Custard Filled Pumpkin

The difficulty with this recipe is, of course, finding a pot large enough to fit your pumpkin, or a pumpkin small enough to fit in your pot! The size favored for this weighs in at around 500 grams, or one pound.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I didn’t make this dish for the photograph. I purchased the slice of ready-made dessert from a stall in the market where I live in Bangkok.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Thoroughly wash the outside of the pumpkin. Cut a circular hole around the stem of the pumpkin, about three to four inches in diameter. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy bits inside the pumpkin. Rinse out the inside of the pumpkin and dry with a clean cloth or paper towels.
• Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add in the coconut cream and palm sugar, and mix slowly until thoroughly blended to a smooth texture.
• Fill the pumpkin with the custard mixture. Now comes the tricky bit: the entire pumpkin needs to be steamed in a double boiler. You can improvise one with a large sturdy ceramic bowl placed in a soup pot. Thais use a woven basket wedged over a pot of boiling water.
• Keep the water boiling until the custard begins to set, then reduce the heat and continue to steam for about 20 to 25 minutes more. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• The dish is usually served at room temperature, and is simply sliced like a cake, then served whole – skin and all.

Thai Pumpkins on sale in a Chiang Mai market.

Pumpkins, along with their other squash relatives, are quite easy to grow in the cool hills around Chiang Mai. While traveling through the mountains along the winding roads, with fields of cabbage, corn, lettuce and other vegetables stretching over the rolling countryside into the distance, you will usually see pumpkin vines tumbling down the steep banks of the roadside and other difficult to cultivate areas. The vines are so aggressive that the farmers just toss the seeds onto any unused plot of land and leave them to their own devices.

Once they have ripened, the flattened squash will be taken down to the markets. Each person seems to have their own method for picking out the best pumpkins. Some prefer to rap the outside and select the pumpkin that has a certain sound. Others prefer the smell test, saying good pumpkins smell sweet. Regardless of how you pick it out, pumpkins are usually sold by weight, although since their size is often quite uniform, some sellers will sell their pumpkins for a fixed price. As with the rest of Thai cuisine, there are no "rules" about the use of pumpkins. While they mostly turn up in desserts, you will often encounter pumpkin in curries and stir-fries.