I love a good pumpkin dish for Halloween, and this one hits all the right notes.  It’s easy to make, reheats well after a busy night trick-or-treating and is packed full of flavor.  It is also a Halloween appropriate blend of orange and black!  And chili is always a crowd pleaser, and extra fun for a gathering if you provide fun toppings to customize each bowl like sour cream, lime, diced avocado, or tortilla chips.  If you are industrious, save the seeds from the pumpkin and toast them with a little salt for a crunchy topper.  You could even serve this chili over rice.  And of course, a wedge of Pumpkin Cornbread would be the perfect accompainment.

Look for small “pie” pumpkins, sometimes labeled sugar pumpkins.  Sorry, but the flesh from your jack-o-lantern won’t work.  Those pumpkins are decorative and have tough flesh with little flavor.  If your market sells pre-cut pumpkin, feel free to use it, and yes, you could substitute pre-cut butternut squash, though that takes out some of the Halloween authenticity. The cinnamon in this chili adds real depth and brings out the flavor of the pumpkin.  It does not make it sweet or taste like cookies, I promise.

A word about chorizo.  For this dish you’ll use the more common Mexican chorizo, which is a soft uncooked sausage, not hard salami-like Spanish chorizo.  I have found that the flavors of readily available chorizo vary enormously.  I recommend a brand made in Mexico, which I find easily at my regular grocery store, or if you can, a freshly made variet from a Hispanic grocer.  Choose mild over spicy if there is an option – you can always add spice, but you can’t take it away. The brand I commonly find is packed with flavor and very spicy, so it requires little else to make this chili pack a punch.  That is why I recommend cooking small bit of the chorizo first and tasting it.  If you find it bland, add chili powder to taste, and even a little hot sauce if you feel the need.

Spicy Chorizo, Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili

2 pounds Mexican chorizo (please read above)

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

4 cups (32-ounce box) chicken broth

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Chili powder (optional)

3 – 4 pound pie pumpkin

2 (14-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Salt and pepper to taste

Topping Ideas:

Sour cream

Lime wedges

Diced avocado

Chopped cilantro

Crumbled cotija or queso fresco cheese

Tortilla chips

Oyster crackers

Toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Pinch off a small piece of the chorizo and sauté it in a small skillet until cooked through.  Taste the chorizo to determine its flavor and spice level.

Break the chorizo up into a 5-quart Dutch oven and sauté over medium heat, breaking up the meat into small pieces until the bright orange juices are running.  Add the chopped onion and continue cooking, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan until the onions are soft. Pour in the chicken broth, bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Stir in the cinnamon.  Add chili powder to taste if you feel the chorizo doesn’t have enough flavor and spice.

While the chorizo is simmering, prepare the pumpkin.  Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and fibrous innards.  Cut the halves into quarters and cut away the orange rind and any green-tinged flesh.  Use a very sturdy and sharp knife and go slowly and carefully.  Cut the pumpkin flesh into bite size chunks.  Remember you’ll be eating this with a spoon, so size the pieces accordingly.  Add the pumpkin to the simmering chorizo. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the drained black beans.  Continue to simmer the chili until the pumpkin is tender and the chili has thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm with sour cream and fresh limes to squeeze over the chili, and a selection of toppings.  The chili can be made up to 24 hours ahead and gently reheated.

Serves 6 – 8

I love cooking with pumpkin, so Halloween and the dawn of autumn present all sorts of opportunities in the kitchen.  I have always been obsessed with sweet pumpkin dishes, but I have been expanding my repertoire to savory ideas as well.

Working with fresh pumpkin is not difficult, you just need to be careful and use a good, sturdy knife.  The texture of freshly grated pumpkin is a world away from the standard canned puree.  If you have a half or a wedge of pumpkin leftover, brush it with olive oil and roast it after you’ve made the cornbread.  Scoop out the soft puree and use it to make soup or jazz up mashed potatoes.  You can even freeze it for later.  I love the garlic notes in this, but if it is not your thing, leave it out.  And a generous grinding of black pepper adds real pep.  This cornbread is delicious with a bowl of soup or chili, toasted and spread with butter.

