Beef Stew Cooked in a Pumpkin

Years ago, while visiting a pumpkin patch on a homeschooling field trip I remember one of the mom's talking about cooking a stew inside of a pumpkin and that thought stayed with me over the years.  This Halloween, since we had no plans (we really don't do Halloween) and since I would be home in the afternoon (yea!!)  I decided to give it a try.  I searched around on the internet, getting a general idea of what to do.  I found a stew recipe to base it on and we bought a pumpkin...

Beef Stew Cooked in a Pumpkin

  
You might be noticing that this is a rather large pumpkin.  Well that's what happens when you wait until the morning of Halloween to find one.  You have to go to several grocery stores and finally a pumpkin patch...but we were not to be denied!!

I adapted this recipe (with a few changes) from:
Cooking with Faith : 125 Classic and Healthy Southern Recipes

Golden Brown Beef Stew
2 pounds of lean stew meat, cut into small pieces
dry rub seasoning mix
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup of red wine
3 celery stalks, chopped
4 red potatoes, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped

1. Season the meat with the dry rub seasoning mix.  Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the meat.  Turn the heat to high and sear the meat until it's browned on all side.  Remove to a plate.
2. Finely chop one of the onions and add to the pot with the garlic and cook until browned, about 10 minutes.  Add the meat back to the pot and add the flour and cook and stir for five minutes, adding more oil if necessary.  Slowly add the liquids and bring to a boil and turn down to a slow simmer.
3.  Chop the remaining onion into chunks and add it with the other veggies to the pot.  Cover and simmer.

I cooked this for about an hour.  Meanwhile I cut the top of the pumpkin and scooped out the seeds.  I rinsed the seeds and tossed them with olive oil and salt and toasted them at 300 degrees until lightly browned.  This was our snack while we waited for our stew.

After the stew simmered for about an hour I spooned it into the hollowed out pumpkin which I had salted and peppered.  I covered it with foil.  You could use the pumpkin "lid" but mine was too big and would not have fit back into the oven.  I cooked it at 350 degrees for about 2 hours.

When we were ready to eat I spooned it out into the serving dishes.  I made sure to scoop some pumpkin flesh with each serving.

This was really delicious!  And it smelled so good while it was cooking!!

I served this with the biscuits my daughter had made for us.

I think we might have a new Halloween tradition at my house.

This post is linked to:
Sunday Soup Night
Butter Believer
Monday Mania
Make Your Own! Monday
Fat Tuesday
Tuesdays at the Table
Tuesday Confessional Link Party
Works-for-Me WEDNESDAY
Recipes I Can't Wait to Try