Little Baked Pumpkins for Halloween - really easy

I bought some little pumpkins in Waitrose that I was going to keep as ornaments,

but - decided to cook them :)

 

Ingredients:

2 small pumpkins

Cooked rice - - - 4 ozs. (125g) dried rice*, 1/2pt. (approx. 10fl.ozs.) cold water and a knob of butter, (+ 1/2 stock cube if wanted)

a few garlic cloves,

some Maple Syrup

butter

salt and pepper

 

1. Cut a lid off of the pumpkin (as above pic.), and deseed the veg.

2. Fill with a small amount of Maple Syrup, a small knob of butter and some seasoning.

2a. Cook your rice - or use leftover rice.  This can be flavoured to your taste with whatever you fancy.

3. Place the pumpkins on an ovenproof dish with a small amount of water on the base and bake, with the veggie lid on,  until the vegetable is soft.

4. Fill with the hot rice and serve or if reheating - place back in the oven to reheat through.

Drizzle the pan juice over the tops.

 

* I usually rinse the rice well until the water is almost clear, then cover the rice well with cold water and soak for at least 1/2 hr. - (longer is fine) - before cooking, rinse, drain and cook.

 

TIPS:  

for 8 ozs. of dried rice to 1 pt. of water:

A good way of cooking the rice, if you don't have a rice cooker, is to boil it gently until most of the liquid has evaporated and little 'pits' appear on the surface of the rice, then let it steam (covered) on a very low light for at least 20 mins.  Do check though, as it will obviously depend on the amount of rice you're cooking.

 

Any leftover cooked rice you have is very nice added to

chopped fried mushrooms and onions.

This can also be used as the filling for this recipe.