Tough Meat-Stuffed Pumpkins
This recipe for Tough Meat-Stuffed Pumpkins reuses the emptied pumpkin bowls for yet another BotW recipe: Pumpkin Stew. I've also included a bonus super easy manly pulled pork recipe at the end of this post.
This recipe was a major hit with my significant other. That alone indicates that it's full of meat, nearly bereft of identifiable vegetables (though they're in there), and chock-full of sodium. Win.
The original in-game recipe is:
This is, as far as I'm aware, the only served-in-a-pumpkin-bowl meal in Breath of the Wild. But you'll of course remember that there's also a Pumpkin Stew recipe. The beauty of this Meat-Stuffed Pumpkin recipe is that with its leftovers, you'll be halfway to finishing the Pumpkin Stew recipe, too! Back-to-back BotW recipes - what's not to love?!
Assemble your ingredients. Start with the meats. I bought all the stuff that was expiring that day and then shoved them into my ridiculously tiny freezer until I was ready to use them. Note: the TYPE (CUT) OF MEAT you choose will greatly affect the COOKING TIME required. Chuck steak, tough cuts of meat like brisket which are meant for stewing will take a very long time (2 to 3 hours of simmering on low heat, or even overnight in a slow-cooker, for example) to break down and become succulent slow-cooked meat (i.e. pulled pork - I'll put the BONUS RECIPE for that at the end of this post! Super easy!). I highly recommend these cuts of slow-cooked meat: it tastes fantastic! However, I bought meat on-sale that was quick to cook (ideal for stir-frying, etc.), which means I had to be careful not to overcook this soft meat and make it tough. Whoops.
Here's the meat I used. Guess what country I live in! ;) It was a mixture of beef and pork and then this 'smoked game sausage', which was apparently a mixture of wild pig and beef. You could conceivably use anything: goat, game birds like pheasant, deer, reindeer, bison, buffalo, elk, moose, probably alligator...! I think the key to authenticity here is a mixture of various meats. Like I said, I went hunting at the supermarket and caught these on sale. Just be cognizant to group together meats that have similar cooking times (quick, medium or slow, but not a mixture!).
I highly recommend including a 'smoked' meat or sausage of some sort: a few strips of bacon would probably also lend sufficient flavour (or liquid smoke, if you have it).
You will also see beer in that meat-group photo. I highly recommend it, even if children will eat it. The thing about alcohol is that it evaporates as you cook. 5% alcohol is going to disappear really quickly. Don't worry about it. The flavour it provides is appreciable! If you really don't want to use beer, you can use wine. If you don't want to use anything with any alcohol at all, then add an extra bouillon / stock cube to compensate. Or non-alcoholic beer!
Next, the 'holy trinity' of Italian cooking: onion, celery, carrot. If you chop up these three things and cook them in a little olive oil, you're almost guaranteed success. I try to keep a stock of these in the fridge as often as I can.
I also used parsley and thyme, but you can use any herbs you like, really. Sage goes very well with chicken and poultry, rosemary goes well with beef, and I think thyme goes with all meat, so I chose that. Note: if you're a REAL STICKLER FOR AUTHENTICITY, have a few basil leaves on hand for the garnish as it appears in-game. I figured parsley would work well enough for me.
You'll also need a couple of small pumpkins, or pumpkin-like squashes (they're all squashes anyway). Also the usual kitchen staples: salt and pepper, olive (or other) oil, bouillon/stock cubes, and a packet of instant gravy mix if you have one (here we have gravy starter in a tube, which doesn't contain as much starch, unfortunately). The gravy mix isn't mandatory, and you can always just add a second stock cube plus a big pinch of corn starch dissolved in about 350mL of cold water or in the beer (make sure it's cold water - warm water will clump the starch).
Method:
This will vary depending on the cut of meat you use. I'll give two options.
For Quick-Cooking meat:
Chop up all your veggies and add them to a big stewing pot that has about a tbsp of olive oil in it. Dump your veggies in on top of that. Add the chopped herbs (but save a whole leaf or two for each pumpkin as a garnish!), crumble in a stock cube (I used beef flavour, but you can vary this). Let these 'sweat' and cook slowly at a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes or so with the lid on to make it nice and steamy inside the pot. I used this time to hollow out the pumpkins. You can add chopped up bits of the flesh of the pumpkin to the pot (but not the stringy bits or the seeds). I scraped the inside of my pumpkin with a spoon to get it smooth, and all the scraped off bits I simply added to the pot. I also sacrificed the lid, because these little squashes had very thick walls and it was hard to remove the lid without risking breaking the pumpkin bowl!
Once the onions look translucent, add the chopped meat and turn up the heat to medium to 'brown' it (stir everything with a wooden spoon, and keep stirring until all the pink meat has cooked a bit (not completely, though!). Pour in a can of beer (or half a tall can of beer; or chosen substituted liquid) and add your dry gravy mix or corn starch + second stock cube to the pot.
