The pumpkin is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. He is said to have been known as early as 10,000 years ago. For a long time it was not foreseeable that it is now a matter of course to buy it in supermarkets and that there is hardly a restaurant menu without a pumpkin dish. When Sascha started working for us more than 20 years ago, the pumpkin played almost no role. That changed gradually, but permanently. Above all, the American Halloween culture, which spilled over to us, made him well-known, even if initially only in the form of a hollowed-out grimace.
The pumpkin – its harvest time extends from September to November – is a versatile vegetable. This is not only because there are around 800 varieties of edible and ornamental pumpkins. Some of them have great names: spaghetti squash. sweet dumplings bishop’s hat. Squashes can be stewed as well as baked and are great for desserts.
A pumpkin sorbet, for example, combined with dark chocolate, citrus fruits and a few drops of pumpkin seed oil is something wonderful. You can store the squash for six months (preferably in a dark place) and processing it is usually easy. How can you tell if a pumpkin is ripe? It’s simple: a ripe pumpkin is intensely colored, it sounds hollow when tapped, and its stem is dry and woody.
Our favorite varieties are nutmeg and Hokkaido pumpkin. They are both perfect for soups, purees, pickles. The nutmeg pumpkin can weigh several kilos and you cannot eat its skin. The Hokkaido pumpkin, whose skin you can eat, is ideal for simple, quick processing. Have you ever thought about what kind of nice, warming soup you would like to cook next? How about a pumpkin cream soup with orange and curry? Coincidentally, we have the recipe for it ready.
You will need: a Hokkaido squash, one kilo, halved, seeded, then finely chopped. Olive oil. 150 milliliters of white wine. 300 milliliters of orange juice. 500 milliliters vegetable broth. 600 milliliters of cream. Two tablespoons of honey. 100 grams of onions, cut into cubes. Two tablespoons of mild curry powder. A pinch of cinnamon. nutmeg and salt.
Heat the olive oil in a wide saucepan. Add onions and sauté. Add the pumpkin and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes until translucent. Sprinkle with curry powder and cinnamon while stirring constantly, then caramelize with honey and finally deglaze with white wine. When the wine has evaporated, pour in the other liquids: juice, broth, cream. Simmer on medium heat for another 20 to 30 minutes. Then puree with the hand blender, strain through a fine sieve, season with salt and nutmeg. Finished!
The tip
Season the soup on the plate with a few drops of pumpkin seed oil. If you don’t have any in your cupboard yet and would like to get some: We prefer Styrian pumpkin seed oil, in our opinion it’s the best. For dessert we recommend a scoop of vanilla ice cream, again garnished with pumpkin seed oil. We don’t know exactly what elements combine in the combination of vanilla ice cream and pumpkin seed oil, but we do know one thing: it’s fantastic.
Walter Stemberg and his son Sascha run the star restaurant “Haus Stemberg” in Velbert, whose star was confirmed in the Michelin guide for the ninth year in a row. In 2021, the house was also named “Restaurant of the Year 2021” by the magazine “Der Feinschmecker”. In WELT they write every week about the basics of cooking, from the right kitchen equipment to the question of how to recognize a good butcher or fishmonger. All episodes to read online: www.welt.de/kochschule
