Camarão na Moranga

Heat the oven to 200°C. Scrub the pumpkin, which should be round and flat-based. With a sturdy knife, cut a lid about 14 cm across around the stalk, angling the blade towards the centre so the lid cannot drop inside, and lift it off.

Scrape the seeds and stringy fibres out of the pumpkin and off the lid with a metal spoon. Season the inside with salt and black pepper, put the lid back on and wrap the whole pumpkin in foil.

Stand the pumpkin in an ovenproof dish a little wider than its base, the one it will be served in, since once cooked it is too soft to move safely. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, then fold back the foil at the top, lift the lid with an oven glove and test: a knife pushed into the flesh inside should slide in easily while the outside still holds firm. If not, put the lid back, close the foil and bake for 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley, and deseed and chop the tomatoes. Peel and devein the prawns if they are shell-on; 800 g peeled is about 1.3 kg in the shell. Take the cream cheese out of the fridge to soften.

When the pumpkin has about 30 minutes to go, toss the prawns with the juice of 1 lime and a little salt and black pepper, and leave them for 10 minutes, no longer, as the lime juice starts to firm them. Drain them and pat dry with kitchen paper so they sear rather than stew.

Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over high heat and sear the prawns in two batches for 1 minute per side, just until they turn pink. Tip them onto a plate; they finish cooking in the oven, and cooked through now they would turn rubbery.

Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil and the onion, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until soft. Stir in the garlic for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and the tomato paste and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the tomatoes break down into a thick sauce.

Take the pumpkin out, leaving the oven on, and unwrap it, keeping clear of the steam. Lift off the lid and set it aside, and spoon out any liquid that has gathered inside. Scrape about 300 g of flesh from the inside with a spoon, leaving a wall about 2 cm thick so the shell holds its shape.

Mash the scraped pumpkin flesh into the sauce with a fork, stir in the double cream and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in 100 g of the cream cheese until it melts into the sauce. Add the prawns with any juices from the plate, the parsley and the juice of the second lime, and season with salt and black pepper.

Spread the remaining 200 g of cream cheese over the inside of the pumpkin with the back of a spoon, then pour in the prawn sauce.

Return the pumpkin to the oven, uncovered, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and the cream cheese at the edges has melted into it.

Set the lid back on and bring the pumpkin to the table. Serve the prawns and sauce with soft pumpkin scraped from the walls of the shell.