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rdclsuperfoods · 4 years

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Thanks to a growing interest in all things fermented, sourdough is more popular than ever—and for good reason. The perfect piece of sourdough is chewy and distinctively tangy, more complex in flavor than white bread, and healthier, too.

Raw sourdough is home to the same bacteria that are in yogurt, Lactobacilli, which consumes the flour in the same way as yeast, breaking down some of the gluten proteins while the bread rises. Because of this, some people who struggle to digest gluten find that they can tolerate sourdough bread. The longer the bread rises, the lower the gluten content will be. (That said, store-bought sourdough typically still contains plenty of gluten.)

Fermentation helps lower the bread’s phytic-acid content, explains Lori Nedescu, a registered dietitian and professional cyclist. Phytic acid is an antinutrient that inhibits the body’s ability to absorb minerals by bonding to them, and it’s present in most flours. Ultrarunner and registered dietitian Kylee Van Horn explains that phytic acid binds to iron, zinc, and calcium, which can be a concern for those eating a lot of seeds, grains, and legumes at each meal. “Lessening the phytic-acid content in a food can help increase absorption of these essential minerals,” she says. And athletes, especially those eating vegetarian or vegan diets, are particularly at risk for developing deficiencies.

Research also shows that the carbohydrates in sourdough digest slower, which means you won’t get a blood-sugar spike or the subsequent crash. “Keeping your blood sugar stable will not only help your energy levels and mood throughout the day, but it can help prevent cravings from happening,” says Van Horn. “ Simple carbohydrates—refined sugars, white flour, white rice—can cause a quick burst of energy for the body, but the body simultaneously releases a burst of insulin, which utilizes those sugars quickly. This causes a quick blood-sugar drop, which leads to hunger, jitteriness, trouble concentrating, and a drop in energy.”

“Good sourdough—which will be more rustic and less processed—is my first choice when it comes to bread,” Nedescu says. Opt for homemade or bakery-fresh loaves, Van Horn adds. “Commercial companies typically use a small amount of starter but then add commercial yeast and other flavors, like vinegar, to give it a sour taste,” she says. “The very short leavening process means it doesn’t have the same health benefits.”

Learning to bake sourdough is a great at-home project for athletes and foodies alike, but it does take time to perfect the process. It seems simple—all you need is a starter, flour, salt, and water—but the process is trickier than you might expect and requires patience to get right. Baking is a chemistry experiment, and sourdough is one of the hardest types of bread to perfect, since its yeast-free rising can be influenced by temperature, altitude, and the quality of ingredients, among other factors. Read on to learn how to start your own sourdough journey.

Find Your Starter

(Photo: Ina Peters/Stocksy)

The first thing you’ll need is a sourdough starter, which replaces the yeast you would add to typical bread dough. It looks a little like yogurt, but it’s just flour, water, and salt that has been left at the right temperature to encourage the wild yeast found naturally on flour to ferment. Precise measurements are key with sourdough baking, so you’ll also want to buy a food scale to measure your ingredients in grams. (You can find one for under $10 here.)

Most bakeries will give you a small sourdough starter if you ask—as will sourdough-baking friends—or you can buy one on Amazon. It’s easy to do it yourself, too. In a one-quart mason jar, combine 60 grams of whole-grain flour and 30 milliliters of warm water, and let it sit at room temperature, with the lid loose. After two days, stir in 40 milliliters of warm water and 40 grams of flour to feed it, says baker and bikepacker Karlee Gendron, who teaches a sourdough cooking class at Fort Whyte Farms in Alberta.

Then continue to feed it with 40 milliliters of water and 40 grams of flour daily, which is a standard feeding schedule for any starter kept at room temperature. You’ll notice it bubbling—that means it’s beginning to ferment! At around seven days (or by the time your starter is bubbling consistently), it’s ready to use in baking.

Outgrowing your mason jar? Skip to the sourdough pancake recipe below or discard some of the starter, but don’t stop feeding it. “Each day before feeding, I recommend discarding about two tablespoons of starter in the jar, or you will eventually run out of room,” Gendron warns. “Or you could take it out and use that for something like pancakes, or give it to a friend to start their starter.”

