[upbeat music] - [Sheri] Hey pumpkin.

Today, we are delving into one of my favorite ingredients.

[upbeat music] We are cooking up pumpkin perfection with a stunner of an entree salad with warm pumpkin wedges and honey vinegarette.

[upbeat music] Also, a positively pumpkin thrill.

We roast a whole pumpkin stuffed with savory bread pudding that is simple, satisfying, and showstopping.

Join us in the kitchen with a whopper of a candy roaster and my friend, chef and master baker Ashley Capps to make her dreamy pumpkin creme caramel.

- [Ashley] What do you think?

- It's perfect.

There's nothing like the texture of that.

It's a work of art you don't want to miss.

I'm Sheri Castle.

I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories.

And my favorite stories are the ones behind our best-loved home recipes.

Is it time to shuck 'em?

- [Man] It's time to shuck em.

Cheers!

- Oh, that's awesome!

I will go out and explore from the ground-up the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredient.

[bright music] [quirky music] Pumpkin pie might be the only recipe you think of when using this delicious vegetable, but pumpkin is key to so many sweet and savory recipes.

Pumpkins come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from just a few ounces to prize-winning thousand pounders.

You'll find most pumpkin seasonally at grocery stores, at farmer's markets, and down on the farm.

There's a perfect pumpkin for almost any recipe.

The key is finding the perfect pumpkin for what you want to make.

Today, we are roasting pumpkins in the kitchen and I am perfectly giddy to share this beauty of an entree salad that is sure to be the surprise star of your next dinner party.

[quirky music] Now, there are all kinds of edible pumpkins out there.

Some of them are in enormous shapes, are little bitty ones and colors and stripes, and so forth.

But if you want a beginner pumpkin, go with a pie pumpkin.

It may look like a Jack o'lantern, but you don't want to be eating your Jack o'lantern.

These will be labeled as pie pumpkins in the produce aisle.

And you know what?

They're no more difficult to handle than a cantaloupe.

They're easy.

So all I did was cut one of the small pumpkins into wedges and peeled it with a vegetable peeler.

And now I'm gonna put a very simple light spice rub on them and pop them in the oven.

What goes in the rub is a little bit of sugar.

We have a little bit of pumpkin pie spice, or you can use cinnamon.

Then a little bit of wonderful smokiness from smoked paprika.

And with most vegetable recipes, we've got some salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

Just mix that up with your fingers.

And then we want to lightly moisten our pumpkin wedges with a little bit of oil.

Then I'm gonna, working with about slice at a time, I'm gonna very lightly coat each of my pieces in some of my spice mixture and put them on a baking sheet that has been lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper, just to make it easy to clean up later.

And that's it.

These go in a 375-degree oven just until they're tender, depending on the size of the pieces.

Now why 375?

I have found that is the perfect roasting temperature for pieces of pumpkin.

It's tempting to jack up the heat and cook them a little bit faster, but you want a lower temperature so that the pumpkin can get done and tender and delicious all the way through before the spices begin to scorch.

So the dressing for this wonderful salad could not be easier.

I love to make dressings in a jar because you can shake them up.

And should you have any leftovers, you can stash them in the fridge.

The first thing I'm going to put in here is some honey.

You want a nice, floral, delicious honey.

And a couple of tablespoons is probably what you want, but depending on your personal palate, you can add a little more if you wish.

Then, I'm going to put in some delicious vinegar.

This is apple cider vinegar, but there are also honey vinegars in some grocery stores.

If you see some honey vinegar, stick it in your pantry.

It is delicious on all sorts of things.

Have some fresh lemon juice.

[liquid dribbling] And the ever-important lemon zest, which is where most of the flavor of a lemon is.

Now, we're going to add some oil, of course, and what this deep, dark delicious stuff is, it's pumpkin seed oil.

And it tastes remarkably like a good pumpkin, which is gonna make it great for this salad.

But if you don't have pumpkin seed oil, it is no big deal.

Just use olive oil.

It will still be delicious.

When you use a nut oil like this, a little bit is good.

It's robustly flavored.

You would never want this to be the only oil you used.

So for the rest of my oil, I'm gonna use olive oil, then a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Put the lid on the jar and give it a good shake.