Stir well again, cover it with a lid, and turn the heat to 1 or 2 (low). Let it cook gently until the meat is done (you can pick out a chunk with a fork and cut it in half to see if it's cooked all the way through). It might only take 5 or 10 minutes in this case.
Fill your pumpkins, top with your remaining parsley leaves, and serve!
Save your empty pumpkin bowls!
For Slow-Cooking meat:
(Basically the same process, but you can be lazy and dump it all into the pot at once, if you want! You can also do the individual steps of sweating the onions and browning the meat as well, if you prefer.).
Chop up all your veggies and add them to a big stewing pot that has about a tbsp of olive oil in it. Dump your veggies in on top of that. Add the chopped herbs (but save a whole leaf or two for each pumpkin as a garnish!), crumble in a stock cube (I used beef flavour, but you can vary this). Add the chopped meat. You can add chopped up bits of the flesh of the pumpkin to the pot (but not the stringy bits or the seeds). I scraped the inside of my pumpkin with a spoon to get it smooth, and all the scraped off bits I simply added to the pot. I also sacrificed the lid, because these little squashes had very thick walls and it was hard to remove the lid without risking breaking the pumpkin bowl!
Pour in a can of beer (or half a tall can of beer) and add your gravy mix or corn starch + water + second stock cube to the pot. Bring it all to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.
Once it's bubbling, stir it again well, cover it with a lid, and turn the heat down to 1 or 2 (low). Let it cook gently until the meat is done (you can pick out a chunk with a fork and cut it in half to see if it's cooked all the way through). With long-cooking cuts of meat, this could take a couple of hours. You can also do this in a slow-cooker (you could start it at lunchtime and have it ready at dinner, for example).
Fill your pumpkins, top with your remaining parsley leaves, and serve!
Save your empty pumpkin bowls!
Reusing the bowls....
Now, this isn't exactly food safe, and you couldn't do this in a restaurant and still be operating within the local health code, but if you want to take a risk at home, you can reuse those bowls that you just ate in by roasting them in the oven until they are reduced to a deflated, steaming lump of cooked squash. Let this cool enough to handle, remove the blistered skin (peel it away), throw it all into a food processor, turn it into a puree, and then freeze it. I personally feel fine with this, since I roasted the snot out of it (heat!) and then froze it (cold!). That should kill any bacteria or fungi that are threatening to set up camp*. Again, this isn't exactly 'best standards'. Use your judgment. If one of the two people eating it has an obnoxious, contagious disease, disregard my pumpkin-reusing advice and just start with a fresh pumpkin for your subsequent Pumpkin Stew. Also, I'd use that frozen puree up within the next week or two.
*technically speaking, this won't kill things like Clostridium endospores (I'm aware), so if you think there's a chance you might be setting yourself up for Botulism poisoning, by all means compost these bowls and start with fresh pumpkins for the Pumpkin Stew. Again, I'm happy taking the (minuscule) risk, seeing as we don't have C. difficile in the house at the moment (praise God!).
Ingredients:
Method:
Put pork into your slow cooker (or big pot on the stove, or into a covered casserole dish for in the oven). Dump the Dr. Pepper or Coke over the meat, enough to mostly cover (entirely, if possible). Cook on low heat (just gently bubbling here and there, not boiling like crazy) overnight or for about 8 hours (put it in before you go to bed for lunchtime the next day, or start it in the morning while you go to work... just make sure you don't burn the place down in your absence!). I use a slow-cooker - I turn the heat up to 'high' to get it simmering/boiling, then switch it to 'low' and let it very slowly bubble and burble overnight/throughout the day. If you do it in a pot, bring it to the boil gradually (medium high heat), stir, reduce the heat to low (1 on my dial, depending on how heavy-duty your pot is). In the oven, put it up to super hot, check to see if it's boiling, then turn it down to still-cooking-but-low-heat (not the 'keep warm' option - that's not hot enough).
Remove pork from the liquid after about 8 hours with a big fork and shred by hand (when it's cool enough to handle) or with a pair of forks. Mix the drained shredded meat with barbeque sauce. Enjoy! :) (I like to stuff it into Kaiser rolls or another bun and eat it just like that, but there are endless possibilities. Go forth and conquer!)
This recipe was a major hit with my significant other. That alone indicates that it's full of meat, nearly bereft of identifiable vegetables (though they're in there), and chock-full of sodium. Win.
 |
| I think mine looks more appetizing. |
The original in-game recipe is:
- Any meat
- Fortified pumpkin
This is, as far as I'm aware, the only served-in-a-pumpkin-bowl meal in Breath of the Wild. But you'll of course remember that there's also a Pumpkin Stew recipe. The beauty of this Meat-Stuffed Pumpkin recipe is that with its leftovers, you'll be halfway to finishing the Pumpkin Stew recipe, too! Back-to-back BotW recipes - what's not to love?!
