Ghapama

Ingredients

Quantities for 6 servings.

• 3 kg Pumpkin, round, firm-skinned
• 400 g Rice, boiled until half done
• 150 g Dried apricots
• 120 g Prunes
• 100 g Raisins
• 120 g Walnuts
• 80 g Almonds
• 100 g Butter
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• to taste Salt

Method

1. Cut the top off the pumpkin with its stalk; that is the lid. Scoop out the seeds and loose flesh with a spoon, leaving a wall two fingers thick.
2. Boil the rice in salted water for seven minutes, to half done, and drain.
3. Cover the dried fruit with boiling water for ten minutes, drain, and chop the apricots and prunes coarsely. Chop the nuts.
4. Mix the rice with the fruit, nuts, melted butter, honey and cinnamon. Salt it: a sweet filling without salt tastes flat.
5. Fill the pumpkin, without packing it down, put the cut lid back on and set it on a baking tray.
6. Bake at 180 °C for an hour and a half. Test at the side with a knife: it should go into the wall without resistance.
7. Rest fifteen minutes, carry it out whole and cut it into wedges from the crown to the base.