[liquid sloshing] [cheerful music] So now it's time to build the salad on the serving platter.

And I'm gonna start with some freshly washed baby greens.

I picked a salad mix that has a little bit of baby kale, something a little bit sturdier to hold up to these beautiful pumpkin wedges.

And now, I'm gonna add some thin slices of shaved fennel.

You know, fennel can get a bad rap, but it really doesn't taste like licorice.

It has this mild aromatic taste that goes wonderful with pumpkin and apples.

It's just right for this kind of salad.

And now, a little bit of fresh apples.

Something crisp, maybe sweet-tart.

I like to leave the peel on this to give a little bit of color.

And now, our delicious roasted pumpkin wedges.

I just took these out of the oven so they're still warm is slightly sizzly.

And arrange those over the top of your salad.

Now, at this point, I'm gonna put a little bit of my vinaigrette just to moisten things before I add the final garnishes.

[quirky music] You know, there's more than one way to add crunch to a salad.

Sometimes a toasted seed is far more interesting and delicious than a crouton.

These are pomegranate seeds.

The real term for these are pomegranate arils.

Not only did they add color, they add a sweet, tart deliciousness and another level of crunch.

I like to put a little bit of cheese for a little savory finish to this salad.

This is an aged gouda cheese.

It has almost a caramel taste to it.

Little bits of crunchy goodness because it's aged.

And take your vegetable peeler, and just pull a few long strands.

Maybe one more for good measure.

Now, we're almost done.

When I was cutting up the fennel, they have these little fronds that look like dill.

They make a great garnish, a little bit of bright green to put at the end of your salad.

Now, at this point, you can put on a little more vinaigrette.

But what I like to do is add a final drizzle of this beautiful, delicious honey.

Just a little back and forth.

[quirky music] I cannot wait to taste this.

I want to dig in while the pumpkin is still good and warm, making sure I get a little bit of everything on here.

Some cheese, and of course, one of these wedges of this pumpkin.

You know, I make this every fall, and every time I make it, I'm excited to have these flavors once again.

[quirky music] That's really good.

You get sweetness, you get a little spice.

You get a little smokey, you get the pumpkin, which has turned all creamy and delicious.

And you know, this cooked in 20 minutes.

It's like making a potato, but far more interesting and far more delicious.

This is an amazing salad.

It is gorgeous enough to be the center of the table and filling enough to be your whole supper.

It is a keeper.

I'm a sucker for a beautiful candy roaster pumpkin.

I know someone that can turn an already gorgeous candy roaster into a scrumptious work of art.

And that someone is Chef Ashley Capps.

Hey!

- Hello.

- Hello, my friend!

It's so good to see you.

- I'm so happy to see you too.

- I'm bringing a traditional gift of pumpkin.

[laughs] - I love candy roasters.

- Let's go cook this baby.

- All right, let's do it.

These are just so beautiful.

- They are amazing.

They will always be my favorite edible pumpkin.

And you know, I've been told, don't know this, for sure, but I've been told that this is maybe the original pumpkin or one of the oldest ones that has ever grown.

Show me how you go about yours.

- Okay, I think slicing down the center is helpful.

So go ahead and just get in there.

- Mm-hmm.

And look at that.

So you're sort of rocking.

- Yeah.

And just, you know.

- Look at that!

- Go around.

- Oh, that's-- - Always have your hand on top and your hand on the knife-- - Right.

- And you won't hurt yourself.

When you cut it in a lengthwise, like a boat, you can scoop this out.

- Right.

- The pulp and the seeds.

You can roast this, and then if you have some kind of grain salad or roasted root vegetables, you can pile it back in there.

And then you have this to display on your table and people can eat out of it.

- That's how you get out of washing the dishes, you just eat them.

[Sheri laughs] - Yeah, yeah.

I usually put mine on a pan, face down.

- Mm-hmm.

And that's to steam it a little bit?

- Yes, and then I'll pull it out of the oven.

I'll flip it and then I'll put it back in the oven so that it's not completely waterlogged and the water can evaporate and you'll get a little bit of color, which intensifies that yummy, sweet caramel.

- 'Cause it's naturally caramelizing-- - Yeah.

