Hot Flavored Pumpkin for Cold, Rainy Days

This was my Halloween themed meal, and though not my favorite of all dishes but still something to try for the open-minded (or should I say open-mouthed ?). As far as my research went, it is an African dish... but I wouldn't bet my pumpkin on it.
Start cooking this 2 hours before you are about to get hungry. Yeah, I know it sounds mean... but I talk from experience. Feel free to play with ingredients, quantities...The (imprecise) figures I will list here are enough for 2 servings:

Ingredients:

• a 2 kg Hokkaido pumpkin
• 300g chopped (or minced) lamb ( / pork / beef) meat
• a handful of rice
• half stalk of leek
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion
• some fresh parsley leaves
  
• raisins
• almonds
  
• 1 tbsp of hot paprika & 1/2 tbsp of sweet paprika powder
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon (not only a spice, but also a medicine)
  
• a pinch of nutmeg
  
• a dash of coriander
  
• a touch of cayenne pepper
  
• juice and peeling of half a lemon
• one small dried chili (or big, or 2 big ones..depends on your tolerated level of hotness)
• some olive oil
• salt and pepper
• playfulness
  

How to prepare your pumpkin:

• Hackle the (already washed) parsley, press the garlic clove(s) and mix them with the meat , the cinnamon, some of the lemon juice and lemon peelings, the spices and salt. Cover the crazy mix and let it rest in the fridge for a while.

• Carve a cap in the pumpkin and hollow it out, just like you use(d) to do with your jack-o'-lanterns. Just don't get carried away and start carving teeth, eyes and nose. You can do that on next occasion. After throwing the juicy part and the seeds away, keep digging the orange consistent part out. This part is a bit challenging. I did it with a spoon and my Wii-muscles. But if it is too difficult, leave it there on the pumpkin's walls. It will end up in your tummy anyway. Spread generously some salt on the empty walls and turn the pumpkin upside down on a waterproof surface. Let the chemistry do it's magic.

• Bring the rice to boil for about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, clean and cut the leek in rings. Then dice the onion and stew it a bit in the olive oil. Add the pumpkin flesh, then the leek rings and finally the lamb meat and keep stirring till it gets a nice brown color. Salt and pepper as much as you please...

• Preheat the oven at 200°C. Mix the rice with the raisins, the almonds, the crumbled chili, the spiced meat you kept in the fridge and what's left of the lemon juice.

• You'll notice the poor pumpkin cried you a river and now you're going to dry it up with some kitchen tissues and fill it up with the stuffing. Add some water or stock over it. Lay it on the baking plate and pour 1-2 cups of water around it, so that it has the necessary moist in the sauna.

• Keep it in the oven for about one hour till the orange flesh gets nice and soft.

• Serve it in the natural shell, with playfulness. Yes, I know I said it's enough for 2. So you need some nice company, 2 spoons maybe and if you're striving for perfection, some fine flavored red wine.

Enjoy it!