Pumpkin Banana Mouse Pie

When we first lived in Mt Edgecombe, Natal,

our house backed onto a blue gum plantation.

Between the forest and the back garden

there was a fairly wide strip of land

that became overgrown with weeds if not cleared from time to time.

To keep the weeds at bay we planted bananas, pumpkin and squash there.

They did so well in the warm, moist environment,

giving us a bumper crop each year,

which necessitated finding ways to use them.

Here's one that went down well with all the family,

except my husband, who refuses to eat any curcubits,

although he will eat cucumber,

which I'm not fond of as it gives me wind.

He doesn't know what he is missing!

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Ingredients:

Biscuit base:

1/2 packet of ginger biscuits

1/2 packet digestive biscuits

100ml sugar

5ml cinnamon

125g melted butter

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Filling:

125ml double cream

425g cooked mashed pumpkin

250ml soft brown sugar - Demerara or Muscovado

5ml salt

5ml cinnamon

1ml nutmeg

3 egg yolks

1 packet gelatin powder

60ml cold water

1-2 bananas, mashed or blended in a mini blender

zest of 1 orange

125ml double cream

30ml caster sugar

Whipped cream, orange zest and a sprinkling of cinnamon to decorate

Icing sugar for a dusted topping

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Method:

To make the base:

Put the biscuits in a blender and blitz them to a fine crumb texture.

Add the sugar, cinnamon and melted butter and mix to a crumbly dough.

Press this mixture into the base of a 8-9 inch spring-form cake tin, the base of which has been lined with baking paper.

Bake this in a 180C oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. Once it has cooled, this can be refrigerated for an hour or so to harden if you have time.

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To make the Filling:

Warm the double cream in a double boiler, or a glass dish over a pan of boiling water.

Into the cream, mix the pumpkin, soft brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, adding a little of the pumpkin mixture to it and whisking this before adding to the pumpkin mixture. Blend over hot water.

Soften the gelatin in the cold water.

Take the pumpkin off the heat and add the banana, softened gelatin and the zest of an orange.

Place the double cream and caster sugar in a glass bowl and whisk until you reach the soft peak stage. Be careful not to over whisk, or you'll end up with butter.

Fold the cream into the pumpkin mixture.

Pour this filling into the pan with the crust and put it into the fridge to set.

Once set, remove from the cake tin and place on a serving plate. Decorate with whipped cream, piped around the edge, leaving the pumpkin layer in the centre of the pie exposed. Sprinkle orange zest and cinnamon over the pumpkin filling and dusk with a little icing sugar.

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