- The delicious sugars that are in this.

- Yeah.

Let's get roasting?

- Yup.

Let's get roasting.

- Okay, cool.

[bright music] - [Sheri] Isn't that amazing?

Here, this really holds it shape so well.

I mean, that looks good enough to eat right now.

- I mean, if you weren't here right now, I might just take a spoon and sit, watch a movie and eat this with a spoon right in my lap.

All right, let's scoop.

- Oh, this is so easy.

Look it, it rolls-- - Look at this.

- Out of there.

- You know it.

- So, do we nail the pelts to the wall now?

- Yeah.

[Sheri laughs] And we're gonna make up purses out of the sacks.

- How do you generally puree yours?

- If I had my blender, I would just, you know, put it all in the blender and put it on low until it's smooth.

[blender whirring] - I hear rumors you're going to make your famous creme caramel.

- The creme caramel, it's just a simple custard.

It's very easy to make.

And I think that it's a really unique way to feature pumpkin.

It would be really easy to make a pumpkin pie, but I think that a custard is something a little bit more unique and adventurous and it's fun, and it's really easy.

It looks very fancy, but it is very easy.

I always just start with a nice pan, heavy bottom, and we're using heavy cream, our wonderful pumpkin puree.

- [Sheri] Okay, so now you're putting it.

I love that you're adding bay to this.

- Yes.

I think that the bay leaf brings out like, a nice, floral, woodsy-ness to it, which is kind of matches this time of year.

I think star anise, great.

I fully believe in grating your own spices.

I don't buy powdered nutmeg, ever.

Just a couple of scrapes, that's it.

So in addition to the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the star anise, and the bay, I'm also adding some fresh ginger root.

I am putting a little salt.

I feel like when you put salt in dry, it might not get a chance to dissolve properly by the time you bake something.

- You're looking for a few little bubbles, or how do you know when it's warm enough?

- I am actually not looking for bubbles.

- Okay.

- I'm trying to be real gentle with this.

I'm looking for steam and that's about it.

We're using a mixture of whole eggs and yolks.

I believe for flan, whole eggs, just whole eggs is totally fine.

Yolks are a little richer.

The egg white has more water content, the yolk has more fat.

So the yolk, the addition of those extra five yolks kind of makes the creme caramel slightly more stable.

- Okay.

- Holds itself up.

It's a little bit silkier.

It will hold a slice.

- Okay, so I'm just gonna whisk these now.

- Yep, you're gonna whisk and I am gonna gradually add the sugar.

- So you've got some dark brown sugar too.

- Dark brown sugar.

For a pumpkin-flavored creme caramel, the flavor of honey and brown sugar definitely compliments.

- [Sheri] Love that!

- [Ashley] The next thing is some cream.

- Okay.

And so there's cream, but the infused cream, why are you splitting it up?

Why are there two different kinds?

- Great question.

Right now, this is just basically sugars and eggs.

That's it.

So when we're gonna temper the scalded cream into this, this addition of more cream kind of gently helps that liaison so that we don't risk cooking the eggs.

- So, it's bridging the gap.

- So this is done.

Like if someone wanted to make this and they're planning a dinner party, or they're planning a holiday gathering, this can be made a week in advance.

You could put this-- - Okay.

- In a container, put it in the fridge.

This will hold.

- [Sheri] So it wouldn't be creme caramel without the caramel.

So you're gonna make that next.

This is homemade caramel.

- Yes.

- And how do you that?

- I always put the water in first.

The acid goes in next.

You can use a couple of drops of lemon juice.

You can use vinegar.

- What is the acidity doing?

- The acid sort of protects the caramel from crystallizing.

I'm not just tossing the sugar in, all crazy, like in the pot.

I'm just gonna pour it very gently, right on top of the water and acid in the bottom of the pan.

You are allowed to kind of pay attention to it, watch it.

If it's starting to like, bubble harder in one area than another, you can lift the pan and kind of give it a little swivel, but you don't need to stir it.

Just let it caramelize.

- Oh, look at that.

[quirky country music] So you just tilt it around, evenly coat the bottom, and then does that need to cool off before you add?

- Absolutely, yeah.

This has to completely harden before you add this.