Pumpkin Cornbread

2 -3 pound pie pumpkin, to make 11 ounces grated flesh

5 Tablespoons butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cups yellow cornmeal

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup milk

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 clove garlic, pressed

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Using a big, sturdy, sharp knife, cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the seeds and fibrous center. Cut one pumpkin half into wedges and carefully cut away the skin.  Cut the flesh into chunks and grate it in the food processor or using a large box grater.  If you use a food processor and the grated strands are very long, run a knife through them to cutthe strands down to size. Weigh out the flesh, and cut and grate more pieces to reach 11 ounces.

Place one Tablespoon butter in a 9-inch round baking dish and place it in the oven.

In a large bowl, toss the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg together with a fork.  Add the grated pumpkin and tossto coat. Make a well in the center and add the milk, butter and eggs.  Stir with fork to mix well.  Put the garlic clove through a garlic press, then stir the batter to make sure it is evenly distributed.

Remove the baking dish from the oven and use a pastry brush to spread the melted butter up and around the sides of the pan.  Quickly scrape the batter into the dish and return to the oven.  Cook for 20 – 25 minutes until puffed, firm and golden and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm from baking or toasted.

Serves 6 – 8

‘Tis the season for all things pumpkin – and it is my favorite time of year.  I love pumpkin.  Sweet, savory, anyway it comes.  I go a little overboard with pumpkin – I buy all the seasonal pumpkin flavored items on the store shelves, and cook with pumpkin like crazy.  Check out these cookies, enchiladas, biscuits and tart.  You’ll see what I mean.

So here is the latest contribution to my long and ever growing list of pumpkin recipes.  Old fashioned, moist, cake-y pumpkin squares with a new-fangled swirl of decadent caramel dulce de leche.  And this is currently my favorite pumpkin incarnation.  I made my test batches, then made some more.  I didn’t share that batch.  I actually think these get better – more moist and gooey – after a couple of days.  If they last that long.

Pumpkin Dulce de Leche Bars

You’ll find canned dulce de leche at the grocery in the Latin foods section, or with the condensed milk.  If you can’t figure out what to do with the leftovers, I just don’t know what to do with you.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup canned pumpkin puree

¾ cup canned dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8 by 8 inch baking pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pie spice in a small bowl.  Cream the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, then beat in the egg and vanilla.  Reduce the speed of the mixer and gradually add the dry ingredients until just combined.  Beat in the pumpkin puree.

Measure the dulce de leche into a microwave safe measuring cup and microwave for 30 – 45 seconds, stirring halfway through, just to loosen it up.  Drizzle the dulce de leche over the top of the pumpkin batter.  Using a skewer or thin-bladed knife, swirl the dulce de leche through the batter.

Bake the bars for 25 – 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Tightly covered, the bars will keep for several days.

Makes about 16 bars

My First Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving feast that ever I cooked was during graduate school in England.  An American friend and I decided to host a holiday meal at his digs, which had a larger kitchen, for a motley crew of Americans, Canadians, South Africans and an Ecuadorian thrown in for good measure.  This plan of course meant that I cooked and he, well, he ate.  I spent the weeks before we even decided we could do this scoping out the local markets to see if the necessary ingredients would be available.  I even went into London to some of the food halls to fill out the list.  Turkey, check.  Sweet potatoes, check.  Cranberries, check.  I even think I found Stovetop stuffing, though I would not have used it. I love grocery shopping, but I have never had such an extended mission.  I wrote my mom for advice, and she sent me a very funny set of instructions that some how got lost in the move back to the States.  The gist of her instruction manual was basically “why would you cook a Thanksgiving meal if you didn’t have to?”

So the big day arrived, and I spent all day in the kitchen with limited pots and utensils, and lots of disposable pans. The first foil pan was too small for the turkey, the second pan fit the turkey, but not the oven. So back to the smaller pan, wedged inside a teeny-tiny oven just barely big enough to fit the bird.  It was a beautifully browned turkey, probably due to it’s proximity to the oven walls and heating element. Getting that turkey out of the oven was a maneuver, too.  I had no pot holders, only thin dish towels that had been used by hundreds of students before me.  I had to sort of wiggle the pan to shift it out on to the floor before I could lift it on to the counter.   There were only two burners that worked on the stove, but I managed to cook sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and green beans and corn. I made gravy and kept it warm by putting the gravy bowl in a larger bowl filled with hot water from the electric kettle. I even made homemade cornbread a few days before for dressing.  The first batch left in the kitchen disappeared, so I made a second pan.  Considering my limited resources and skills at the time, I produced a pretty darn good meal. 

