Happy Halloween…here’s a special recipe for Día de los Muertos!

Every year we celebrate Day of the Dead at Oyamel in DC and China Poblano in Vegas

Today of course is Halloween, which means it’s time for our Día de los Muertos celebration, a festival we celebrate every year at my restaurants Oyamel in Washington DC and China Poblano in Las Vegas where we honor the life of legendary cultural figures from Mexico and beyond. This year at Oyamel we are honoring the life of Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Vicente Fernández…and at China Poblano we are celebrating my late friend Diana Kennedy, the amazing cookbook author who loved Mexico Mexican cooking like no one. Oyamel’s head chef Omar Rodriguez has created a special menu inspired by Vicente’s home of Guadalajara, the birthplace of tequila and Mariachi music…so you can expect an amazing fiesta! 

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One of the recipes Omar created for this year’s menu is a special dessert that honors one of Mexico’s most classic foods for Día de los Muertos. It’s called calabaza en tacha. This candied pumpkin is traditionally cooked in cauldrons with piloncillo syrup (made from Mexican sugar cane). The word “tacha” refers to the cauldrons which had historically been used for processing the sugar from the harvested sugar cane. Omar has taken those amazing flavors and put them together in a smooth, silky flan that I love, just barely sweet with lots of pumpkin flavor.

Pie pumpkins are great for this recipe…if you’re using a thin-skinned one like a sugar pie pumpkin, it should only take about 25 minutes to roast. If you’re using thicker skinned pumpkins, or your leftover Halloween pumpkins, it may take a bit longer. Roast until the pumpkin is easily pierced with a knife. You will have more roasted pumpkin than you will need for this recipe, so freeze what’s left over, and make soup or mix into another dish that you love…sometimes I will do mac and cheese with pumpkin!

The flan can be kept for a few days, covered in plastic and refrigerated. After a day or two you will want to allow the flan to come to room temperature before serving to let it soften.

Calabaza en Tacha Flan

Ingredients

1 small pie pumpkin, preferably a thin-skinned sugar pie pumpkin

Kosher salt

¾ cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. 

Cut the stem off the pumpkin, then cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle salt on the cut side of the pumpkin.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place the pumpkin cut side down and roast until tender and easily pierced with a knife, about 25 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare the caramel: Put 1/2 cup of the sugar in a small saucepan and cook, stirring, over low heat. After 5 or 6 minutes, the sugar should be liquid and turning light brown color. Continue stirring and cook for another 7 or 8 minutes, until it becomes dark brown. Be careful not to let the caramel burn.

Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add 2 tablespoons of warm water. (The caramel will sputter and release steam as it hardens.) Stir in 2 more teaspoons of warm water and return the pan to the stove over low heat. Continue cooking, constantly stirring, until the caramel is thick and syrupy, about 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour the caramel into 4 ramekins or custard cups (about six ounces), swirling the caramel to coat the sides and bottom. Set the ramekins aside. 

After the pumpkin has cooled enough to handle, scrape out all the pumpkin flesh into a mixing bowl and discard the skins. Be careful not to let any of the skin stay on the pumpkin flesh. Mash the pumpkin with the back of a spoon or potato masher. Set aside 3/4 cup of cooked pumpkin and refrigerate or freeze the remaining pumpkin for use in other dishes. 

Combine the ¾ cup pumpkin with milk, heavy cream, salt, vanilla extract and the remaining ¼ cup of sugar in a sauce pot. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook for 5 minutes. 

Remove from the heat and stir in gelatin until well combined. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes. 

Pour the mixture into a blender and blend until very smooth, then strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Fill each ramekin with the pumpkin mixture and chill in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours or overnight. 

When ready to serve, run a thin knife around the sides of a ramekin. Don’t slide the knife all the way into the cup; just release the top edge of the flan from the edge of the cup. Invert the mold onto a plate, shake gently to help the flan slide out of the mold, and serve immediately.