See them all a-standing in a row.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as your 'ead...
If you're English, you will now be singing in a fake Cockney accent.
If you're "rest of the world", you will be utterly confused!
Never mind, as I haven't got a "loverly bunch" of coconuts. Bernard (Corinne next-door's dad) appeared a couple of weeks ago brandishing a car boot full of pumpkins, at least one of which was not only bigger than my head, but was nearly as big as the dog!
Athos, suspecting that the pumpkin was about to get more attention than him, was deeply unimpressed!
He became rather more interested when
a) I attacked the attention-grabbing vegetable with a large blade, and
b) he realized it might be edible!
Having dismembered (or pumpkin-equivalent) the massive object, it was time to transform it into things we could eat...
First up was a pumpkin curry (from a downloaded recipe). This turned out only to be "medium" on the success scale, so we ate the first half of the batch with rice. I liquidized the second half of the batch into a soup, which was much nicer!
Rather more successful was a loaf of pumpkin bread, from a Linda Collister recipe.
Until it emerged from the oven, a glossily brown triumphant "boule" of bread, I was completely unconvinced about this one. I followed the recipe to the letter but the dough flatly refused to rise (flatly refused - chortle!) during the hour and a half that I left it, draped in a damp tea towel, in the warmest place in the kitchen. I thought it was going to fall victim to our lack of an airing cupboard in which to persuade the yeast to do whatever yeast does. Fully expecting one of those things you slide along the ice in a game of curling, I nonetheless put the flat lump of dough into the oven. Half an hour later - magic!
Breaddio Pumpkinio Fabuloso (as Harry Potter would say).
After the trauma of working with recipes written by cooks other than Saint Nigella, I returned to the Goddess for Spiced Pumpkin Chutney. Couldn't have been easier. Chop stuff up, put it in a big pan with some spices and vinegar, cook it, put it in jars, feel utterly brilliant for the rest of the day! I now have seven jars of it quietly maturing in the pantry. This forms part of my "Festive Preparations" Collection (how pretentious is that?) and will feature in a future post, so stay tuned!
