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Corn porridge in pumpkin

Cornmeal Porridge Baked in a Pumpkin

Fragrant, golden-orange, and served in its own edible pumpkin bowl! Baked in a pumpkin with milk, this cornmeal porridge tastes a lot like millet porridge — especially if the cornmeal isn't too finely ground. See if your family can guess which grain it's made from; mine couldn't!

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Pumpkin

1.5

Milk

400

Cornmeal

150

Prunes

Dried apricots

Raisins

Sugar

Butter

Salt (a pinch)

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 10 % 2 g

Fats 10 % 2 g

Carbohydrates 80 % 16 g

87 kcal

GI: 13 / 6 / 81

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you cook cornmeal porridge? Gather your ingredients. It's worth buying good-quality cornmeal rather than the cheapest you can find. I learned this the hard way once: with no other option, I bought the cheapest bag available, and it was full of debris and little black specks I couldn't pick out — there were just too many — and it tasted bitter even after soaking. So start with a quality product.
Step 2:

Rinse the cornmeal thoroughly until the water runs clear. It's a good idea to soak it in cold water for 3–5 hours, which removes any excess bitterness and softens the grain a bit. Then drain it in a sieve and rinse once more.
Step 3:

Rinse the dried apricots, prunes, and raisins well and remove any pits. If the dried fruit is very hard and dry, cover it with hot water and let it sit for 10–15 minutes, then drain.
Step 4:

Rinse the pumpkin well and dry it. Carefully slice off the top. Using a spoon, gently scoop out the seeds, taking care not to damage the walls. Leave the flesh on the inner walls intact.
Step 5:

If some flesh comes away when you cut off the top, as it did for me, dice it small. The added pumpkin makes the porridge tastier and more fragrant.
Step 6:

Pour the milk into a pot and add the prepared cornmeal, the pumpkin pieces, the sugar, and the salt. If you like, add a pinch of vanilla.
Step 7:

Set the pot over medium heat and bring the porridge to a boil.
Step 8:

Then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
Step 9:

By now most of the milk will have soaked into the grain, which will have swelled, and the porridge will have grown in volume. It won't be fully cooked yet — it finishes cooking inside the pumpkin while it bakes. Take the pot off the heat.
Step 10:

Stir the dried fruit into the porridge. Taste and add more sugar if needed.
Step 11:

Spoon the cornmeal porridge with dried fruit into the prepared pumpkin. Dot the top with pieces of butter.
Step 12:

Put the cut-off top back on the pumpkin and wrap the whole thing in foil.
Step 13:

Place the pumpkin in an oven preheated to 350°F (180°C) and bake for 1 to 1½ hours, depending on the variety and size of the pumpkin and how thick and dense its walls are.
Step 14:

Serve the porridge right in the pumpkin, cutting it into portions with a sharp knife. Enjoy!

So the oven has time to come up to temperature, turn it on ahead of time — about 10–20 minutes before you start cooking.
Keep in mind that every oven is different, so the temperature and baking time may vary from what's listed here. To get the best results with any baked dish, get to know how your own oven behaves.
Tip: for all the secrets of choosing and cooking it, see our article on cornmeal.