or heat a splash of oil. Brown the chunk of pork on all sides, and remove to a plate. Repeat with the skin, on both flesh- and fat- side (be careful – it will spit), and remove. Finally, and on a very high heat, brown the mince then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan. Reduce the heat to low and soften the onions and celery, then add the garlic, spices, oregano, and tomato puree and cook for a few more minutes until it is smelling deliciously aromatic.

Finely dice the fried pork skin, and return it to the pan along with the mince and the piece of pork. Pour on the stock and bring to the boil on a medium-high heat. Meanwhile puree the roasted tomatoes with the soaked and deseeded ancho chillies & just enough of the soaking water to make a smooth, quite liquid puree. Add this to the chili, along with the kidney beans.  Turn the heat down as low as possible, partially cover with a lid, then simmer gently on the hob or in a very low oven (Gas 1/140c/fan120) for around 6 hours, stirring occasionally and topping up with a little extra beef stock or water if it looks like it’s drying out. When the cooking time is up, remove the chunk of pork and use two forks to shred it roughly, then stir it back into the chili along with the diced peppers you prepared earlier. Taste & season with salt & cider vinegar to cut the richness (it shouldn’t need pepper).

To make the accompaniments simply mix the ingredients for each together and serve alongside the chili. Some cornbread, small baked potatoes or tortilla chips are all suitable carby sides for this, it’s so hearty you wont need much of them though!

Christmas may seem like an odd time of year to be making virtuous resolutions about food, but actually it’s a (rare) time of year when I eat less – and generally healthier – than everyone else. When you’re in the kitchen all day for three days straight (I have a big family – I like to feed them!) eating sort of looses its appeal, and I tend to pick at the big meal itself, fortifying myself instead with whole orangeries-worth of clementines. So, to regain my kitchen mojo, improve my diet, and remount the blogging horse all in one go before the rest of 2012 slips away,  I would like to share with you the absolute antithesis to my dining of late, a dish with rather more swank than the recipes I usually post:

Glazed beetroot with honeyed goat’s milk mousse and candied cobnuts
Serves 4

Although the instructions are long and it all looks a bit fiddly and poncy, this is actually a supremely easy dish to make – and creates an instant wow when it’s plated up. If I was the sort of person who served starters as part of the Christmas meal this would be what I’d do – everything can be prepped well in advance, and it’s not so heavy that you can’t manage a full-on main course afterwards. The mousse is deliciously creamy, contrasting fantastically with the earthy beetroot, and then the sweetness of the candied nuts adds an extra dimension.  The apple adds acidity, and extra crunch.  Be sure to be generous with the salt in both the beetroots and the candied nuts, to ensure this stays within the boundary of savoury, rather than becoming dessert-grade sweet.

For the honeyed goat’s milk mousse:
500ml fresh goat’s milk
2 tbsp honey
3 leaves platinum-grade gelatine
125ml double cream

Candied cobnuts:
50g shelled cobnuts (or hazelnuts)*
50g caster sugar

Glazed beets:
6 small cooked, peeled beetroots (if you buy them ready-cooked be sure to get the kind in natural juice, not vinegar!)
30g unsalted butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

You will also need: A sharp green apple (Granny Smith has the right level of acidity)

To make the mousse: Heat the goat’s milk in a small saucepan, simmering slowly and gently until reduced by half. This will take around an hour, don’t be tempted to raise the heat too high and boil it, as this will scorch the milk. Once the milk has reduced remove it from the heat and stir in the honey. Soak the gelatine leaves in a little cold water for a few minutes until soft and flabby, then stir into the hot milk reduction until dissolved, then strain through a sieve and set aside to cool. Whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold gently into the cooled milk. Pour into a small tub, cover and chill for 4 hours or overnight, until set. If you want to turn the mousse out and cut it into strips or squares, line the tub with clingfilm first to make it easier to turn out.

To candy the nuts: Line a small baking tray with greaseproof paper. Mix the sugar with 100ml water in a small pan on a low heat, stirring until it dissolves. Increase the heat and heat the mixture to a deep russet caramel colour, swirling the pan occasionally but not stirring. When the caramel looks on the verge of being too dark remove from the heat, and stir in the nuts and a generous pinch of flaky sea salt. Spoon out the caramel-coated nuts individually onto the paper-lined baking tray, and allow to harden. They will keep for a day or two in an airtight container, but if you use cobnuts their moisture will gradually soften the caramel so you’ll lose some of the crunch.

Make the glazed beets: Cut the beetroot into thick slices or small wedges. In a small frying pan melt the butter with the sugar, 1 tbsp water, thyme leaves and a pinch of salt. Cook on a high heat until bubbling, stir in the balsamic vinegar, then add the beetroots and simmer, spooning the mixture over the beetroots constantly, until the liquids have reduced to coat the beetroots in a sticky, shiny glaze.

