Festive stuffed pumpkin with chicken (or turkey)

A delicious recipe! Very festive and a colourful addition on your Christmas or New Year table as a first dish. It needs its time but it is worth the trouble. Choose a good looking pumkin, well ripened and preferably a round one without any long "neck". Try it out to see if it is flat enough on the bottom so to be able to stand easily while cooking and for later on the table. Depending on how well ripened it is and the thickness of the flesh you might need to reduce or raise the time of cooking accordingly. You can always try the well known trick with a wooden skewer to be sure, it has to be soft inside

 

Recipe of Evi Voutsina,

"Gastronomos" magazine of "KATHIMERINI" newspaper (2008)

Ingredients (for 6 people):
1 large round pumpkin
the meat of a whole boiled chicken, cut in small pieces (or leftover roast turkey)
salt
pepper
1 tbsp of fennel seeds, freshly ground
250gr. of white small mushrooms, cut in clices
200gr. of spicy Greek Graviera cheese (or similar), cut in cubes
1 large quince, peeled and grated
20 roasted chestnuts, peeled and cut in half
1 tea-cup of pine nuts, roasted in a pan without any fat
1 tea-cup of flat-leaf parsley (only the leaves), finely chopped
1/2 tea-cup of blond raisins
2/3 tea-cup of white risotto rice
2 tea-cups of boiled water
1 unwaxed orange, the zest
1/2 tea-cup of olive oil

Method:
In a large saucepan warm the oil in medium heat and sauté the mushrooms until they get lightly coloured. Add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 minute until it gets transparent. Season with salt and pepper and add the boiled water. Turn the heat to low and simmer the rice until the liquids are absorbed.

Take off the heat and add in the saucepan the chicken, the cheese, the quince, the chestnuts, the pine nuts, the parsley, the raisins and the orange zest. Stir gently and taste to see if you need to add some more salt and pepper.

Wash thoroughly and dry the pumpkin. Cut a large piece off the top so to have a rather spacious opening. Discard the seeds and the threads from inside (as we do with a melon). Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle generously with the ground fennel seeds.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

With a big spoon add a layer of the chicken filling into the pumpkin. Sprinkle with some fennel, another layer of the filling and again some fennel. Continue in the same way until all the filling is used and the pumpkin is filled. *** Don't press the ingredients inside so to give some space to the filling to cook properly with the pumpkin's liquids.

Lay an oven dish with baking paper and carefully place the pumpkin in the centre. Brush the outside all around with some oil and cover completely with baking aluminium foil.

Put in the oven and initially cook for 1 hour. Then turn the temperature down to 180°C and continue cooking for another 1½ hour. *** During the cooking prick the pumpkin with a wooden skewer to check whether the flesh is softened - if it is take out of the oven otherwise continue baking.

Carefully transfer the pumpkin on a large platter and serve while it is still hot using a shallow serving spoon and getting some of the filling along with some of the pumpkin flesh and put on the plates. *** Do this carefully so not to ruin the outside skin.