LEWISBURG W.Va. (WVDN) – Carnegie Hall’s Second Annual All Things Pumpkin Culinary Contest added a deliciously exciting community event to this year’s Taste of Our Towns Festival on Saturday, Oct. 12. The first official food competition at 38-year-old festival, the All-things Pumpkin competition brought a splendid array of sweet and savory recipes to this year’s judge’s table, located inside the Experience Greenbrier Building throughout the festival.
Fifteen individual community members submitted their best pumpkin recipe in this year’ contest, competing for a $200 cash prize and the second in the series of artisan-made, one-of-a-kind Golden Pumpkin Awards. A wide selection of recipes was entered, ranging from Pumpkin Crème Brulé, Pumpkin Praline Cake and Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls to Pumpkin Hummus and Pumpkin Risotto.
In a surprising turn of events, this year’s winner, Kasadi Shock, was also the recipient of the inaugural Golden Pumpkin Award, having earned top honors in the first annual All Things Pumpkin Contest by popular vote last year with her recipe submission, Whipped Pumpkin Feta Dip. For this year’s competition, guest Celebrity Judges Josh Baldwin (Briergarten), Chaela Neil (Humble Heritage) and Lilly Trout (Executive Chef, the Schoolhouse) sampled all entries during a scored blind tasting experience and selected Kasadi Shock’s 2024 entry, “Pumpkin Samosas” as the overall favorite.
Carnegie Hall’s Education Director, Harmony Flora, creator of the All-Things Pumpkin Contest, was excited about the scope of this year’s participation, stating “Everyone loves a good-natured competition, and it’s fun to be able to bring a food contest to our food festival. When we launch a new event like this, it sometimes takes a bit to gain momentum and to get the word out to everyone that may be interested but having spoken to quite a few people that are already planning their recipe entries for 2025, I think we may have a very competitive contest next year!”
All home cooks, bakers and foodies are encouraged to work on their best pumpkin recipes to be in the running for the third annual Golden Pumpkin Award in October 2025. The following recipe is adapted from the samosa recipe in Raghavan Iyer’s 660 Curries.
For 24 samosas, you will need:
- (2) 9’ pie crusts- preferably homemade, rolled thin for cutting
- 1 tbsp cumin seed
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, fine diced
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro, fine diced
- 2-5 hot peppers of choice, depending on preference.
(For this recipe, 2 fresh serrano peppers and 1 dried cayenne were used).
- 2 sweet onions, halved and sliced thin
- 3 md yellow potatoes, cooked and mashed
- 1 small can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 tbsp salt
To make samosas filling, sauté cumin seed in 2 tbsp neutral oil until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add ginger, cilantro and hot peppers, and cook two more minutes. Add sliced onions and 2 tbsp of water, cook until caramelized. Add mashed potatoes, peas and a can of pumpkin puree until well mixed. Drop by small spoonful onto one side of a 3” cut pie crust round. Fold rounds in half to make a half-moon shape, crimp and seal edges, coat with egg wash and bake at 375 degrees until golden, about 25 minutes. Serve with salted yogurt and lime wedges.
Carnegie Hall is a nonprofit organization supported by individual contributions, grants, and fundraising efforts such as TOOT and The Carnegie Hall Gala. The Hall is located at 611 Church Street, Lewisburg. For more information, please call 304-645-7917 or visit www.carnegiehallwv.org.