As we sat down on the floor of someone’s room to enjoy our repast, the Americans among us, representing Tennessee, Kansas, Alabama and New York, told the age old story of Thanksgiving.  The pilgrims, the Indians, the prayers of Thanksgiving.  We made everyone go around the room and say what they were thankful for.  We did everything but act out the Thanksgiving story in our own little pageant.  After all this production – the weeks of preparation and discussion, the cooking, the meal, the party, the guests, the story telling, one friend from South Africa looked up over his empty plate and said “So, is this like a big holiday or something in the States?” Groans released from the Americans.  Where had we gone wrong?

I don’t remember what I served for dessert; it is possible I bought something from one of the bakeries in town.  But now, I have developed a number of dessert classics for Turkey Day, and this tart almost always appears.

Pumpkin Cream Tart

Crust:

2 cups gingersnaps (about 30 cookies)

½ cup cashews

1 Tablespoon sugar

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 cup pumpkin puree (from a 15-ounce can), not pie filling

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¾ cup heavy cream

Chopped crystallized ginger, for garnish

For the Crust:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grind the gingersnaps, cashews and sugar in a food processor to produce fine crumbs.  Drizzle in the melted butter and mix to combine and the crumbs begin to come together.

Press the crumb mixture on the bottom and up the sides of a inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

For the Filling:  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and the pumpkin.  Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Beat in the spices and the vanilla.  Add the cream and mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust and smooth the top.  Cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least three hours or over night.

When ready to serve, garnish the tart with a sprinkling of crystallized ginger pieces, remove the tart ring and slice.

Serves 6 – 8

Try Southern Pecan Pie as another great additon to the Thanksgiving table.

Perhaps the most over-looked, undervalued aspect of the Thanksgiving meal is the bread basket.  Now, I love a good dinner roll and I think that’s what ends up on the table most of the time. If you are lucky, you have a family member who specializes in good, old-fashioned Parker house or cloverleaf or fantan rolls and they provide them every year.  And make no mistake, there are in fact some mighty good frozen options out in the world.  But this year, why not give that lonely bread basket some love with some homemade biscuits, flavored just right for the holiday. 

Pumpkin Sage Biscuits

You can use any size biscuit cutter you prefer.  For a big meal like Thanksgiving, a small, maybe 1 ½ inch cutter might be right.  I have also used a pumpkin shape cutter for these.

2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)

1 Tablespoon light brown sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

10 -12 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

6 Tablespoons butter, cold and cut into small cubes

1/3 cup buttermilk, cold and well-shaken

¾ cups pumpkin puree (from a 15 ounce can)

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Line a 9 inch round pan with parchment paper or spray it with cooking spray.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda to combine.  Lightly stir in the chopped sage.  Drop the cubes of cold butter into the flour and with the paddle attachment, blend on low speed until the mixture looks like coarse meal, with a few pieces of butter still visible. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and pumpkin puree.  Add to the flour mixture and blend until the dough just comes together.  If the dough is too moist, add a bit more flour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and pat into a circle about ½ inch thick.  Using a floured biscuit cutter, stamp out biscuits and transfer to the prepared pan, placing the biscuits close together and close to the sides of the pan.  Gently reform the dough and pat out again, and then cut out more biscuits.

Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes; remove from the oven and brush with the melted butter.  Return to the oven for another 2 minutes and bake until risen and lightly golden.

These will keep in an airtight container for 2 days, or you can make the dough, pat it out, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate overnight.  Cut and bake the next day.

Makes 1 dozen 2-inch biscuits

I don’t do Halloween.  Of course, as a kid it was my favorite time of year, what with the candy and all.  I used to spend weeks thinking about my costume, and they were almost always homemade.  I was Darth Vadar one year in a navy blue blanket and German helmet a neighbor kid’s grandfather brought back from World War II.  One year I had chicken pox and my brother shared his candy with me.  It was probably another fifteen years before he did anything that sweet again.

