Alphabetic Recipes H — Halloween Pumpkin Hotpot Recipes

Today we have a classic British recipe for a traditional Halloween recipe of a lamb hotpot that includes pumpkin. An ideal recipe for a chill autumn evening.

Today's is the ninth entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the eighth day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'H'.

Today we have two H-es, Halloween and Hotpot. This is a modern British recipe for a classic Halloween dish of layered potatoes, pumpkin, cubed lamb, mushrooms and vegetables cooked in lamb stock or vegetable stock.

Halloween Pumpkin Hotpot Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced
600g stewing lamb, cubed
600g pumpkin flesh, cubed
1 large turnip, peeled and sliced
1 large carrot, scraped and sliced
12 button mushrooms
600g potatoes, peeled and sliced
600ml lamb stock or vegetable stock
2 tbsp butter
2 bayleaves
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Heat half the vegetable oil in a pan and when hot add the onion and lamb. Stir-fry for about 6 minutes, or until the onions are lightly browned. Add half the butter to the pan and when melted add the pumpkin, turnip and carrot.

Continue frying gently, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes more. Take off the heat and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the base of a flame-proof casserole. Arrange half the potato slices in the base then spoon over the meat and vegetable mix (add all the pan juices). Top with half the parsley, the bay leaves and the remaining butter then pour in just enough of the stock to come level with the top of the ingredients.

Bring the mixture just to a simmer then top with the remaining potatoes (ensure that these overlap slightly  and cover the entire top of the dish). Cover with a tight-fitting lid then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180ºC (360ºF). Cook for 60 minutes, or until all the ingredients are tender. Remove the lid at this point and continue cooking for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are nicely browned on top.

Garnish with the remaining parsley and serve directly from the casserole dish.

This recipe is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Recipes recipe for Halloween Pumpkin Hotpot.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'H'.