You can slow the fermentation process by storing your starter in the fridge and feeding it only once per week. But be sure to take your starter out of the fridge at least two days prior to baking. You’ll want to feed it twice a day and wait until it’s actively bubbling again before beginning the baking process, Gendron says.

Get Baking

Baking sourdough takes a couple of days, though your actual time in the kitchen will be minimal. You’ll need a Dutch oven: these heavy cast-iron pots hold in heat and trap steam for the perfect baking environment for bread. If you don’t have one, you can use any ovenproof heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid or a baking stone with an inverted roasting pan (as a makeshift lid), but cast-iron does make a difference.

Below, Gendron shares her favorite way to turn a sourdough starter into an edible loaf of bread. She has perfected her recipe after years of trial and error and emphasizes that baking sourdough is hard to get right. Expect a few imperfect loaves before you nail it.

Basic Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

A food scale

Sourdough starter

950 milliliters water

1,200 grams flour

20 grams salt

A Dutch oven

Directions

Day One:

Mix leaven: Add 200 milliliters warm water (roughly 80 degrees), 200 grams flour, and 50 grams starter to a container and stir. Cover with cling wrap or a tea towel, and let sit approximately 12 hours.

Day Two:

Add 250 grams of the leaven to a large mixing bowl. Pour in 700 milliliters of warm water, and mix with your hands until the leaven is dispersed. Add one kilo of flour and mix with your hands until combined and no dry flour is left. Cover your bowl with a towel or cling wrap, and let it sit for 45 minutes in a warm spot to rise. Mix 20 grams salt with 50 milliliters of warm water, dissolving the salt. Pour this over top of the dough, and squeeze the dough with your hands to incorporate the salt water throughout. Cover for 30 minutes, then fold the dough every 30 to 45 minutes, repeating four times (this step takes around three hours). Then let it rest one to two hours untouched and covered. Lightly sprinkle flour on the counter, and cut the dough into two equal halves. With lightly floured hands, shape each half into a loose boule, and let them rest on the counter, covered with a tea towel, for 30 minutes. Place into heavily floured bowls, and leave the dough covered in the fridge overnight.

Day Three:

Place the Dutch oven (lined with parchment paper if so desired) in the oven, and heat to 500 degrees. Place the bread into the Dutch oven by flipping the bowl over atop it, noting that the side of bread facing up in the bowl will be the bottom of the bread in your Dutch oven. Score the top of the bread in the Dutch oven by making two slashes, then cover it with the lid. Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on, then reduce the temperature to 475 degrees and bake for 20 minutes with the lid off. (If using a thermometer, the bread should reach 200 degrees.) Cool for one hour, and enjoy!

Sourdough Pizza

Use the same first steps in the bread recipe, but instead of putting the bread in the Dutch oven on day three, grab your favorite pizza sauce and toppings, then follow these steps:

Once the final shaping is finished, divide the dough into rounded one-pound pieces, cover, and let them rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees, placing a pizza stone in the oven to heat up at the same time. Dust a cutting board with cornmeal and flour, and press the dough rounds flat until they’re a half-inch thick. Pick up the dough and stretch it using the back of your knuckles, rotating the disc around your hands. Once the dough is at your preferred thickness for a pizza crust, lay it back on the flour-and-cornmeal-dusted cutting board, and assemble your desired toppings. Slide the dough onto the hot pizza stone and bake for about eight minutes, turning the pizza 90 degrees about four minutes in. Cut and serve.

Sourdough Pancakes

That extra starter can make delicious pancakes, with the perfect amount of tartness to cut through the sweet berries or maple syrup that you put on top.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

1 egg

Optional: 1 tablespoon sweetener of choice (sugar, coconut sugar, etc.)

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon milk

Butter or oil for frying

Directions

Combine the starter, egg, and sweetener (if using). Add the flour and milk as needed to achieve your desired consistency—thicker batter makes thicker pancakes. Heat a griddle over medium heat, and pour the batter in three-inch circles, flipping them when they begin to bubble. Serve with berries, syrup, or Greek yogurt for a breakfast protein boost.

Common Sourdough Problems

As you prepare your first few loaves, you might make some common mistakes that lead to dough that doesn’t rise or bread that’s too dense. Here, Gendron explains some easy fixes for the most frequent sourdough mishaps:

The starter may not be active enough. Make sure you are double feeding it (twice a day) the couple days before you plan on baking if you’re having trouble.