But as an adult, I have given up on Halloween.  I am not good at the clever costumes.  Two failed attempts put me off the idea for good.  My neighborhood is a popular trick-or-treating area, but I lock the doors, turn off all the lights and retreat upstairs where I can’t be seen.  It is all feeding what I fear may be my growing reputation as the Crazy Old Miss Lady who lives down the street.

But I have tried to establish one Halloween tradition of my own, these super-seasonal enchiladas.  They a perfect warming meal after a night of trick-or-treating or a great dish for a grown-ups only party.  I usually make the big family sized batch, but divide them between smaller dishes to deliver to family and friends.  You can cook and shred the chicken ahead of time and store in a ziptop bag in the fridge, or the enchiladas will keep covered in the fridge for a whole day, so they are just ready to pop in the oven when the little monsters return from their mischief.  This recipe would also be a great way to use leftover cooked Thanksgiving turkey, and a real departure from plain old leftovers.

Chicken Enchiladas in Pumpkin Sauce

Serve a little sour cream on the side.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 cups chicken broth

1 large bunch cilantro

juice of 2 limes

8 green onions, white and some dark green parts, sliced

2  (15 – ounce) cans pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

6 garlic cloves

1/2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can

1 jalapeno chile, ribs and seeds removed

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 ½ cups water

salt and pepper to taste

12 – 16 corn tortillas

3 cups white cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, shredded

Place the chicken breasts in a large saucepan with the broth, juice from one lime and a handful of cilantro, leaves and stems.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat then poach the breasts until thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes. The juices should run clear when a breast is pierced with a knife.  Remove from broth and leave to cool; discard the broth.  Shred the chicken using fingers or a fork and set aside.

Working in two batches, place pumpkin puree, juice of one lime, green onions, garlic cloves, chipotles and adobo sauce, jalapeno, chili powder, cumin, water, salt and pepper and half the remaining cilantro leaves in a blender.  Puree until smooth and combined.  Pour into a bowl.  Repeat with the second batch, pour into the bowl and stir to combine.  The sauce will taste raw at this point but don’t worry, it will be great when cooked.

Finely chop the remaining cilantro leaves. Put aside 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large 13 by 9 inch ovenproof casserole. Pour in about 1 cup of pumpkin sauce and spread to cover the bottom of the casserole.

Wrap the tortillas in a damp tea towel or a few damp paper towels.  Microwave for 30 seconds to soften the tortillas and make them pliable.  Keep the tortillas covered with the damp cloth while assembling the enchiladas.  You may want to zap them again during the process to keep them soft.

Lay a tortilla on a work surface.  Pile a small handful of chicken and a small handful of cheese on top and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.  Roll the tortilla up and place seam side down in the casserole on top of the sauce.  Repeat with remaining ingredients.  Stuff the tortilla rolls closely together in the casserole.

Pour the remaining sauce over and around the enchiladas to cover.  Sprinkle the top with the reserved cheese. There may be a little more sauce than needed to cover the enchiladas. 

Bake the enchiladas until cooked through and bubbling, about 45 minutes. Cover with foil halfway through baking time if the cheese begins to brown.

The casserole can be covered and refrigerated several hours before cooking.

Serves 8 – 10

My favorite time of year is finally here – pumpkin time!  I love pumpkin - in cake, soup, risotto, muffins, bread and, of course, cookies. I am sure over the next few months my pumpkin obsession will manifest itself with a host of recipes, so be prepared! We’ve just had our first cool days here and I couldn’t resist whipping up an early batch of these soft, hearty and delicious pumpkin cookies.  I love ginger and cranberries, but feel free to substitute any combination of dried berries or nuts like cherries, raisins or walnuts.

Hearty Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed

1 cup pure pumpkin puree (from a 12 ounce can), not pumpkin pie filling

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two cookie sheets.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  Set aside.  Cream the butter and both sugars together in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the egg, pumpkin and vanilla extract and mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Add the flour mixture and mix well to combine.  Stir in the cranberries and ginger pieces, distributing them evenly through the dough.

Drop 2 Tablespoons of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing about two inches apart.  Bake until the cookies are set and lightly browned, 14 – 16 minutes.  Leave to cool on the pans for 4- 6 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or can be frozen for up to two months.

Makes 2 ½ dozen