happy halloween

I’m glad I live in an apartment which doesn’t lend itself to conducive treat-or-tricking. it’s not so much the repeated opening of the door to the neighbourhood kids, in a range of pvc getups and an abundance of make-up and fake blood designed to make them pseudo- vampires/witches/Britney-spear look-alikes (in increasing order of scariness). it’s the fact I know I will probably scoff all the treats before the children even arrive.

my one concession to Halloween this year has been, shock horror, my first jack-o-lantern. I even got myself a 99p pumpkin carving set. I could have gone for the deluxe £1.50 set which came with pumpkin carving templates. that would have been 51p better spent considering the rather wonky toothy grinned pumpkin I ended up with.

my real motivation however, was the inside of the pumpkin. having scooped out a large cup worth of pumpkin flesh, there was only one thing to do – make pumpkin risotto.

pumpkin risotto (inspired in part by a g ramsay recipe)

cup of pumpkin flesh
olive oil
cup of Arborio rice
vegetable stock
minced garlic
bay leaf
proscuitto

cut the pumpkin flesh into chunks, drizzle a little olive oil, and roast in a single layer at 200C till tender. cool. whiz into a puree.
heat the olive oil and sauté the minced garlic. add rice and stir till grains are all coated in the oil. add a ladle of vegetable stock – the pan should be sizzling hot and the addition of the vegetable stock will cause the rice to spit and jump about in the pan in a rather angry manner. stir. stir and stir till stock is almost all absorbed. keep adding ladles of vegetable stock, continuously stirring till each ladle of stock is absorbed. repeat till the rice is tender but still slightly al dente. stir in the pumpkin puree. fry the bay leaf in a little butter till crisp. I grilled a slice of proscuitto for a couple of minutes till crisp and crumbled it over the risotto together with the bay leaf. definitely a treat.