Visitors to Nantucket usually return home with glowing food memories. Maybe the sea air livens appetites, but more likely it's the good Yankee cooking. Susan Simon's The Nantucket Holiday Table offers 75 recipes interlarded with personal stories, historical lore, and interesting asides such as "What's It Like in the Wintertime?" Rooted in old New England culinary tradition
Martha Fish made this entry in her diary on November 27, 1884: "Thanksgiving Day, had puddings as usual..." I suggest that you follow Martha's Thanksgiving tradition and serve this pumpkin pudding instead of pumpkin pie for a change.
Servings: 8-10
3/4 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
6 large eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 rounded teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 rounded teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups heavy cream
Thinly julienned crystallized ginger for garnish
In a small saucepan, combine the 3/4 cup sugar with the water. Bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon and washing down the sides of the pan once or twice with a wet pastry brush. Cook the syrup until it's amber-colored. Immediately remove from heat and pour into an 8-cup charlotte mold or loaf pan. Repeatedly tilt the mold in a circular motion until the sides and bottom are evenly coated. Set aside and let harden.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, using a whisk, beat the eggs with the 2/3 cup sugar. Add the pumpkin, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and 2 cups of the heavy cream and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into the caramel-lined mold. Place the mold in a baking pan and fill the baking pan with hot water. If using a charlotte mold, the water will only reach one fourth to one third of the way up the sides of the mold. If using a loaf pan, let the water reach halfway up the sides. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 2 hours (the loaf will cook faster than the mold), or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the pudding cool, then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
Just before serving, whip the remaining 1 cup cream until stiff. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a wide fluted tip with the cream.
To serve, run a knife around the edge of the mold and invert the mold onto a platter. Decorate the pudding and the platter with rosettes of whipped cream. Decorate the rosettes with the julienned ginger.
