Pumpkin stuffed with rice and dried fruits, baked in the oven - it’s tasty, bright dietary dish, which in Armenia is called “Khapama”. Holidays and large family feasts are not complete without Armenian khapama. It is customary to serve stuffed pumpkin at weddings: the dish is presented symbolically, wishing the newlyweds prosperity, a life as sweet as honey, and bright, fiery love like the color of the pumpkin itself.
You can add various available dried fruits to the traditional khapama, as well as fresh fruits and berries: cherry plum, pieces of apples, quince. The dish can be prepared not only in a sweet, dessert version, but also in a salty, snack version, adding salt instead of honey or sugar, and pieces of meat, spices and onions instead of dried fruits.
Cuisine: Armenian.
Method of preparation: baking in the oven.
Total cooking time: 2 hours 30 minutes.
Number of servings: 2.
Boil the wild rice and basmati mixture in water until tender (about 30 minutes)
Cut off the “cap” from the pumpkin. Do not throw it away as it will serve as a lid while baking.
Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds from the pumpkin and scrape down the sides of the pumpkin. Cut the pulp into cubes. The thickness of the pumpkin walls should remain 2.5 - 3 cm.
Wash dried apricots and cut into cubes.
Add raisins to dried apricots and pumpkin.
Add any sweetener to taste. It can be any fruit syrup, honey, jam or sugar.
Add cooked rice. Add spices as desired. Mix everything.
Transfer the filling into the cavity of the pumpkin.
Pour in cream. Pry the filling with a spoon so that the cream reaches the bottom freely.
Cover the pumpkin with a “hat”, wrap it in foil and place in the oven for 1.5 – 2 hours. Bake at 180 degrees.
Cool the pumpkin and unwrap it.
Carefully remove the pulp from the sides with a spoon, combining it with the sweet rice.
Only the pumpkin skin should remain.
Divide the pulp with filling into plates. When serving, pour over cream. If you wish, complement the dish with almonds, chopped or whole nuts - walnuts, hazel, pine or any other.
Pumpkin stuffed with rice and dried fruits, baked in the oven is a tasty, bright dietary dish, which in Armenia is called “Khapama”. Holidays and large family feasts are not complete without Armenian khapama. It is customary to serve stuffed pumpkin at weddings: the dish is presented symbolically, wishing the newlyweds prosperity, a life as sweet as honey, and a bright, fiery life...
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Autumn is in full swing. Pumpkin is rightfully considered the queen of vegetables this season. You can prepare many dishes from it. I want to offer you the recipe for one of them today. This stuffed pumpkin rice, apples and dried fruits. Sweet stuffed pumpkin baked in the oven is a tasty, original and healthy dish, rich in various vitamins and microelements that we need so much in the fall.
Ingredients(the quantity of products is indicated approximately, as it depends on the size of the pumpkin):
Preparation:
If you are not a meat eater, stuff with vegetarian mixtures with dried fruits, mushrooms, fresh apples, pears, cottage cheese, or other vegetable stew. The filling is important, it can be changed and seasoned with spices differently, but the highlight of the dish is the pumpkin container.
Examine the orange fruits; cut off the sloping, unstable ones from the bottom. For individual servings, choose small ones in diameter. Teardrop-shaped ones are often cut lengthwise, experiment with a specific variety. Consider the weight - stuffed pumpkin baked in the oven with meat and rice is heavy.
Cooking time: 60-90 minutes / Number of servings: 2-3
For the filling, you can use any rice; I used the most common white rice. We rinse in several waters, to cook faster, leave in a bowl with cold water for 30 minutes or longer. The swollen one quickly softens, suitable for porridges, broths, soups and side dishes. I prefer to boil the rice until cooked and, when it is in an edible state, mix it with other products, load it inside the pumpkin and further steam it in the oven. But you can leave the rice raw or half-cooked, fill the pumpkin about two-thirds full, add boiling water/broth in parts and wait for it to swell. The second method will take more time, since a pumpkin is not a ceramic pot or cauldron with a lid, the grains soften more slowly in its walls.
So, cook the rice using the usual method, in boiling water, then rinse.
Wash the meat, dry it and cut it into small (or large, if desired) cubes of approximately the same size. There can be different types of meat, chicken, turkey, rabbit, whatever you like and have. Separate the fillet from the bone, tough film, or too fatty areas. I cook from pork tenderloin- always juicy, aromatic, meaty, not too fatty and easy to cut. There is no illiquid stock left, you just need to cut it up and put everything into action.
Like rice, we process the meat twice - first on top heat, then in the filling, baking. Heat a wide frying pan to fit more at once. Pour in the lean refined oil, after half a minute add the pork pieces. Fry in crackling fat for a couple of minutes, add chopped chili, garlic and onions. Mix. Meat juice is often released, let it evaporate. Then you can fry it until deeply golden brown, or you can just dry it slightly. But do not fry for too long, the meat inside will become tough and lose moisture and tenderness.
