Pumpkin soup

Ștefan Baciu, 06.11.2016, 14:15

The American way
to celebrate Halloween seems to be gaining ground in Romania. Pumpkin is often
centre stage on TV, when we get a piece of news about a farmer growing gigantic
pumpkins, taking us back to the fairy tale image of the pumpkin turning into a
gilded carriage in Cinderella’s tale. However, for us, the pumpkin, though not
necessarily as huge as the one in our tale, will turn into cream of pumpkin.

But before we give away all the ingredients and the
cooking procedures, we would like to mention the record size 125 kilogram
pumpkin reported in the village of Posta Calnau in Buzau, displayed at the 2nd
edition of Pumpkin Days, held late in September in the aforementioned locality.
On that occasion, participants had a taste of pumpkin pie, pumpkin preserves,
and even cabbage leaves stuffed with pumpkin.

We also have the version of the pumpkin filled with
meat stuffed cabbage. In the latter case, the pumpkin is used as a pot to cook
the rolls. To prepare that, you need to cut out a lid out of the top of the
pumpkin, removing the seeds. Spread cabbage leaves on the inside, and stack the
cabbage rolls over that, after boiling them separately. As soon as you’ve
filled the pumpkin to the top, cover with cabbage leaves. Put the pumpkin on a
tray and allow it to oven-bake on low heat for an hour.

Now for the pumpkin soup. We need a 2-kilo pumpkin,
half a kilo of potatoes, three carrots, a celery root, one or two onions, and
two or three garlic cloves. Preparation is very simple. Peel the vegetables,
cut them into slices or cubes, then bring them to the boil in a pot, with
enough water to cover them. Remove the boiled vegetables with a slotted or
skimming spoon, then mash them. Put the resulting cream back in the water used
to boil the vegetables. Add a bit of butter and salt to taste. You can also add
a tablespoon of sour cream when serving. The cream of pumpkin goes very well
with croutons. Enjoy!