Perhaps the period of folding your bread needs to be longer, so try doing one extra fold and letting it rest for an extra 30 to 45 minutes.

The moisture level of the bread might be off. Some flours absorb different amounts of water, and things like air temperature and altitude can have an effect as well. Try adding 50 milliliters more water to your initial mix. If scored properly, steam from the water will release from your bread, leaving a light and airy crumb.

via Outside Magazine: Nutrition

#IFTTT #Outside Magazine: Nutrition

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temperkitten7-blog · 5 years

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Random Notes on Indian Cuisine

Chicken Kolhapur from Chennai Chettinaad Palace

From Madhur Jaffrey’s “An Invitation to Indian Cooking,” 1973 (43 years ago)

“Curry” is just a vague, inaccurate word which the world has picked up from the British, who, in turn, got it mistakenly from us.

“Us” being Indians.

If “curry” is an oversimplified name for an ancient cuisine, then “curry powder” attempts to oversimplify (and destroy) the cuisine itself.”

“Try to buy only whole spices and grind them yourself in small quantities.”

in coffee grinder

better flavor

whole spice that the grindings came from lasts longer

store in jar with tight lid away from light

“It is the preparation and combination of whole or freshly ground spices which makes Indian foods unique.”

Ghee: two types. See p. 9

Her recipes are adapted for American kitchens and stores. They focus on Delhi and adjacent sections of Uttar Pradesh.

Meat is usually goat. Fairly tough, so it is cooked slowly or tenderized.

80% of India is Hindu, who technically do not eat beef.

Cooking chicken? Usually remove skin first.

A tandoor is a clay oven with a live coal or wood fire.

Tandoori chicken is indeed popular in India.

“Indians never use olive oil,” but she does.

Fruits and veggies in India (1973) were/are very seasonal. Not eaten out of season.

Coriander (Chinese parsley or cilantro) and green chilies are essential.

Many Indians don’t like or eat hot (spicy) foods.

Most Indians eat a lot of greens: spinach, mustard greens, fenugreek greens, white radish greens, gram (or chick pea) greens. Spinach is popular over all of India.

Potatoes are a staple in North India.

The average Indian (1973) eats 1/2 to 2/3 pound of rice/day [cooked weight, I guess]. Her recipes use Carolilna (a long-grain uncooked rice) or basmati. (I must re-read. Is Carolilna really Carolina?)

Dals = lentils or pulses = varieties of dried beans and peas.

daily in most Indian homes

always eaten with rice or bread

Various home-made pickles are popular. By no means only made with cucumbers. Even meat can be pickled.

Chutney p. 226-7.

Her childhood family had servants.

Indian breads are called roti.

chapati, paratha, porris, naan

naan is leavened

typically whole wheat flour

cooked on a cast iron griddle or clay oven (tandoor)

In India most meals end with fruit.

From “Beyond Curry Indian Cookbook” by Denise D’Silva Sankhé, 2016. Subtitle: A culinary journey through India.

She’s a columnist at Serious Eats (Beyond Curry).

Over 50 languages in India.

“Curry, to most Indians, is only one type of dish, a gravy or sauce-based one, which can have meat or vegetable in it. “In India, there is no one “curry powder.”

Again, many regional differences in flavors and foods.

Grind your own spices. Store them dark and dry, in steel or glass airtight, in fridge maybe.

A masala is just a blend of spices; quite variable.

Nutmeg is poisonous, but use it anyway.

Dal designates more than lentils. Dals are a staple, served at least a few times/week. Dal-chawal is a simple dish of lentils and rice, and perhaps the most comforting of foods to Indians.

“Indian food is traditionally eaten by hand.” The right hand. The left is unclean.

“Mise en place” p. 35.

Some religions forbid alliums (e.g., onions and garlic) and root veggies. Substitute asefetida for the alliums.

Desserts and sweet treat are common, especially in religious and other festivals and celebrations.

Shop for pantry essentials and spices at specialty stores: Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern.

Buy spice in small quantities. They don’t store well for long.

Green chilis (sic): lighter-colored, longer ones are less spicy. Shorter, dark green ones are very hot. Thai and serrano chiles (sic) are fine substitutes.

