I replace my herbs and spices on a regular basis. The whole point of herbs and spices is that they're full of volatile flavonoids. If they weren't volatile we wouldn't be able to smell them or taste them as strongly as we do. Their volatility (ability to be easily vaporized) is both their strength and their Achilles' heel – these flavors which we prize breakdown quickly. Unfortunately, herbs and spices have a second drawback: they tend to be expensive.

A couple of years ago I was at my local Whole Foods (then the one in Berkeley, California,) replacing my collection of aged spices. Along with my other grocery items I had a jumble of little glass bottles of spices in my cart. Heading towards the produce department I noticed the display of bulk herbs that I had never paid attention to before. I had often bought cereal, grains, and dried fruit from Whole Foods' bulk bins, but somehow the herb department had slipped my notice (possibly because at the time it was located in cosmetics and medicines, with culinary and medicinal herbs intermingled – in Berkeley it has since been relocated to the same place as the other bulk foods.)

This particular day, having noticed the bulk herbs and spices for the first time, I decided to compare what I had in my cart to what was being sold in bulk. I was stunned at the price differential. I knew that the bulk grains and fruits were cheaper than their prepackaged counterparts, but the difference in cost for herbs and spices was astounding. I filled baggies with all the products I needed, then returned those little glass bottles to the shelves where they belong. At home, rather than throwing away the old bottles and replacing them with new, I poured out the old contents, refilling the bottles with the fresh, vibrant, herbs and spices I had bought in bulk.

Recently, I was at Berkeley Bowl (a local natural grocery store.) In their bulk department I noticed a bin of large grain sea salt. I was out of sel gros and had it on my shopping list. The price at Berkeley Bowl for sea salt in the bulk department was $.80 a pound. The price for my usual brand was $4.99 for a 1.5 pound canister. So now I am buying my salt in bulk too.

There are two other great benefits to buying in bulk; first, you can buy much smaller amounts of those spices you use infrequently. I’ve never made it through a bottle of cloves before I considered them too old to use. Now I buy half an ounce at a time, so they’re always super-fresh and there is no waste. Also, I am no longer disposing of all those bottles. Sure, they don’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things, but every bit helps.

When I tell people about this they are almost universally as surprised as I was. So I figured I would pass on the tip – just remember, if you're shopping at Whole Foods in Oakland or Berkeley, or at Berkeley Bowl, leave some for me ;-)

For illustration, the following are some of the prices for a few bulk spices and for salt from the Oakland Whole Foods, and their corresponding prices for those products in packages. Note that sometimes there is not a perfect comparison, as in many cases the packaged product is available under different brands at different prices. These numbers are solely for illustration, prices in your area and for your favorite brands will certainly be different. For convenience I have converted all weights to ounces. [Check out the vanilla for the truly crazy price difference.]

Start with one nice orange pumpkin (not the jack-o'-lantern kind,) weighing somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds (or 30 or 40 or 50 pounds, adjusting everything accordingly.) Using your chef's knife, cut a large round disc out of the top (retaining the stem as a handle if possible.) Scoop out the seeds and guts. Depending on the type of pumpkin, the seeds may or may not be worth saving and toasting as a snack. Pumpkins have good structural integrity, but won't stand up under their own weight through long cooking, so rest the pumpkin in some kind of ovenproof pot, and place, empty and topless, in a 350°F oven.

You will want to cut up some amount of a flavorful, tough cut of lamb. The quantity will depend on the size of your pumpkin. In my case I took a three or four pound hunk of lamb shoulder from my local halal butcher, hacking it to bits, willy-nilly, with a nice heavy Chinese cleaver. This is a rustic dish, so niceties like careful separating of the bones and proper muscling out of meat go right out the window. Salt the lamb pieces and sear on all sides, then set them aside and deglaze the pan with water to create a nice instant lamb stock. [I find that a wok works great for this.] Chop and slice up some vegetables to add to the mix. I used carrots, onions and some rutabaga. I also threw in a nice handful of dried apricots and something like a cup of pecans.

When the pumpkin is nice and hot, toss in the lamb, stock, vegetables, dried fruits and nuts, and whatever else you might be using. I like to add precooked rice (it takes too long for raw rice to cook inside the pumpkin, and it soaks up too much of the juices.) I also add barley, which I par-cook in a pressure cooker (again, I don't want the barley to be undercooked and I don't want it to absorb too much liquid.) My main spices for this dish are sumac (which you should be able to find at any Middle Eastern grocery store,) cumin, coriander, and salt pepper to taste.

Cover with the pumpkin’s lid, return to the oven, lower the temp to 300°-325°F, and cook until done. This is likely to be something like two or three hours depending upon the size and weight of your pumpkin, what you’ve chosen for fillings, and how full it is. You may also find that the ingredients cook more thoroughly if allowed to bake for a longer time at a lower temperature. Again, this is a function of what ingredients you've chosen to use, and if you like some of the ingredients (e.g. carrots) to remain toothsome, etc.

To serve, spoon out portions of the stew and scoops of the inside of the pumpkin. Use care when scooping out pumpkin, as it can collapse if the walls are breached – much like a medieval castle. Garnish with chopped parsley, yogurt, and more sumac. I also like to add sprinkles of ground, burnt mint leaves, especially on top of the yogurt where the black color contrasts with the white background. Don't bother looking for ground, burnt mint leaves in any store, you'll need to make your own.

 

As always, if you or any of your diners don't enjoy the results, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This recipe will self-destruct in 10 seconds. Good luck Jim.


Postscript:




Since posting this blog entry I have received questions about what kind of pumpkins I cook with. It is a little bit hard to say. Some of the bins of pumpkins at Berkeley Bowl were marked, others weren't. Moreover, though marked with individual varietal names, many of the bins were a jumble of different pumpkins. I believe that I purchased Cinderella (used in the recipe above,) Fairytale, Jaradale (not shown - I ate 'em,) Blue Hubbard (unfortunately, a rat got to them before I did - no joke,) and one Sugar pumpkin which, sadly, turned to mush very quickly - quite a mess! I haven't tried cooking any of the pinkish-white pumpkins you see in the photo, and so far I have failed to ID them. Possibly they are Blue Max (suggestions?) [BTW, the plastic container with red liquid is fermenting red-cabbage sauerkraut - the jar in top is full of water and is just being used as a weight.]


Unfortunately, pumpkins are hard to get in the US after mid-November. My understanding is that this is purely a function of demand. Americans only demand pumpkins in October; after mid November they are gone. However, pumpkins store very well. It should not be difficult for wholesalers or grocers to keep pumpkins as easily as other squashes, apples, tubers, etc. Furthermore, pumpkins could be grown in most of the places that we get all of our out-of-season produce. They could be available year-round, they just aren't.


Also, I had always heard that "jack-o-lantern" pumpkins were grown only for size and appearance and not for flavor - thus not worth cooking. Recently people have been telling me that, while not as good as other varieties, jack-o-lanterns are OK to cook with. Your mileage may vary.