Crown prince pumpkin, ricotta, pickled walnut

Pumpkin stock and tare

Cut into quarters and deseed the pumpkin guts and seeds, set aside the quarters.
Place all the trim and guts from the pumpkin, lightly season with salt and a little olive oil.
Lightly smoke and grill until they are lightly caramelised.
In a large pan, add the pumpkin guts and cover with water, spices and kombu.
Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour.
Carefully strain the stock through a fine sieve, discard the pulp and start to reduce the pumpkin stock.
Once the stock has a good flavour, add equal parts of agave and continue to reduce, until the stock becomes glossy.
Add soy sauce and check the seasoning.

Pumpkin

Carefully cut in half then into quarters.
With a spoon take out the “guts” keep these as there are many uses for them, like the tare in this recipe.
Lightly season the pumpkin, and brush with a little olive oil.
Grill slowly all sides for 5-10 minutes depending on how hot you have your grill.
As it starts to color start applying the pumpkin tare ensuring all of the pumpkin gets a coating.

almond ricotta

Soak almonds in hot water for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Blend the almonds and water together to make a ‘milk’, strain out the pulp with a cheesecloth.
Add to a saucepan and heat on low until it is at a gentle simmer (around 5-10 minutes).
Remove from the heat and gently stir in the lemon juice/koji/lactic acid.
Allow to rest for around 2 hours for curds to form.
Prepare a strainer/chinois with a cheesecloth and set over a bowl.
Transfer the curdled almond mixture to the strainer and twist cheesecloth to cover.
Place a weight on top of the cheesecloth to allow the almond ‘curds’ to separate from the ‘whey’.
Ideally leave in the fridge overnight to extrude as much water as possible and to develop a funky flavour.
Season with salt.

serving

Spoon ricotta into a bowl, add around the bowl pieces of the grilled pumpkin.
Slice some pickled walnuts add them to the dish.
Finish with some olive oil, crispy sage, shaved pumpkin.
We finish with smoked pumpkin katsuobushi.