Dad’s Pumpkin Soup

Description:

The delight this soup used to cause my brother and me seemed immeasurable. Dad would tie on his stripy pinny, which always struck me as a faintly ridiculous look for a man of six feet five, and then close the kitchen door. Muffled crash, bang, tinkles would be heard through the house as the special soup was created by the master. Finally, it was time to eat it and in he would carry the whole pumpkin to the excited table. Holding the stalk, the top would come off and the billow of steam would shoot up. God it was good, the theatre and the eating. More, more, more!

Ingredients:

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
1-2 level teaspoons large-flaked sea salt to taste
1 x 4kg pumpkin
2 medium onions
peeled black pepper
125g butter 1.7 litres chicken stock (see page 246)
1 cinnamon stick 3 tablespoons sherry

Method:

Serves 8-10

Carefully cut a lid off the pumpkin and keep it. Remove the seeds and fibres from the middle (keep the seeds for roasting and salting). Carefully hollow out all the flesh with a knife and a spoon. It is imperative that you do not cut right up to the inside of the skin or pierce it, as it will no longer be usable as a tureen; scrape and cut into the pumpkin up to no more than 2cm to the inside. When all of the flesh has been removed, roughly chop it and put it to one side.

Chop up the onions nice and finely. Melt the butter in a large pan and throw in the onions, cooking them slowly until they are soft, about 15 minutes.

Add the pumpkin flesh and all the remaining ingredients except for the stock and sherry. Put the heat to medium and the lid on the pot, occasionally stirring the contents to avoid it catching, until the pumpkin is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

Add the stock and then either blitz the mixture with a blending stick or in a food processor. Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook for a further half an hour.

45 minutes before eating, preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/Gas 3.

Pour the soup into the pumpkin shell and stir in the sherry. Put on the lid and bring the soup up to heat in the preheated oven: this will take about 45 minutes. Lift the whole pumpkin on to a suitable tray and carry it to the table, with a ladle. You don’t have to bolt the soup before midnight; it will not be drawn away by a team of harnessed white mice.



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