When her recipes call for onion, she means red onion (can substitute white ones).

Testimonials

Search DietDoctor and you will find. Also http://indialchf.com

From Today’s Dietitian magazine:

August 2014 Issue

Indian Cuisine — Foods That Hold a Special Place in Plant-Based Food Traditions By Sharon Palmer, RDN Today’s Dietitian Vol. 16 No. 8 P. 17

[Ed.: copy/pasted with a few paragraphs deleted. Click the link above for some recipes.]

Gita Patel, MS, RDN, CDE, LD, CLT, author of Blending Science With Spices, explains that Indian culture leans toward vegetarianism due to Hinduism, which hosts a central theme of nonviolence, including animals. “A profound respect for all life is a common Hindu belief that supports vegetarian eating styles,” adds Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDE, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

However, British colonial influences and Western food trends, such as the emergence of fast-food restaurants, have brought more animal foods into India, Patel says. “With the globalization of the world and technology, some of the urban lifestyle changes have significantly affected traditional food practices in India,” Sheth adds, listing as evidence the increasing number of fast-food restaurants and premade foods replacing traditional meals in India.

Traditional Eating Patterns “A lot of people are drawn to Indian cuisine. People like the flavors, herbs, and spices,” Patel says, noting that home cooking is vastly different from what you’re likely to sample in an Indian restaurant.

“The traditional eating pattern is very balanced,” Patel says. She describes typical meals consisting of dal (a legume dish), rice, roti (bread), vegetable, salad, fruit, and a yogurt or buttermilk drink, which may vary slightly depending on the region.

Indeed, there’s scientific consensus that a disease-protective diet is based on a variety of whole plant foods, which sums up the traditional Indian eating pattern. “The traditional Indian vegetarian diet is one that’s rich in a wide variety of grains, beans, lentils, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, spices, and herbs. Research has found that vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease and some types of cancer,” Sheth says. The National Cancer Institute reports that cancer rates are lower in India than in Western countries, and that diet characteristics such as a high intake of fruits, vegetables, spices, and tea may be responsible for protecting Indians against certain forms of cancer.2

Key Components While the specific dishes may vary according to different regions of India, the key ingredients basically are the same and include the following:

• Vegetables: “Vegetables are grown all over the country due to the climate,” Patel says, adding that many vegetables are unique to India, such as specific types of gourds, radishes, beans, and greens. However, other dishes are based on more familiar vegetables, such as beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, corn, eggplant, green beans, various greens, okra, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. In addition, fermented foods such as pickled vegetables are a regular feature in Indian cuisine.

• Grains: Rice and wheat are staples in India and used in flatbreads (eg, dosa, roti, chapati), doughs (eg, samosa, kachori), and side dishes (rice) to accompany meals.

• Legumes: Indian cuisine relies on the regular and flavorful use of legumes, such as black-eyed peas, chickpeas, lentils, and beans. In addition to dal, many legumes are sprouted or used as flour in breads.

• Fruits: Apples, apricots, bananas, figs, grapes, guavas, lychees, loquats, mangoes, oranges, papayas, passion fruit, and sweet limes are common fruits in India.

• Dairy: From milk and buttermilk to yogurt and paneer (fresh cheese), dairy products are regular features of the Indian diet. Patel reports that most Indian households receive fresh milk, which is then used for beverages and cooking. Households make their own ghee (clarified butter) from the milk fat, and leftover milk is made into fresh yogurt every day.

• Vegetable oils: Most oils used in traditional cooking are unrefined vegetable oils, such as peanut or sesame. However, Patel reports an increase in the use of refined oils, such as soybean oil, in modern cooking.

• Herbs and spices: At the heart of Indian food is a long list of culinary herbs and spices that have been used for centuries, many of which are proven to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticancer effects. Indian spices include amchur (made from mangoes), aniseed, asafetida (a pungent, onionlike flavor), bay leaf, black pepper, cardamom, chilies, cinnamon, cloves, coconut, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, garam masala (a spice blend), garlic, ginger, mango powder, mint, mustard, nutmeg, onion seeds, parsley, pomegranate seeds, poppy seeds, saffron, sesame seeds, tamarind, and turmeric.

