Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Pumpkin

I was given a gift. A very large gift. A large round, orange gift that probably weighed a good 12lbs or more.

Finally! I get to accomplish my goal of making a pumpkin pie! Like... you know, from a real pumpkin instead of a can!

Ok, so it's not a "pie pumpkin" as they say...the smaller round looking ones are better for pie because of the fibers or something. Pshaw. A pumpkin is pumpkin to me. If Cinderella's fairy Godmother can turn it into a carriage, I'll turn it into a pie.

So also bought myself a new camera and took some pics of said pumpkin. I don't have my card with me so I'll upload pics later. I didn't as many progress pics but I'm working on the whole food-tography thing.

Anyhow here are the steps I used to process my pumpkin.

1) Sharpen knife for a few minutes.

2) Have your fiancee slice the damn thing into 12ths.

3) Scoop out the stringy things and the seeds and set in a bowl. An ice cream scoop worked very well for this.

4) Arrange the sections of pumpkin on a baking tray and roast in a 300F oven for one to one and a half hours.

5) While that's roasting, add water to your seed and string bowl play in the slime, pulling the seeds (which should float) away from the strings (which kind of sink).

6) Pour the strings and water into a pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain and reserve your PUMPKIN BROTH!!!

7) The pumpkin meat slices in the oven should be tender. Some of mine had pools of what looked like water on the surface. So I dragged my finger through it and took a taste. It wasn't water, it was oil! And it was sweet! I picked up the slice and there was all this gorgeous oil resting at the bottom of my baking sheet! What I didn't lick up stayed in the pan.

8) After the pumpkin slices cool, get the ice cream scoop back out and scoop the cooked meat into a food processor or blender. Wear earplugs.

9) Puree until smooth.

Our pumpkin yielded about 21 cups, including the raw meat. We were definitely cycling the oven for a few hours with slices, one tray at a time. This is very much a weekend project.

I also tossed the seeds with the oil plus salt and pepper and toasted them. I ended up having to add olive oil but still I thought it was pretty friggin cool that I could the pumpkin's own oil to cook its seeds!

Now I get to cook with all my puree! So far I've made pumpkin pie oatmeal and a pumpkin smoothie. More on those with a later post!

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