If we added the custard, the custard would get on the bottom of the pan and it would, you want these to be two separate layers, but then as they slow bake, they become one.

- All right.

So that is solidified.

- [Ashley] This is solidified.

- It looks like a mirror.

- So this goes in our water bath.

We're gonna pour our custard.

So that's in there, and now what we have to do is bake it.

- [Ashley] Most ovens at home are not convection.

If it is convection, turn your convection off.

You just want to still oven with no fan.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- I would check it in an hour.

When you jiggle the pan, the whole thing should be moving as one.

Are you excited?

- I'm so excited.

[Ashley laughs] It's the big reveal.

- I've done this so many times and I always get excited, it's crazy.

You're just gonna press whatever tool you're using against the side of the pan.

- Okay.

- You're just releasing the sides of the custard from the pan, and to let that caramel kind of breathe.

- Look at that.

I mean, you can tell the crystallization, it looks like the way that a window gets on a winter day.

That is beautiful.

- [Ashley] That is really pretty.

- Let's doll this, well, I mean, it's delicious now, but let's go to town with it.

- Let's do it, right?

- Put some stuff on top.

- [Ashley] Let's get her ready for the ball.

- [Sheri] You've got a fresh persimmon over here?

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Let's just... Start somewhere.

- Okay.

- I know I want some apple because I love how that looks.

Let's put some of these gorgeous green seeds on top.

- [Ashley] Sounds great.

All right.

- [Sheri] And now, tell me about this white chocolate crumbly thing again?

- It's toffee, and it's got white chocolate chunks.

Let's see, it doesn't need anything else.

- [Sheri] I'm so excited.

- What do you think?

- It's perfect.

There's nothing like the texture of that.

And you know, the pumpkin is still here.

- [Ashley] So even if you've had a dinner and you feel kind of full, there's always room for this.

[groovy music] - We are stuffing a whole pumpkin full of a savory bread pudding.

It is a real showstopper and much easier than it sounds.

[groovy music] So we want to remove the lid so that we can scoop out the seeds and make room for our delicious bread pudding.

I usually like to go about midway, between where the stem is in the edge.

Using even a child's craft knife or any kind of a serrated blade is gonna make this much easier and much safer.

And voila, out comes the cap.

Now I'm gonna scoop out my seeds and the gloppy stringy stuff that holds the seeds in place because we're gonna use them later.

Now, you can discard these if you want to, but you're throwing away a great part of a pumpkin, which is home toasted pumpkin seeds.

We'll talk about that later.

Now I'm gonna take a pinch of salt and a little pepper, and just season the inside of my pumpkin.

Next step is to make the delicious filling.

So now I'm gonna prepare the delicious bread pudding that is going to cook inside our pumpkin.

What I have right here is some bread, a good crusty bread like sourdough or an Italian bread, and a custard that is nothing more than some half and half, a couple of eggs, fresh thyme, fresh sage, a little whole grain mustard, salt and pepper.

You got to stir that together and let it sit and soak while you get everything else ready.

So I'm using leeks in this filling.

That is one of my favorite vegetables in the onion family, because it is delicate and sweet and goes perfectly with these flavors.

Put the leek on the cutting board and then go to where it starts turning from very dark green, to a little bit of a paler green.

And you're gonna take your knife and you're gonna try to cut.

And if there is any resistance, it means the leek is still tough, and you want to move your blade down about half an inch.

Move toward the root in half-inch increments 'til suddenly, your knife will sail right through.

Now, from the other end, you're gonna cut off these rootlets.

Leeks grow underground, so if they're harvested on a rainy day, they're gonna be full of grit, which we're going to want to remove before we add it to the pan.

I like to cut mine into the slices and then rinse them.

Much like peeling an onion, you're probably going to want to remove the outer layer.

And then all you have to do is put your pieces on your cutting board and slice down from the top.

Then I take these to a colander and run them under some cool water in the sink until no little bits of grit are remaining.

And then they're ready to go in the pan.

I like to use a variety of fresh mushrooms in this filling, particularly shiitakes.

They have great flavor and they're gonna have a good texture when they cook inside the pudding.

So the first step is to just take off the stem.