— Sharon Palmer, RDN, is a contributing editor to Today’s Dietitian and the author of The Plant-Powered Diet and Plant-Powered for Life.

Source: https://diabeticmediterraneandiet.com/2018/10/19/random-notes-on-indian-cuisine/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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jmuo-blog · 6 years

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All About Cheese

Everything you need to know about eating and cooking with curds

We all know what to expect each year at Thanksgiving. There are logistical headaches, including the annual game of fridge-space Jenga and the monumental task of trying to serve a lot of hot food to a lot of people, all at the same time. As for the food itself, there will be stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, the turkey, pie, and the inevitable appearance of that ��signature side” some twice-removed cousin always brings, even though you diplomatically twice-reminded them that they really didn’t need to go to the trouble this year.

One thing that can’t be counted on for Thanksgiving dinner—a vegetarian centerpiece. Most vegetarians are experienced at cobbling together a holiday meal of side dishes, which isn’t awful, but it often means forgoing the best items on the menu (stuffing, a gravy moat for mashed potatoes, the iconic turkey). Dinner can end up feeling like an afterthought.

Attempts at inclusivity in the form of tofurkey are a lot like your uncle’s conversational use of “lit” and “AF”—well intentioned, but painfully out of touch. To be fair, pulling off a vegetarian alternative to a large roast of meat is no simple task.

For one, there aren’t many vegetables that have the scale to be presentation-piece-worthy on their own. And, while whole roasted heads of cauliflower are definitely having a moment, they aren’t exactly holiday comfort food. Forcing a like-for-like vegetable-as-meat parallel isn’t the answer.

Instead, we can embrace the sides-as-main-course angle and just put a bit more thought into it to come up with a cohesive and satisfying dish. By using ingredients that most people already have on hand for Thanksgiving dinner, I was able to come up with a well-considered vegetarian main course that’s not only a complete thought but also a dinner-table stunner. Behold: the stuffed roast pumpkin.

Stuffed pumpkins are one of the few made-for-Pinterest foods that are as tasty as they are adorable. They’re classic cold-weather comfort food, a genre that the French have on lock (cassoulet, anyone?).

In France, this dish is commonly made using a squash varietal called potimarron, which gets its name from a combination of the French terms for “pumpkin” (potiron) and “chestnut” (marron). This squash is known as red kuri here in the States, borrowing the Japanese word for “chestnut” (kuri).

As these names suggest, kuri squash takes on a rich, nutty flavor when roasted. Potimarron farci (stuffed kuri squash) can be filled with any number of ingredients, beginning with a hearty base ingredient like lentils, rice, or grains. My favorite version uses pieces of dried bread as a foundation, saturating them in cream, cheese, and herbs to make a savory bread pudding, in a pumpkin. Traditional recipes load up the hollow gourd with salty pork parts, but to make this vegetarian, I obviously left those out.

My mission was to create a vegetarian stuffed pumpkin that felt even more at home on the Thanksgiving table. I wanted to create a main course that delivered all those classic autumnal flavors, while also providing the visual wow factor of a holiday roast.

I started by using sugar pumpkins instead of red kuri squash, since they’re more widely available in the United States (plus, they deliver a true jack-o’-lantern look), but then added a kabocha squash purée to the filling, which introduces a nutty flavor similar to that of the red kuri squash.

I also replaced the salty pork with sautéed shiitake mushrooms and lacinato kale, sprinkling in toasted pepitas and pecans for a nutty crunch. A generous amount of warm-spiced heavy cream and Gruyère cheese should lay to rest any concerns that going vegetarian has to mean compromising richness.

All of these components get layered into the pumpkins, which I paint with a salty-sweet miso-honey glaze before roasting. Yup, you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. I’m not always one for foods acting as cooking or serving vessels (big fan of the We Want Plates subreddit right here), but this is no chowder in a sourdough-bread bowl; this is a Thanksgiving stuffed pumpkin to make the turkey-eaters jealous.

Bake What Your Menu Gave You

Before we embark on this roasted-pumpkin journey together, I want to make clear that this recipe is not meant to be rigidly prescriptive. Like cassoulet, this dish has humble roots, and, as Kenji pointed out in his treatise on French stewed beans and meats, it’s the kind of recipe that is designed to make do with what is available.

