By Late September. James and I were approved for the Fremont apartment. Move-in date: November 1st. The kitchen sold it — gas range, wide counters, room for the Korean-Taiwanese pantry that is about to become the most extensively stocked Asian ingredient collection in the Fremont neighborhood. I am excited. Not about the apartment (apartments are interchangeable) but about the kitchen. A shared kitchen. The first kitchen I will share with someone who cooks as seriously as I do. The kitchen is the relationship given a room.
The birth mother search: sixteen months with GOA'L, seven months with 325Kamra. No match. The absence of news has become a texture of my life rather than a crisis — the way chronic conditions become textures, things you live with and around rather than things that define you. The search is part of me. The match will come or not come. The life is here regardless, in the Fremont apartment we just signed for, in the jjigae on the stove, in the man across the table.
This week I made hobak-juk — Korean pumpkin porridge, my fall comfort, the golden, sweet porridge that Karen once said "tastes like a garden." Fall in the kitchen means pumpkin and ginger and the slow simmer of comfort foods, and the hobak-juk is the gateway: after the porridge, the stews return, and after the stews, the braises, and the fall cooking arc carries me through to spring.
Saturday: Bellevue. Karen made her potato soup. I brought hobak-juk. Two golden soups, one American, one Korean. Karen ate the hobak-juk and said, "Every fall I look forward to this." She looks forward to Korean pumpkin porridge. The looking-forward is the tradition. The tradition is seven seasons old and counting.
The hobak-juk I brought to Karen’s in Bellevue is a porridge I’ve made so many times it lives in my hands now — but this baked pumpkin pudding is what I make for the evenings after, when the Fremont apartment is quiet and James is reading and the oven is the warmest thing in the room. It’s the same golden color, the same low sweetness, the same patient heat — just in a different form, the kind of thing you slide into the oven and let it do its slow work while the rest of fall settles in around you.
Baked Pumpkin Pudding
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat your oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish or six individual ramekins and set aside.
- Mix the base. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg until smooth and evenly combined.
- Add the wet ingredients. Whisk in the beaten eggs, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract until the batter is fully incorporated and silky.
- Fill and bake. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until the center is just set and a knife inserted near the middle comes out clean.
- Cool and serve. Let the pudding cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with whipped cream if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 210 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 36g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 220mg