You can do this with your fingers, or you can snip them with a little pair of kitchen scissors, whatever feels easier to you.

So I'm going to cook my leeks and mushrooms in some butter.

So once the butter is sizzling away, we can add our leeks and a good pinch of salt, which will encourage the leeks to start releasing their moisture and getting tender.

[leeks sizzling] When the leeks have started to wilt and get a little bit tender, it's fine to add the mushrooms.

So when your mushrooms are nearly tender, we're gonna add some garlic.

A lot of recipes say to put garlic yet at the beginning, but the truth is, garlic can scorch fairly easily.

So I like to wait and let that be the last thing I add to the pan so that the other vegetables can insulate it from the direct heat.

So now I'm gonna transfer this to a bowl so that it can cool off just a little bit.

[bright music] So now, I'm gonna add some good, high-quality shredded parmesan cheese to this, about a cup.

And I'm gonna leave out just a handful to go on the very top before I put the pumpkin in the oven.

I'm also going to add some finely chopped flat leaf parsley.

And now, it's time to stuff the pumpkin.

So the first thing that's going to go in is about half of our soaked bread cubes.

And then I'm gonna add about half of my mushroom mixture.

Now, a little more bread.

The rest of my mushroom mixture.

So just give it a little bit with your spoon, 'cause it's easy for it to not get all the way up under the edge.

And now, the last of the bread.

And if there's any liquid left, you want to slowly pour that over the top.

That little bit of cheese I left, I'm gonna let it go on top now.

We're gonna replace the lid.

And the last thing we're gonna do is to take a little bit of oil and just gently moisten the outside.

This is gonna help the pumpkin look beautiful as it roasts.

I like to cover the pumpkin with aluminum foil for the first half of its baking to hold in a little bit of moisture so it can start turning tender.

[bright music] And now, it's going into our 350-degree oven.

We'll let it cook about 45 minutes and then remove the foil and let it finish cooking until it is tender enough to pierce with a knife.

So look at this gorgeous pumpkin.

I love to take it straight to the table and serve it rather dramatically.

You're gonna want to let it rest 20 or 30 minutes before you do that.

And then you have choices.

Whatever you like, as long as your proportions are more or less the same, you can make this dish over and over and it will feel fresh and appealing every time.

People are going to love this.

It's such a good dish.

And who would have thought, if you don't eat your Jack o'lantern, you could eat this.

[bright music] [quirky music] Inside every great pumpkin are great pumpkin seeds.

They make a delicious snack and it's easy to make them seasoned, delicious, and ready to eat.

We're gonna start by removing the pumpkin goo.

And we're going to put the whole thing into a sauce pan of simmering water.

In about two minutes, between the gentle stirring and the warm water, the seeds are going to start separating from the stringy bits and it'll make them easy to rinse the rest of it away.

So the warm bath of water really does a good job of loosening those strands.

And after a quick rinse in the sink, any large clumps pretty much lift out easily.

At this point, you're ready for your next step.

You can either measure our eyeball about how many seeds you have.

I'm thinking I have about a cup here.

For every cup of seeds, you need two cups of water and two tablespoons of kosher salt.

So we're going to bring these up to a simmer and let them cook for about five minutes.

What this is doing is actually seasoning the seeds from the inside out so you don't have to add salt later, which always falls off anyhow.

This will make them perfectly seasoned even before they go into the oven.

When they're to the point that you like them, you're going to drain them on a towel and then transfer them to a cookie sheet.

You want to make sure that they're reasonably dry before you put them in the oven so that they'll get crisp and toasty instead of steam.

They need just a touch of oil, just a few drops, and you don't want to put so much that there's standing oil on the tray because that will make them fry and cook unevenly.

More or less a single layer, and put them in a 400-degree oven until they're toasty and crisp.

And there you are.

Once they've cooled, you can store them in an airtight container for up to a week as if they're gonna last that long.

They're a wonderful snack and they come free with your pumpkin.

You need to start toasting the seeds.

[bright music] No matter how you carve it, when it comes to recipes, pumpkins are versatile and tasty.

They add texture and flavor in surprising ways and can be the key ingredient for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.

[bright music] For all the recipes from the show, visit our website.

It's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.