We divide the clean pumpkin so as to preserve the top “hat” and the massive lower part for minced meat; remove the hard peel from the intermediate part. We chop the pulp quite coarsely. We send the pumpkin slices to the fried meat and, after stirring, continue to keep on the stove for another 5 minutes. The pumpkin will be soaked in aromatic fat and will taste better in the dish.
We transfer the washed boiled rice to the fried assortment, season with salt and pepper. Stir and be sure to try. Stuffing filling on hand. If you need strong-smelling spices, use them. My filling kit is basic and minimal. Only rice, pumpkin, pork, onion, garlic, hot pepper. If you want, complicate the variation of pilaf. To the listed composition add mushrooms, dried fruits, barberries. If you don't use white rice, replace with another cereal. Sometimes it is stewed with buckwheat, millet, pearl barley, and bulgur.
Let's return to the pumpkin, here are the containers for baking and serving. We do not damage the lower volumetric part, we take care of the shell. From the inside we take out the thread-like fibers with seeds. If you see that the cavity is small and you can’t physically fit a lot of filling, scrape the pulp. The wall thickness of half a centimeter is quite sufficient: strong, withstands long-term baking and the heavy weight of the filling.
We tamp the minced meat and fill the pumpkin to the top. Use a spoon; it will help you reach the raised areas and press the filling mixture tightly. Stick in a bay leaf and pour in boiling water (or boiled meat broth). The volume of liquid is small, as much as will fit. You just need to simmer the pulp on the walls and combine all the flavors.
We transfer it to a convenient fireproof tray, cover it with a “hat” and put it in a hot oven for 30-40 minutes (temperature 180 degrees). Stuffed pumpkin is sometimes charred - rather for decorative purposes.
Serve stuffed pumpkin baked in the oven with meat and rice, garnished with fresh herbs. Nourishing, beautiful and tasty!
Stuffed pumpkin, which can be included in the Lenten menu, is prepared with rice, dried fruits and orange. Even novice cooks can master such an easy-to-prepare dish. Unleavened will be soaked orange juice, and in combination with dried fruits it will become very healthy treat. The recipe is a storehouse of vitamins, suitable for both children and all adults, because baked pumpkin is a source of fiber, a large list of microelements and vitamins.
Wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds and divide it into two approximately equal parts. For a beautiful design, use a knife to make curly edges.
Wash round rice in several waters to get rid of excess starch.
Cook the rice until half cooked. Lightly salt the water for rice. This cereal does not have a pronounced taste, so you can add spices and seasonings to it when cooking. Rinse the half-cooked rice to make it even more crumbly.
Rinse raisins and prunes with water and pour boiling water over them. Chop the prunes so that they are not too large. Dried fruits should be approximately the same size.
Peel the orange and separate the pulp from the partitions using a knife. The orange pieces should be small in size.
Combine rice with dried fruits and citrus. Squeeze the juice out of the remaining orange and pour it into the rice filling. 
IN raw pumpkin add a few pieces of butter. It will make the pulp soft and tender.
Spread rice filling into each pumpkin half.
Sprinkle with sugar or add liquid honey to your taste. Pour milk so that the rice steams in it and becomes softer. Cover the pumpkin with foil and place in the preheated oven. The oven temperature should be about 200°. Foil will protect you from burnt edges. Bake the pumpkin in the oven for about 30 minutes so that the rice is cooked and the pumpkin is baked. When the pumpkin pots with filling are ready, remove the foil and wait for the dish to cool slightly.
Serve garnished with orange slices.
This pumpkin can be served as a sweet dish or dessert.
It is not for nothing that in the folklore of different countries unusual, truly fabulous qualities were attributed to pumpkins. Remember Cinderella in a pumpkin carriage or Pumpkin’s house in the fairy tale “Cipollino”. And at Halloween the pumpkin plays a central role.
Moreover, in all these cases, the pumpkin is used not for its intended purpose, but in the form of a container, a vehicle, or a headdress.
Our ancestors also did not miss this opportunity. But they acted more rationally, turning the pumpkin into a cooking container. Apparently, this method of use was inspired by the great similarity of this vegetable to a pot or cast iron. Moreover, the thick pumpkin bark is so strong that it can withstand high temperatures in the oven. Therefore, they cooked porridge in pumpkin, stewed vegetables and meat, and made casseroles.
Nowadays almost every kitchen has an oven. Its spacious interior also allows you to bake a whole pumpkin in it.
And now - the recipes.
Ingredients:
Cooking method
Recipe for the occasion::
Ingredients:
Cooking method
Ingredients:
Cooking method
Ingredients:
Cooking method
Many housewives complain that their pumpkin lid burns. Therefore, as soon as the lid is covered golden brown crust, remove it, and in its place place a piece of foil, bending it downwards. 10-15 minutes before cooking, return the lid to its place.
To prevent the bottom of the pumpkin from burning, pour a little water on the baking sheet.
The contents of the pumpkin should not reach the very top, otherwise during baking the liquid may overflow and burn.
To bake a whole pumpkin, use any filling: those products that you would put in a clay pot to cook in the oven.
