Pumpkin and Baron Bigod fondue
Here’s one of our all time favourite dishes to serve when hosting friends and family. It’s interactive, fun, and exceptionally tasty! Baron Bigod is a creamy and pungent soft rind cheese made here in Suffolk with raw milk from free-ranging Montebeliarde cows at Fen Farm Dairy. This breed of cow hails from Jura in eastern France, where their rich creamy milk famously makes Comté.
A vegcentric wine pairing?
Well, what grows together goes together, as they say, so our wine pairing hails from Jura too… Savagnin. Savagnin is an indigenous, historic white grape from Jura. It’s a wonderfully old-fashioned tasting wine - citrusy, apple-y and floral, with crisp acidity, and a pleasingly rich, even oily texture, which is a very good match, body-for-body, with this creamy indulgent fondue.
Prep time: 15 mins.
Cooking time: 75 mins.
This recipe serves 4.
Ingredients:
1 small/medium pumpkin - red kuri, onion or kabocha
2 tbsp olive oil
60g strong cheddar
60g Berkswell or parmesan
120g Baron Bigod
1 heaped tbsp corn flour
1 clove garlic, minced
⅓-½ cup wine
80g creme fraiche
To serve:
2 bulbs chicory or endive
charcuterie
sliced sourdough
boiled potatoes
green salad
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Cut the ‘hat’ off your pumpkin as if you were carving it for halloween, then scoop out the seeds and stringy bits from its centre. Either discard these, or toss lightly with olive oil and sea salt and roast until crispy to serve alongside your fondue!
Rub the pumpkin very lightly with olive oil, inside and out, then roast in the middle of the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Roast the ‘hat’ too but not on the pumpkin itself.
Meanwhile prepare the filling by grating the cheddar, grating the Berkswell or parmesan, and cutting the Baron Bigod into small pieces. Mix your cheese with the cornflour and minced garlic. It’ll look dry and dusty but that’s fine at this stage.
After 30 minutes remove the pumpkin from the oven and turn the oven up to 200C. Tip the pumpkin upside down for a few minutes to allow any excess water to fall away.
Spoon your cheese mix into the cavity and layer in the crème fraîche and white wine as you go. Return to the hot oven for a further 35-40 minutes. Again, continue roasting the ‘hat’ but don’t have this sitting on top of the cheese.
After 35-40 minutes the top should be golden and gratinated and some cheese filling may have deliciously bubbled over the top and caramelised. Allow the fonude to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Serve at the table with all the classic accoutrements and don’t forget to eat the roasted pumpkin itself too! Give it a good stir before serving. Perfect with a chilled glass of Savagnin.