For our purposes, that means filling your pumpkins with whatever you’ve already got for the rest of your Thanksgiving menu. This is a stressful enough meal to execute as it is, so there’s no need to make your life harder just for the sake of a recipe.

Already have bread cubed up and dried out for stuffing? Use that. Don’t have shiitakes, but you did buy a ton of creminis for a stuffed-mushroom hors d’oeuvre? Awesome, those will work just fine. Have more mashed sweet potatoes than you need for that casserole? Sub them in for the kabocha purée in this recipe; nobody will know, or judge.

Oh, and one final thing—if you have only a couple vegetarians coming over to dinner, you should absolutely stuff the extra pumpkins in this recipe with bacon or sausage, or both. Just make sure to mark them in some way, or Thanksgiving dinner could get even more uncomfortable than usual (and that’s saying something).

Before You Begin: Pick Your Pumpkins

One ingredient you will need to get is pumpkins. No, you can’t repurpose the rotting jack-o’-lantern that’s been sitting on your front stoop since October. Sorry. What you’re looking for are small “sugar pumpkins” that roast up creamy-fleshed and sweet (truth in advertising!). As with all winter squash, pick pumpkins that are mostly blemish-free, with no visible bruising, soft spots, or mold.

A common refrain calls for choosing specimens that “feel heavy for their size” when you’re selecting squash. I’m not sure I lift enough squash in my life to know exactly what that means, and certainly don’t condone pumpkin body-shaming, but in this case, you’re looking for four sugar pumpkins, and one kabocha squash, that all weigh around two pounds each. (Of course, you can double or triple or even halve this recipe, if desired.)

How to Make Thanksgiving Vegetarian Stuffed Pumpkins

Step 1: Prepare and Par-Roast the Squashes

Once you have your pumpkins, it’s time to get to work, starting with all of the squash. First, halve the kabocha, and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and stringy pulp.

Next, prepare the sugar pumpkins. It’s just like prepping a bunch of mini jack-o’-lanterns—use a paring knife to take their tops off, then go in with a spoon to perform the same seeds-and-pulp surgery. Make sure to clean the undersides of the tops as well (again, a paring knife gets the job done quickly), and try to avoid the temptation to carve a face.

Now, let’s talk squash seasoning. While we’ll be stuffing the pumpkins with plenty of savory goodies, it’s important to properly season the pumpkins themselves. In early rounds of recipe testing, I took a light approach with salt and pepper on the pumpkins, and it made for an uneven dish, as the muted flavor of the pumpkin clashed with the confident seasoning of the filling.

I hate eating at restaurants where dishes come with instructions telling you, “In order to enjoy this properly, make sure you get a bit of everything in each bite.” Food shouldn’t require a user manual; every component of a dish should be well calibrated for seasoning.

In this case, that means drizzling and rubbing the flesh of the pumpkins and kabocha with olive oil before seasoning them assertively with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The oil provides not only fat and flavor but also a more adhesive surface for the salt and pepper to cling to.

I arrange all the squashes on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and pop them in the oven to roast for about an hour, until the kabocha is tender and the pumpkins have just begun to soften. Once they come out of the oven, I set the baking sheet aside to cool, removing the tops of the pumpkins to allow steam to escape.

Par-roasting the pumpkins before stuffing them not only speeds up the final baking time on the back end of the recipe, but also ensures that the finished stuffed squashes are perfectly cooked inside and out. That’s especially important given that the pumpkins’ flesh requires a longer cooking time than the stuffing ingredients, many of which are already cooked prior to roasting. While the squashes are in the oven, there’s plenty of time to put together the other components for the filling.

Once the kabocha is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and roughly mash it in a bowl with a large spoon. Season it with salt and pepper, then set it aside.

Step 2: Cook the Mushrooms and Kale

While the pumpkins are par-roasting, I turn my attention to sautéing the mushrooms and kale. I start by heating a couple of tablespoons of oil in a 12-inch skillet until shimmering, then add a full pound of thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps. At first, this may look like a ton of mushrooms overcrowding the skillet, but don’t sweat it—let the shiitakes do all the sweating.

They’ll soon cook down, releasing water, and once that’s happened, they’ll begin browning. Make sure to actually let them get some good color. You don’t want to rush things and end up with a sad pile of steamed mushrooms. If your skillet gets too dry and begins to smoke, you can always add a touch more oil and reduce the heat a bit.