To serve – arrange either cubes or quenelles of the mousse on plates, then arrange the glazed beetroot and sliced apple around.  Scatter over the candied nuts and serve at once.

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*Cobnuts are sweeter, juicier and more tender than hazelnuts, but they really can be used interchangeably in just about any recipe. Whilst hazelnuts are easy to procure shelled, cobnuts are usually sold shell-on. You’ll need 200-300g shell-on cobnuts to yield 40g shelled.

This is a simple yet indulgent dish perfect for either lunch or supper, and despite the fact that it uses rather more pans than I normally want to utilise for a weeknight dinner, it is extremely quick to prepare.  To save on washing up I confess I often use shop-bought pancakes (not something I’d dream of using for a dessert, but somehow perfectly okay in a savoury bake); but if time is not against you, you could of course make your own – I suggest a half quantity of Delia Smith’s foolproof recipe.  A punchy, sharp cheddar and proper smoky ham are essential here to stop the dish being simply soft creamy goo.

Chicken, ham, leek and cheese pancake bake
Serves 4

8 pancakes (shop-bought or homemade)
8 thin slices smoked ham
a large knob of butter
5 thin leeks, trimmed, sliced & rinsed
1/2 tsp mace
125g cream cheese
1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
125g mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 cooked chicken breasts, roughly chopped
250g creme fraiche
Handful of parmesan, grated

Preheat your oven to 200˚C/Gas 6. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the leeks and sweat gently until they are tender. Stir in the mace, cream cheese, mustard and two-thirds of the grated cheddar, plus salt and pepper to taste. Take off the heat, stir in the cooked diced chicken and set aside.

Mix the creme fraiche and remaining grated cheddar in a small saucepan, and heat gently, stirring regularly until the creme fraiche has thinned and the cheese is almost all melted, then season with salt & pepper

Take your pancakes and lay a slice of ham on each. Spread an eighth of the leek mixture in a line down the centre of the pancake, then roll the pancake in a cigar shape around the filling. Place each rolled pancake into an ovenproof dish in which they will fit quite snugly, then pour over the creme fraiche mixture. Grind over some black pepper and scatter with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden on top and bubbling underneath. Serve with crusty bread (the ‘crusty’ is important as this dish is all soft and tender – you need some crunch!) and a green salad to cut the richness.

Pumpkins are at their very best when baked – a high, prolonged heat makes the flesh meltingly tender and turns its sugary flavour into something more mellow and savoury.  Combine that with a heapload of dairy (in this case both cream and cheese) and you have heaven in a spoonful – sweet, savoury, rich, creamy, tangy – all at once.  This is another of my super-indulgent seasonal dishes (like my unctuous sauce for sprouting broccoli) that I only do once or twice a year, as the calorie count is through the roof, but believe me, it’s worth every gram of fat.  In theory this is a soup, although that hardly does justice to the rib-sticking nature of the feast involved – use your spoon to crape tender pumpkin flesh through a sea of creamy goo for every mouthful, and have some good hearty bread to go with it – wholewheat or spelt are best – you can smear spoonfuls of pumpkin on the bread and then dunk in the centre for the ultimate treat.  It’s easiest (and quickest) to do individual pumpkins for everyone, but you can also do one show-stopping large pumpkin for 4-6 people, in which case it will need to be cooked for much longer and serving is a bit messier.

Whole baked pumpkin with Comté & cream

Per person:
1 x 900g-1kg pumpkin (for a main course; go much smaller for a starter portion)
100g Comté or Gruyère cheese, grated (the nuttiness works well with the sweet pumpkin)
75-100ml double cream
salt, pepper, nutmeg

1. Preheat your oven to 200˚C/fan180˚/Gas 6.
2. Just as if you were making a carved pumpkin/jack-o-lantern, use a very sharp knife to cut a small lid from the pumpkin and use a large spoon to scrape out all the seeds (bake or fry them with chilli & salt for delicious pre-pumpkin nibbles) and any excessively stringy flesh.  Trim the flesh from the lid so it’s no more than 1.5cm deep, finely chop the spare pumpkin flesh and throw it into the cavity.  Add the cream, grated cheese and plenty of salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.  The pumpkin should be around three-quarters full (adjust the quantities to suit your pumpkin – they all vary!).
3. Replace the lid and place your pumpkin(s) on a foil-lined baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake for around 1 hour.  To test if the pumpkin is cooked, lift the lid and carefully poke the flesh with a small knife – it should sink in as easily as into butter.  Serve whole in shallow bowls, so as to catch any spillage whilst eating.