Tough Meat-Stuffed Pumpkins
for two people, with second helpings / leftover filling, and pumpkin bowls that become ingredients for Pumpkin StewAssemble your ingredients. Start with the meats. I bought all the stuff that was expiring that day and then shoved them into my ridiculously tiny freezer until I was ready to use them. Note: the TYPE (CUT) OF MEAT you choose will greatly affect the COOKING TIME required. Chuck steak, tough cuts of meat like brisket which are meant for stewing will take a very long time (2 to 3 hours of simmering on low heat, or even overnight in a slow-cooker, for example) to break down and become succulent slow-cooked meat (i.e. pulled pork - I'll put the BONUS RECIPE for that at the end of this post! Super easy!). I highly recommend these cuts of slow-cooked meat: it tastes fantastic! However, I bought meat on-sale that was quick to cook (ideal for stir-frying, etc.), which means I had to be careful not to overcook this soft meat and make it tough. Whoops.
Here's the meat I used. Guess what country I live in! ;) It was a mixture of beef and pork and then this 'smoked game sausage', which was apparently a mixture of wild pig and beef. You could conceivably use anything: goat, game birds like pheasant, deer, reindeer, bison, buffalo, elk, moose, probably alligator...! I think the key to authenticity here is a mixture of various meats. Like I said, I went hunting at the supermarket and caught these on sale. Just be cognizant to group together meats that have similar cooking times (quick, medium or slow, but not a mixture!).
I highly recommend including a 'smoked' meat or sausage of some sort: a few strips of bacon would probably also lend sufficient flavour (or liquid smoke, if you have it).
You will also see beer in that meat-group photo. I highly recommend it, even if children will eat it. The thing about alcohol is that it evaporates as you cook. 5% alcohol is going to disappear really quickly. Don't worry about it. The flavour it provides is appreciable! If you really don't want to use beer, you can use wine. If you don't want to use anything with any alcohol at all, then add an extra bouillon / stock cube to compensate. Or non-alcoholic beer!
Next, the 'holy trinity' of Italian cooking: onion, celery, carrot. If you chop up these three things and cook them in a little olive oil, you're almost guaranteed success. I try to keep a stock of these in the fridge as often as I can.
I also used parsley and thyme, but you can use any herbs you like, really. Sage goes very well with chicken and poultry, rosemary goes well with beef, and I think thyme goes with all meat, so I chose that. Note: if you're a REAL STICKLER FOR AUTHENTICITY, have a few basil leaves on hand for the garnish as it appears in-game. I figured parsley would work well enough for me.
 |
| My phone really has a hard time with 'orange', as you can see with the carrot pic, too! |
 |
| "Muscat" was the type of pumpkin-like squash available in September. |
You'll also need a couple of small pumpkins, or pumpkin-like squashes (they're all squashes anyway). Also the usual kitchen staples: salt and pepper, olive (or other) oil, bouillon/stock cubes, and a packet of instant gravy mix if you have one (here we have gravy starter in a tube, which doesn't contain as much starch, unfortunately). The gravy mix isn't mandatory, and you can always just add a second stock cube plus a big pinch of corn starch dissolved in about 350mL of cold water or in the beer (make sure it's cold water - warm water will clump the starch).
 |
| I used a few generous squeezes of this. It's "gravy", more or less (roast-sauce, if you want to be literal about it) |
Method:
This will vary depending on the cut of meat you use. I'll give two options.
For Quick-Cooking meat:
Chop up all your veggies and add them to a big stewing pot that has about a tbsp of olive oil in it. Dump your veggies in on top of that. Add the chopped herbs (but save a whole leaf or two for each pumpkin as a garnish!), crumble in a stock cube (I used beef flavour, but you can vary this). Let these 'sweat' and cook slowly at a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes or so with the lid on to make it nice and steamy inside the pot. I used this time to hollow out the pumpkins. You can add chopped up bits of the flesh of the pumpkin to the pot (but not the stringy bits or the seeds). I scraped the inside of my pumpkin with a spoon to get it smooth, and all the scraped off bits I simply added to the pot. I also sacrificed the lid, because these little squashes had very thick walls and it was hard to remove the lid without risking breaking the pumpkin bowl!
Once the onions look translucent, add the chopped meat and turn up the heat to medium to 'brown' it (stir everything with a wooden spoon, and keep stirring until all the pink meat has cooked a bit (not completely, though!). Pour in a can of beer (or half a tall can of beer; or chosen substituted liquid) and add your dry gravy mix or corn starch + second stock cube to the pot.
Stir well again, cover it with a lid, and turn the heat to 1 or 2 (low). Let it cook gently until the meat is done (you can pick out a chunk with a fork and cut it in half to see if it's cooked all the way through). It might only take 5 or 10 minutes in this case.
