Halloween pumpkin soup fondue

I have been making this pumpkin soup recipe for nearly 10 years now. The basis of it came from a lovely friend called Katie. Katie and I were single girls together. We both worked in the film business. Katie had the good fortune of looking like Princess Diana, and sounding like her too. The resemblance was incredible. Her character however was most unlike the dearly departed Di. 

Katie was a curious wild witch. She had a black cat that could speak and everything. He had names not just in English, but also in Russian and he had his own leather jacket with his name on the back in studs.

We had many silly nights in her minute cottage in the deepest of Bukinghamshire. Drinking too much good wine and moaning about boys, and making each other laugh like wild dogs. Katie was one of those wonderful women who are very capable, more than most. She was witty, clever, immensely talented, compassionate and a fabulous cook. She really made me laugh.

One of the most memorable nights spent with Katie was Halloween. Katie had a very generous sense of occasion. She often cracked out her gun for extra fun, lining up plant pots with eggs on top whilst very drunkenly we would attempt to blow up eggs with the air rifle. I was an awful shot, appalling..Katie was excellent of course. Whenever we wondered what her next door neighbour must have thought I am sure it made us just that little bit naughtier. 
Katie loved fireworks....and explosions. I will never forget the untold abandon and squealing when she insisted on tying toilet roll to the base of a rocket and letting it off. It failed of course and came screeching towards us all screaming like banshees as we just managed to dive across the wet garden into the cottage in our boots. Wonderful madness. Katie liked a bit of danger. 

For some reason I don't see Katie anymore, our lives are different now and we are no longer wreckless, selfish singletons. No doubt like me she will be teaching her children not to play with fireworks and remembering wilder times. 

This soup is for a party, an 'in from the cold' kind of gathering. Increase or decrease the ingredients for the size of your pumpkin. This is for 10 people. The recipe is extremely calorific, so I suggest you all go out for a long walk/slash/ski/snowboard/open water swim/run before you eat it. 

Ingredients

Pumpkin 
1 litre single cream
300g Gruyere
300g Fontina
5 garlic cloves finely choppes
Freshly grated nutmeg
Slosh of Vermouth
Cup of chicken/veggie stock
2 cans sweetcorn
Flat leaf parsley chopped
Proscuitto, one per serving

Fresh crusty rye bread 
Raw vegatables to dip like carrots, cauliflower etc

Pop your pumpkin into a deep baking tray and cut out a nice lid, so it will fit back onto the pumpkin. 
Carve out the insides and then pour in the cream, sweetcorn, garlic, cheese roughly chopped into cubes, grated nutmeg, vermouth and stock.
It should be quite liquid like, but not too watery, add more cream or stock accordingly fill the pumpkin up to the lid and place the lid on and into the oven on 180 for about 1 hour 45, or until the pumpkin is cooked and almost collapsed. If you lift the lid and smell that the garlic is cooked, it is ready.

When you serve, take a metal spoon and gouge out the inside flesh of the pumpkin, so you get a balance of pumpkin flesh and fondue soup

Serve it with a slice of crispy proscuitto and a handful of chopped parsley. Dip toasted sourdough and raw hunks of vegetables in your pumpkin fondue soup.