Fak Thong Yad Sai Moo Sap
Thai Steamed Pumpkin stuffed with Minced Pork
With autumn comes the time for pumpkins. I took advantage of this to try out a Thai dish that I’ve had on my to-cook list for a long time. It’s pumpkin that is hollowed out, filled with minced meat and finally steamed.
Since we don’t have the typical pumpkins from Thailand here, I used a Hokkaido pumpkin. I’ve written down the recipe for this savory Thai “Fak Thong Yad Sai Moo
Sap” (
Ingredients for four servings
- 1 small Hokkaido pumpkin (approx. 800g / 28 oz)
- 500g (17.6 oz) minced pork
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3-5 large Thai chilis
- 4-5 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp red curry paste
- 1 tsp sticky rice flour or cornstarch
- one egg
Preparation
First we peel the garlic and chop it finely. Then we cut the desired amount of Thai chilis into fine rings. Finally, we cut the kaffir lime leaves into thin strips. To do this, it’s best to fold the leaves along the stem and pull it out, so that only the leaf halves remain.
Next, we put the minced meat in a bowl and mix it with the ingredients we just prepared. Then we stir in the curry paste until the meat is evenly covered with it. After that, we add the fish sauce. Finally, we crack an egg and mix it with the minced meat mixture. Then we bind everything with the sticky rice flour.
Now we let the minced meat mixture rest for about ten minutes. In the meantime, we cut off the top of the Hokkaido pumpkin and carefully hollow out the rest with a spoon. We don’t need the scraped-out flesh for this recipe, but it’s excellent as an addition to a curry.
Then we steam the filled pumpkin for about forty five mintues to an hour over hot steam until the minced meat is cooked through and the skin has become soft. I used my steamer set for this.
We then cut the finished pumpkin into wedges, serve it immediately and eat it hot. Jasmine rice goes best with it, as with most Thai dishes.
