She finally cooked!

Tonight’s diner is once again from Mere Poulard’s cookbook that I bought in France. For a first course I started with Creamy Pumpkin and Chervil Soup. Serves 4-8, you can freeze leftovers.
Ingredients:
1 Pumpkin 3.3#
Note: Look for pie pumpkins, do not buy a carving one. I measured the amount this pumpkin produced and it is 4 cups if you want to use canned pumpkin. The color will be different as fresh pumpkin is more light orange than that in a can.
2 shallots
2 onions
1 leek
2T butter
17 oz chicken stock
1 qt. whole milk
1 large potato
1 T cream
1t sugar
1 bunch of chervil
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Beaufort cheese shavings
• The directions start with peel the pumpkin and scrape out the seeds and fiber, cutting the flesh in large chunks. None of my peelers would even scratch the peeling. I remembered from making a pumpkin pie from scratch that I baked the pumpkin and then scraped out the flesh. Jim cut the pumpkin in to four chunks with great difficulty and I microwaved the pieces. It worked perfectly. Even though I’m against the canned pumpkin as Jim said it will save fingers and hands.
• Peel and chop all the onions. Melt the butter in a 4-5 Qt pan and then lightly fry the onions. Add the pumpkin. (Recipe says to sweat for 5 minutes, but cooking in the microwave eliminates this step.) Add a teaspoon of sugar and season with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile peel and roughly chop the potato and add to the pan with the mild and chicken stock. Cover and cook on low for an hour.
• I used my emersion blender to liquefy and did not put the soup through a sieve.
• Add a spoonful of cream before serving and garnish with cheese shaving and chervil leaves.
Note: I could not find fresh chervil or Beaufort cheese. Wegman’s suggested Gruyere and I sprinkled with dried chervil.
I ate one bowl and Jim ate two. I have at least 6 bowls left over. I would say the 4 to 6 is a full meal not a starter. This soup is wonderful and would be great to serve at a Thanksgiving buffet in Espresso cup size. Any more than that and nothing else would be eaten.
The main course was Scallop and Mushroom Pie. It also says 6-8 servings. There are 4 servings left and Jim ate 2 servings the size of 3 and I ate one. This is one of these recipes that really explaines why Julia Child had to spend so much time translating. Although this is in English, whoever did the translation had some problems. It was excellent, but I will do the recipe and then tell you what I would do the next time.
Ingredients:
1.1 # puff pastry
12 Scallops with Roe (Good luck finding this. I bought the extra large scallops based on what I saw there, but I think regular sea, not bay, would be fine.)
2.8 oz butter
2 shallots
1 bunch herbs (What herbs you ask? That is all it said. I bought a mix called seafood. I left the lemon grass whole and just saved Jim from eating it.)
9 oz field mushrooms ( I used baby bella and also Ceps. We had them in France and they were devine. They were also $13 per pound so I bought them as a treat to round out the 9 oz of mushrooms. I did not chop them so we knew we were eating something special.
2.8 oz crème fraiche
3 egg yolks
Freshly ground salt and pepper
• Roll out half the pastry and use to line a flat tin, and then chill. Note: I used a sheet pan with sides as I was correct in thinking it would leak from the pastry.
• Sweat the 2 chopped shallots in the butter. Add the fresh herbs and chopped mushrooms; simmer for a few minutes and then drain. (Note: Not much to drain. More later on this)  Mix 2 of the egg yolks with the crème fraiche and add to the mushroom mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Cool.
• Slice the scallops in half horizontally and season with salt and pepper.
• Pour half the mushrooms in the cooled pastry and top with the scallops. Top with the remaining mushroom mixture and the second pastry. Place the second half of the pastry on top and crimp and seal the edges. Make a hole in the center and use the third egg yolk to glaze the top crust.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Let rest a little before serving.
As scallops cook they let off a lot of liquid. Although the dish was delicious the bottom crust was not crisp. I am wondering if it would be just as good in individual ramekins with just the crust on top, or maybe put an oven liner below the pie and let the liquid run off. I imagine it would be easy to cut this recipe in half. Jim and I will be eating it for lunch for the next few days as I do not think it would freeze.