open sesame, its all yours

How to savour this pumpkin dish to the max.

1. remove the pumpkin cap, smell the aroma that escapes the interior of the stuffed pumpkin
2. lick the base of the cap so you get a taste of the stuffed stew, eat the cap
3. slide your spoon into the stuffed filling, scrapping the sides of the pumpkin and stirring it into the stuffed stew
4. scoop out the filling,
5. spoon in mouth, eat and partake in a succulent experience
6. finish off the meal by tearing and eating the stew soaked pumpkin skin. hands are welcome
   

For the stuffing, i used chayotes, onions and seitan with sage, rosemary and thyme which I cooked over the stove just a little since they get cooked again in the oven. I wonder If I could skip this step in future.

Next, I prepared the pumpkin by carving out the top into a cap and then scrapping out the seeds with a spoon.

Following that, I spooned the filling into the hollowed pumpkin and added some of the liquid used to cook the seitan.

Finally, I replaced the cap and prop the whole thing in the oven at 200degreeC for about 30mins and then 170degreeC for about 15mins. ( this works for about a 800-900g pumpkin). I tested by using finger to press on the pumpkin to see if its soft. Once it was soft, then I lowered the temperature.

A truly heartwarming satisfying dish.

Seitan, I believe I like you/ beans, you don't need a soak

I never thought I could go vegetarian for an entire day. I love my animal products way too much. Then I learnt about something called seitan. Then i figured out how simple it was to make your own seitan. Then I realised how cheap it would cost. Then I experimented going vegetarian for a day.Everything went well.

This is not to say I will be converting to a vegetarian lifestyle. I doubt I would ever give up seafood, but I could occasionally throw in a few vegetarian days a month to help save me some moolah.

AND I MANAGED to cook dried beans without soaking! Dried beans are so much cheaper than canned, but I was often deterred by the need to soak the beans in advance. I surfed the web to see if anyone had sucess cooking beans without soaking and the paupered chef did. So it was not impossible, I thought. I followed the paupered chef method to a tee.The 75 minutes wait was filled with anxiety and trepidation. are the beans really going to get cooked? i really really hope this works out! I really really wanna try some seitan chilli, and I don'y want to compromise the recipe!
...75 minutes later, I remove the pot of beans from the oven, uncover the pot, took a fork and pierced through a single kidney bean. It was cooked. hooray!

With these two culinary discoveries, I concocted a pot of chili-like deliciousness.

The basic seitan recipe is equal voume of vital wheat gluten and liquid plus your seasining if choice. Over here i used: 60g vital wheat gluten + 1/2 cup water( approx, didn't really measure). I seasoned with vegemite, nutritional yeast( about 8g), sage, rosemary, salt. Combine everything . You could then choose to bake, steam or boil it as a whole piece of seitan or tear them up into strips. I boiled the entire piece in some water and a bay leaf. most recipe I saw boil the seitan for l=about 30 minutes but I did less as they were to be stewed again in my chili.

for the beans: I used 90g dried beans, brought to a boil on the stove-top before transferring to the oven for 75 inutes at 125degreeC.

and for the final product, I first boiled some sweet potatoes(abot 170g) in the leftover water from the seitan. Once they are quite soft, i poured away some of the water, added the kidney beans. I then chopped (ok, tore) the seitan I made and toss in as well. Add seasoning (chili powder, oregano). simmer simmer simmer away. EAT.