Tempura Pumpkin with Cinnamon Ice Cream

This recipe is adapted from Creole Christmas Cookbook by Emeril Lagasse. Really Emeril? This is what people of Creole descent eat around the holidays? Tempura is traditionally a Japanese method of cooking. And frankly I felt I could have been on Iron Chef when I was making this rather complicated recipe, which didn't seem like it would be anyone's standard Christmas dessert. The announcer would be saying, "What is Chef Joanne up to? Something is going into the ice cream maker. Will this be a dessert? The pumpkin is going into the fryer." Fryer? Who owns a fryer?

This recipe has three parts: cinnamon ice cream, caramel sauce and pumpkin tempura. The simple cinnamon ice cream is fabulous, and Andrew thought is was the best ice cream we ever made. I don't know about that, but it is good. The caramel sauce was a total bust. We overcooked it or did something else wrong, but it didn't taste right. The tempura pumpkin sprinkled with cinnamon sugar was also really good. I used white pumpkin with its mild sweet flavor.

Karen, Andrew, the Hub and I did the taste testing. The girls liked the pumpkin better and the guys went for the ice cream. The presentation was beautiful.