Once the shiitakes are golden brown, I push them to the outer edges of the skillet and add the kale. Again, what initially seems like an overcrowded skillet will soon be much more manageable as the kale wilts down. We aren’t looking to fully cook the lacinato here, just wilt it slightly, as we still want it to have a little texture and bite in the end. (Lacinato kale is much sturdier than the curly stuff, and therefore better suited for this recipe.)

I repeat the process of pushing everything to the outer edges of the skillet, then add a few tablespoons of butter to its now-empty center. Once the butter melts and begins to foam, I add minced shallots, garlic, and chopped fresh thyme, then stir constantly for a few seconds, just until I’m hit with the sweet smell of alliums and the woodsy aroma of crackling thyme. I finish the mushrooms with some sherry, plus a touch of sherry vinegar for acidity.

Step 3: Whisk Together the Spiced Cream

As I mentioned in the beginning, this filling is essentially a savory bread pudding, and that means we need some creamy liquid to moisten and bind everything together. While there aren’t any eggs in the recipe, I do use plenty of cream, cut with a little whole milk and seasoned with plenty of warm spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove.

Step 4: Layer the Stuffing

Gather together the rest of the stuffing mise en place: cubed and dried bread, shredded Gruyère, and the toasted pepitas and pecans. It’s time to load those pumpkins up.

First things first—we’ll be layering all of the components inside the pumpkins, twice. Keep that in mind as you begin dividing the ingredients between the pumpkins. I layer everything in the following order: a large spoonful of the mashed kabocha, a small handful of bread pieces, then some of the mushroom-kale mixture, followed by the pepitas and pecans, and then a showering of Gruyère.

To finish off the first layer, I pour half of the cream mixture into the four pumpkins, then use my hands to gently press everything down and evenly saturate the ingredients with the spiced cream.

Repeat this layering process once more, making sure there’s a good amount of Gruyère peeking up over the rims of the pumpkins, so it can get gooey and melty in the oven.

Depending on the size of your pumpkins, you may have some leftover filling ingredients. I’m of the mindset that for a project like this it’s always better to have a little extra than not enough. If you have enough stuff left over, you can always put everything in some small ramekins and bake them, sans pumpkin.

Step 5: Glaze the Pumpkins

Since the goal is for every bite to be well seasoned, that means we have to give the pumpkin skins some attention. If we’re willing to spend the time tending to the delicious, burnished, crispy skin of a Thanksgiving turkey, then pumpkin skins should be afforded the same care and consideration, and here that means a glaze.

I wanted to make sure that glazing the pumpkins wouldn’t make them too sweet, as I’m not a fan of dishes that are billed as “savory” but then pile more sugar onto the natural sweetness of squash. We’re trying to make a main course, not dessert. I decided on a simple mixture of red miso, honey, and a little bit of water—the salty funk of miso pairs really well with root vegetables, while the honey balances out that salinity and provides subtle, floral sweetness that isn’t overbearing.

After whisking this mixture together, I use a pastry brush to paint the glaze on the pumpkins. This step, I want to stress, is totally optional. If you don’t have miso kicking around in your fridge, don’t worry about it. The pumpkins will be delicious, glazed or not.

Step 6: The Final Roast

We’re now in the home stretch. Place your pumpkins back on that parchment-lined baking sheet, and roast them, without their tops, until that top layer of Gruyère is melted and lightly browned and the pumpkins are fully tender. (Use a paring knife to check them; the blade should be able to pierce the pumpkins with little resistance.)

Open the oven, replace the tops on your gourds, and bake them a few more minutes to make sure every bit of pumpkin is heated through. If you’re at all worried, you can always use an instant-read thermometer to double-check that everything is hot (at least 150°F/66°C in the center).

Take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, until the cream settles down a bit. All you have to do now is carefully transfer them to a serving platter and portion them out as you see fit. You can either carve them up with a knife and pop a serving spoon in each one for cheese-pull scooping, or, if you have some famished vegetarians on your hands, just serve them individually. One pumpkin should be more than enough for two people, but it’s Thanksgiving. Unbuckle that belt, and do you.

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