Melanie's recipe for pumpkin chili
Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 4:00AM ;)
In the week following the Halloween chili feed, I have received 6,795,351.82 angry emails and twice that many phone calls from irate readers, all demanding to know why I had not posted Melanie's pumpkin chili recipe. At first, it was just an annoyance, but lately these missives have begun to get threatening. Readers say if I don't post the recipe right away, they will abandon this blog and return no more.
It's not fair to me, because I am horribly sick and am coughing like crazy, wondering if I will die before the night ends, but if I lost that many readers, I would only have three left. I need to keep at least four readers, just to sustain my will to keep on blogging. So, as difficult as this is for me, I now post Melanie's pumpkin chili recipe:
1 Sugar pumpkin, about 2 lbs.
1 T. vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
2 T. chili powder
1 T. curry powder
2 t. cumin
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
6 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 1/2 cooked bulgar
1 can kidney or pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
1/2 c. toasted (green) pumpkin seeds
1/2 c. chopped cilantro leaves and stems
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the pumpkin in half with a large cleaver, ulu, or pocket knife, depending on what is convenient.
Scoop out the seeds, remove the stringy innards and feed them to the dog (I am not certain how Melanie accomplished this step, since she has two cats and no dog). Rinse the seeds in a colander to remove fleshy bits. Lay the seeds out on a paper towel to dry. Place the pumpkin open side down and bake until the flesh is soft, about 50 minutes to one hour. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and put it aside to cool. Sprinkle rinsed and dried pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet, sprinkle with some salt, and toast in the oven until they are nicely browned and crisp, about ten minutes. Set seeds aside.
In a large saucepan or stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic, as well as the spices. Stir often for about five minutes, or until the onions turn soft. Add the tomatoes and bulgar (just what is bulgar, anyway? I meant to ask, but Melanie's out doing some work in Dillingham and can't be bothered with such questions) and about 2 cups of water. Bring to a simmer.
Meanwhile, spoon the flesh from the pumpkin and add it to the simmering chili along with the beans. Cook the the chili for about 20 minutes, adding more water if necessary to attain desired chili consistency. Right before serving, add the toasted pumpkin seeds and the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.
Melanie forgot to include this part, so I now take it upon myself to do so. Although this is a vegetarian dish, one that my Hindu relatives in India could eat with clear conscience, if you would like to add a special Alaskan touch to it, one that your visitors from the Far North will greatly appreciate, then serve it with a side of seal oil, to be applied at the discretion of your guests.
Corn bread is also recommended. You can dip this in the seal oil, too.
As should be obvious to everyone, the picture is of Melanie and Charlie, who took my picture as I took theirs'. This kind of thing seems to happen all the time, anymore. In this case, it all happened before I got sick, before Melanie went to Dillingham.
As I am posting this two days ahead of its actual scheduled appearance on the net, maybe Melanie will be back by the time you read this. Maybe I will be feeling better. Maybe we will all be eating pumpkin chili.
Reader Comments (7)
That sounds absolutely delicious.
Fabulous recipe! Thanks for posting and for the excellent directions. BTW, bulger is cracked
wheat, one of nature's finest ingredients. I am currently hiding out because my fans, so far less malevalent sounding than yours--are demanding I reconstruct my last bulger recipe and I have to try it out again before I turn it over to them. Then I have to delete the traveling tabouli part and the freezing part and the reimaging from salad to casserole part--bulger is very versatile--and the part where it had 3 cups of parsley which disappeared in it and a whole bottle of pear gorgonzola salad dressing, cumin, curry, lemon, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, plum tomatoes, a small amt of shrimp and chicken, minced green chili/ enchilada sauce....They may never get it from me. Children gobbled it up, which really impressed them, so I better keep reconstructing. In the meantime, I have my usual 7 beans out for chili and a pretty orange pumpkin sitting here just being decorative, so I will gladly try this fantastic sounding recipe.
KJ
God love ya! And many thanks to Melanie, as well!
Feel better -- still sending healing thoughts your way.
Having legions of fans can be a wearisome thing. My sympathies are with you, but I'm glad that you simply realized that the only reasonable solution here was to publish the pumpkin chili recipe, which actually sounds pretty healthy. Like your breakfast of oatmeal, raisins and walnuts. Hm. Patti must have made an impression on you.
Get well soon Bill! and thanks for the pumpkin chili recipe.. am going to give it a try.
Get well!
ManxMamma - Yes, it is!
KJ - I hope it turned out good. Thanks for educating me about Bulgar.
Thank you, Cynthia - I'm doing better but still healing, so its much needed.
Debby - Actually, I have oatmeal on the average of about 4 times a week. Today I had an omelette.
Kavitha - Let me know how it turns out. Are pumpkins very easy to find over there?
Michelle - Thanks! I intend to and I'm doing so.