Fill your pumpkins, top with your remaining parsley leaves, and serve!
Save your empty pumpkin bowls!
 |
| Tempted to hold these two round ingredients awkwardly, as Link would.. |
For Slow-Cooking meat:
(Basically the same process, but you can be lazy and dump it all into the pot at once, if you want! You can also do the individual steps of sweating the onions and browning the meat as well, if you prefer.).
Chop up all your veggies and add them to a big stewing pot that has about a tbsp of olive oil in it. Dump your veggies in on top of that. Add the chopped herbs (but save a whole leaf or two for each pumpkin as a garnish!), crumble in a stock cube (I used beef flavour, but you can vary this). Add the chopped meat. You can add chopped up bits of the flesh of the pumpkin to the pot (but not the stringy bits or the seeds). I scraped the inside of my pumpkin with a spoon to get it smooth, and all the scraped off bits I simply added to the pot. I also sacrificed the lid, because these little squashes had very thick walls and it was hard to remove the lid without risking breaking the pumpkin bowl!
Pour in a can of beer (or half a tall can of beer) and add your gravy mix or corn starch + water + second stock cube to the pot. Bring it all to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.
Once it's bubbling, stir it again well, cover it with a lid, and turn the heat down to 1 or 2 (low). Let it cook gently until the meat is done (you can pick out a chunk with a fork and cut it in half to see if it's cooked all the way through). With long-cooking cuts of meat, this could take a couple of hours. You can also do this in a slow-cooker (you could start it at lunchtime and have it ready at dinner, for example).
Fill your pumpkins, top with your remaining parsley leaves, and serve!
Save your empty pumpkin bowls!
Reusing the bowls....
 |
| 200 degrees Celsius (just under 400 F) for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the type of squash and the thickness of the flesh. I wrapped mine in foil to store in the fridge after their first use as bowls, then just put these foil-wrapped packages into a baking dish (leaks pumpkin juice!) and let 'em bake. They need a while to cool... be very careful when venting the foil to release the steam (wear oven mitts!). |
Now, this isn't exactly food safe, and you couldn't do this in a restaurant and still be operating within the local health code, but if you want to take a risk at home, you can reuse those bowls that you just ate in by roasting them in the oven until they are reduced to a deflated, steaming lump of cooked squash. Let this cool enough to handle, remove the blistered skin (peel it away), throw it all into a food processor, turn it into a puree, and then freeze it. I personally feel fine with this, since I roasted the snot out of it (heat!) and then froze it (cold!). That should kill any bacteria or fungi that are threatening to set up camp*. Again, this isn't exactly 'best standards'. Use your judgment. If one of the two people eating it has an obnoxious, contagious disease, disregard my pumpkin-reusing advice and just start with a fresh pumpkin for your subsequent Pumpkin Stew. Also, I'd use that frozen puree up within the next week or two.
*technically speaking, this won't kill things like Clostridium endospores (I'm aware), so if you think there's a chance you might be setting yourself up for Botulism poisoning, by all means compost these bowls and start with fresh pumpkins for the Pumpkin Stew. Again, I'm happy taking the (minuscule) risk, seeing as we don't have C. difficile in the house at the moment (praise God!).
BONUS MANLY RECIPE:
Ridiculously Easy Slow-cooked Pulled PorkIngredients:
- Big chunk of pork meant for slow-cooking (usually shoulder - big ol' chunk of solid muscle!)
- Dr. Pepper (or Coke), full sugar (not with artificial sweeteners) - a 2L bottle should be more than enough
- BBQ sauce (added at the end)
Method:
Put pork into your slow cooker (or big pot on the stove, or into a covered casserole dish for in the oven). Dump the Dr. Pepper or Coke over the meat, enough to mostly cover (entirely, if possible). Cook on low heat (just gently bubbling here and there, not boiling like crazy) overnight or for about 8 hours (put it in before you go to bed for lunchtime the next day, or start it in the morning while you go to work... just make sure you don't burn the place down in your absence!). I use a slow-cooker - I turn the heat up to 'high' to get it simmering/boiling, then switch it to 'low' and let it very slowly bubble and burble overnight/throughout the day. If you do it in a pot, bring it to the boil gradually (medium high heat), stir, reduce the heat to low (1 on my dial, depending on how heavy-duty your pot is). In the oven, put it up to super hot, check to see if it's boiling, then turn it down to still-cooking-but-low-heat (not the 'keep warm' option - that's not hot enough).
Remove pork from the liquid after about 8 hours with a big fork and shred by hand (when it's cool enough to handle) or with a pair of forks. Mix the drained shredded meat with barbeque sauce. Enjoy! :) (I like to stuff it into Kaiser rolls or another bun and eat it just like that, but there are endless possibilities. Go forth and conquer!)
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