Savory Beef Stew in a Pumpkin for Halloween

Recipe Title:  Savory Beef Stew in a Pumpkin for Halloween (clickhere to go directly to my YouTube video of this recipe)

By: Miriam Borys

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 T coconut oil
6 T olive oil
1 steak (2 cups beef cubes) or approximately

 375 g cross rib steak (but any steak or beef chunks would do)
 1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves
2 tsp. Rosemary
2 tsp. Sage
Salt & pepper
½ cup flour
1 cup red wine
900 ml beef broth or water if stock not available
2 carrots (peeled) – large chunks
1 – 2 cups turnip (peeled) – large chunks
1 ½ potatoes
2 hot peppers diced (no seeds)  or 1-2 tbsp.  hot sauce
1  c fresh pumpkin pulp –large chunks
1 tomato – large chunks
½  cup Barley
4 Bay leaves

Cut up steak or beef roast into large chunks.
In a sauté pan melt coconut oil and add olive oil and heat up oil to medium heat.
Add beef chunks and brown meat until all sides are brown. Add onions, garlic, sage, rosemary, pepper, hot peppers (optional but delicious) and continue to sauté with the onions and beef.
When onions are semi-transparent add flour and continue to cook on low heat for 1 minute until all flour is gone.
Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of red wine. Stir until all the brown bits are off the bottom of the pan.
Add stock and prepared vegetable chunks to the pot and continue to cook for approximately 50 minutes. Add barley after 30 minutes of cooking and stir well. Stew is ready to pour into the pumpkin when the vegetables are just tender.
Open up your fresh pumpkin and remove all the seeds and membrane (the stringy parts).
Cut out a steam hole in to the lid of the pumpkin and save the lid.
When the stew is 90% cooked and barley is tender ladle stew into the empty cavity of a pumpkin. Place onto a foil lined baking sheet and place into a 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 45 to 60 minutes.
Serve this delicious stew right from the pumpkin.

If you have vegetarians in the house you can make this stew without the beef to start with and take out 1 or 2 portions and cook in a separate casserole dish. Then brown the beef in a separate pot and add to the remaining stew and cook in another casserole dish until vegetables are tender. Don’t forget to add the barley to both versions of this stew ½ way through the cooking process.