Gourd almighty

Diners visiting the 1 Lombard Street restaurant in the City of London today (31 October) will find a few specials running alongside the normal à la carte menus. For, just as he does every Hallowe'en, executive chef Herbert Berger is offering a selection of pumpkin-based dishes to mark the occasion.

And we're not talking clich‚d dishes such as pumpkin pie. No, Berger has come up with a selection of innovative options (shown here) to keep his diners happy. "I think my wife's to blame for my obsession with pumpkins," Berger smiles. "She's American and so has always been into having pumpkins on display for Hallowe'en. That originally sparked my interest in cooking with them, and I now always try to come up with something a bit different for our customers. It's especially important in the City, as there are a lot of Americans working here and they do like to celebrate Hallowe'en."

In terms of their inherent flavour, pumpkins are not the most inspiring of ingredients. "Actually, they're pretty bland," Berger admits, "but their fabulous colour makes them a useful ingredient, and they are incredibly versatile. It's possible to use them in savoury dishes and to sweeten them for use in desserts."

The first pumpkin dish Berger can recall was a pumpkin soup, and over the years he has discovered that the best recipe for this uses three-quarters pumpkin to one-quarter carrots. "The carrots lend the soup a sweetness and add another dimension," he explains.

The soup is a traditional use for pumpkin but running alongside it on his menu is a parfait, showcased here, which is a relatively new take on the ingredient. Berger says it's the best way he has so far found of serving it as a dessert. "Personally, I don't like the flavour, texture or heaviness of pumpkin pie," he says, "so I've tried to be a bit more creative than that. The parfait is a lovely, light way of presenting pumpkin in a dessert."

But Berger's most spectacular pumpkin dish to look at is, undoubtedly, a navarin of lamb served in a scooped-out "turban-style" pumpkin. "I first did this several years ago for a post-shoot private dinner for Rocco Forte at his home," he recalls. "He wanted something unusual and generous, so I came up with this. It's a bit gimmicky, but it does create a lovely spectacle when it's brought to the table and the steaming stew is ladled out of the inside."

Cassoulet, hotpot and chicken fricassee, suggests Berger, might all work similarly well, served in a pumpkin, and make a good main course for private events throughout the winter season. "I would recommend cooking the navarin, casserole or whatever to about three-quarters ready before finishing it off by baking it in the pumpkin," he says. "This means the pumpkin won't go soft, disintegrate or allow any of the contents to seep out."

He adds: "After baking for just a little while, you'll find the oil from the pumpkin skin works its way to the surface and gives it the most beautiful shine. Served in a candle-lit dining room, it looks amazing."

Despite his creativity with whole pumpkins, it is, however, pumpkinseed oil that really fascinates Berger. Indeed, it is never absent from his menu, with his signature salad of artichokes, French beans and wild mushrooms in pumpkinseed oil (see recipe) on offer both in the fine-dining room and the brasserie of 1 Lombard Street throughout the year.

Pumpkinseed oil derives from the Styria region of Berger's home country, Austria. But it was only after he emigrated to the UK in the 1970s that he began using it. "As I was growing up in Austria and doing my apprenticeship there, I knew about the existence of this oil, but it was very expensive and extremely rare, so I never got to try it," he says. "It was only when I was working at Claridge's in the mid-1980s that I finally managed to get hold of some and start playing around with it, and I've used it ever since."

Excellent dressing
The oil is very thick and extremely dark - "it looks just like engine oil" - with a rich, nutty, bittersweet flavour. "Initially," says Berger, "I used it to pep up plain salads, but since then I've found it complements peppers, onions and herbs, as well as artichokes and wild mushrooms. What's more, it's great drizzled on pumpkin soup or mashed potato. And it's excellent as a dressing for game or foie gras, mixed with balsamic vinegar."

According to Berger, the oil is so versatile that it also adds another dimension when sprinkled, sparingly, over seared scallops, other shellfish, or a cold beef salad.

About 40 portions of Berger's signature dish are sold daily in 1 Lombard Street, which helps to explain how he gets though some three to five litres of the oil every week and is constantly having to reorder it from his London supplier, Bob Campbell. "In truth, I am a bit addicted to using pumpkinseed oil," he confides, "but this is because it has far more flavour than any other oil I've ever worked with."

Varieties of pumpkin

Pumpkins belong to the cucurbita family of plants, which also includes squashes and cucumbers. There are numerous varieties of pumpkin, which fall into three main groupings:

• Cucurbita pepo - this group includes the Hungarian Mammoth (which varies from white to dark green, grey or orange in colour and can weigh up to 170kg), the Jack-be-Little (a very small pumpkin common in the USA, measuring only 7.5cm in diameter), and the Styrian oil pumpkin (see separate box), as well as most summer squashes, gourds and courgettes.
• Cucurbita maxima - these are the monsters of the pumpkin patch and include the Crown Prince (grey-blue skinned fruit with fine-ground orange flesh, and weighing around 5kg), the Jackpot (a hybrid pumpkin with mottled skin, weighing 5-7kg), and the Jaune Gros de Paris (a russet-skinned pumpkin with dense flesh, measuring around 45cm across), as well as the Hubbard squash, the Boston squash and many other winter squashes.
• Cucurbita moschata - this group of pumpkins tend to be oblong in shape, with tan-coloured skins, and in the USA they are used for tinned pumpkin. Other members of this family include butternut squash, cushaw squash and winter crookneck squash.

Pumpkin-seed oil

The Styrian oil pumpkin from which the Austrian oil derives is a member of the Cucurbita pepo family (see separate box). It is a yellow-green pumpkin with shiny, dark green seeds inside a yellowy-orange fruit pulp. Unlike those in other varieties of pumpkin, the seeds have no outer shell, so can be used directly after drying, without any further preparation.

The pumpkinseeds are harvested by hand, then washed and heated to 60°C for a few minutes. Once roasted, they are pressed under high pressure and the pure oil is bottled directly.

Pumpkinseed oil is renowned for its medicinal properties, containing as it does vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, E and K, as well as calcium, magnesium and more than 60% unsaturated fatty acid. It is claimed that the oil can help regulate cholesterol levels and aid in the prevention and treatment of bladder and prostate conditions.

Salad of artichokes, French beans and wild mushrooms in pumpkin seed oil (serves 4)

Navarin of lamb cooked in a pumpkin (serves 10)

Pumpkin parfait glac‚ with chocolate sauce and maple anglaise (serves 10-12)