Dinner party number nine, with bonus nostalgia

The ninth dinner party was for a group of lovely cousins.

The menu:

Camembert baked with white wine and garlic, with carrot sticks and bread sticks for dipping

Roast chickens with vermouth gravy

Roast potatoes

Onions baked in cream

Salad:  rocket, watercress, avocado, citrus segments, sugar snap peas, peas, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin pie with ice cream

Pumpkin pie

I grew up amongst Americans – although not actually in America – and as a result attended quite a few Thanksgiving dinners. The first one was the most intense, including a reading of the pilgrims’ story from a children’s book, with voices and (forced) audience participation. My dad was scarred by the experience and from then on remained mildly horrified by the whole idea. But I was sold – stuffing! pie! cranberry sauce! I could sit through a great deal of pageantry and public thanksgiving for all that deliciousness. And so we continued on to many Thanksgiving dinners in subsequent years, and I continued to love the food.

So much so that, years later and once again living in South Africa, my sister and I organized our own Thanksgiving dinners for two years in a row with various friends and family members. They were good, but without the necessary Americans it felt like a bit of a forced production, so we stopped.

I was sad about the loss of Thanksgiving dinner, until it one day occurred to me that, hey, I can make my favourite parts of Thanksgiving dinner whenever I feel like it, without actually having to have a Thanksgiving dinner. I do not, in fact, need a turkey with all the trimmings in order to justify making a pumpkin pie.

So now I can make pumpkin pie whenever I feel like it.

And a close-up!

The recipe I use is Jean Sorrels’, my childhood best friend’s mother. The Sorrels family hosted us for our second, and my favourite ever, Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t remember too much from the main course, aside from the fact that we ate a vast amount and that, since it was November in Russia and the meal started at 4pm, it was pitch dark by the time we finished. The three Sorrels girls and my sister and I went outside to the playground after dinner and played in the snow, eventually laying down to make snow angels and stare at the stars. Then we went back inside, cheeks and noses pink from the cold, and Jean produced her homemade pumpkin pie and pecan pie with whipped cream.

Pumpkin pie

Serves 12

I think (but am not American, so do not know for sure) Jean’s pumpkin pie is quite traditional, and there are all sorts of variations and things you can add to fancy up a pumpkin pie. But as is probably obvious, I am very nostalgic about Thanksgiving dinner in general and pumpkin pie in particular, so this is the only pumpkin pie I’ll ever make.

A note on the pumpkin used in the filling: I cheat and use butternut, which I like better and is easier to work with. I peel and cube it, roast it, mash it, then push it through a sieve to make it really smooth. You don’t have to do the last bit, and you can steam instead of roast, although I think roasting makes for a more flavourful pie.

Pastry for one-crust pie (I use classic shortcrust pastry, one recipe’s worth, but store-bought is fine)

1 ½ c strained, cooked pumpkin (see note above)

2 large eggs

1 x 380g tin, or 1 ½ c, evaporated milk

2 tbsp high test molasses

½ c brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground ginger (I used a bit less)

½ tsp ground cinnamon (I used a bit more)

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 230 C. First, blind-bake the pastry: roll out the pastry and line a standard pie tin or quiche tin. Lay some tinfoil or baking paper over the pastry shell and fill with baking beans. When the oven is up to temperature, slide the lined tin onto a baking sheet and into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the pastry shell is in the oven, place the pumpkin, eggs, evaporated milk, and molasses in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk again, making sure there are no lumps.

When the pastry has baked for 10 minutes, remove it from the oven, lift the tinfoil/baking paper out and pour the pumpkin filling into the shell. Slide into the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 230 C, then lower the temperature to 180 C for a further 30 minutes. Check the pie after 15 minutes at 180 C – if the crust is starting to get quite brown, cover just the crust (not the whole pie) with some foil to prevent burning (I was distracted and did a very sloppy job with this, and ended up with some of the foil sadly making marks on the finished pie’s surface).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Leftovers make an excellent breakfast.

I tried to hide the worst of the foil-damaged top of the pie
with the cunning use of foliage