Chilli Pumpkin Ragout and Cherry Clafoutis

I don't like pumpkin. The leverage required to slice through one says missing fingers and the name, because of joke I was once told, says hillbilly coupling.
As a result, this recipe has sat in my recipe book, undisturbed, for a good decade or so. It's quite a good recipe - vegan from when I knew vegans. I'm sure they're still around, we just don't hang out anymore. I went my meaty way and they went theirs. Maybe I do know some and they've been keeping it from me. I obviously feel quite bad about this and maybe my circle of friends is too narrow. Hello! Vegans! Any of you like to be my friend? Maybe I should settle for pescetarians.
I think the recipe is from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, or maybe the Enchanted Broccoli Forest or something.
The dish is a boon for those who would like to practice their dry roasting skills. The total skill set being - the ability to stand at a stovetop for a few minutes without wandering off to check email or see what's on telly; and gentle shaking (of the pan).

1.5kg pumpkin - chopped into chunks; 1tbs cumin seeds; 2tsp oregano; 3/4 cup peeled almonds; 5tbs sesame seeds; 1 onion-chopped; 2 cloves garlic - crushed; 2 small dried chillies - chopped; 250ml of tomato juice; handful of coriander leaves

Dry roast the cumin seeds in a frypan until fragrant then add the oregano and continue for another minute. Grind in a mortar and pestle.
Sautee the onions in oil until soft, add chilli and garlic, and finally the organo/cumin seeds.
Add the pumpkin and tomato juice, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until the pumpkin is soft.
Dry roast the almond and sesame seeds seperately, and grind finely.
Leave a little aside for garnish, add the rest with the coriander to the pumpkin, stir and heat through.
Garnish with ground sesame and almond and a little cream (or not).
You can use gazpacho instead of tomato juice if you happen to have some left over in the fridge.

And that's it.

I've always wanted to make a cherry clafoutis. No particular reason, I just like the sound of it. Same reason I've always wanted to go to Djibouti. It's good value. It's as easy as pancakes. Yorkshire pud without the dripping. You don't even have to pit the cherries - the French don't. Take pleasure in the reduction of the workload and that any guest who doesn't thoughtfully enjoy a slice with sufficient care may lose a tooth or choke to death. A welcome change for the underappreciated kitchen worker. It's so easy I'm not even going to pretend I did anything other than follow this recipe and decide to use the frypan because I used the pie thingy for the last post.

AND I think you should check out Saffy's breakfast peach clafoutis .