Pumpkin Puree
My mother, who truly can cook and has done most things from 'scratch' will tell you to forget baking up your own pumpkin and go buy canned pumpkin. My bible of vegetables - http://tinyurl.com/2e6j2u - doesn't exactly tell you the same thing, but it does say that if all you need is puree, canned is fine. This is telling as this particular recipe book is geared towards teaching regular people how to select and cook fresh vegetables.
There's a reason for this. Most of the pumpkins in the market are Jack O' Lantern pumpkins and are grown specifically for size and not for flavour. Sweet pumpkins - the sort you'd actually want to eat or cook into a pie - are much smaller. So, if you actually want to cook your own pumpkin look for the batch of cantaloupe sized pumpkins that most grocery stores carry and call 'pie' pumpkins.
The other reason Mum has for not baking her own pumpkins is the matter of draining them. Pumpkins generally have a lot of excess water in them that must be drained from the cooked pumpkin or else you will have runny pies. There's a couple of quick methods for draining though, that would have made her life easier back when she was still cooking her own pumpkins...
Now then, I just came back from Michigan where poultrygeist99 is part of a veggie delivery service from a local farmer. The farmer simply delivers what's been freshly harvested each week to the recipients and they never know what they're going to get - only that it's fresh and locally grown. She happened to have a pie pumpkin from this farmer on hand and was afraid she was about to receive more. Now then, for the seasoned squash chef, this isn't a problem. Kept in a cool dry basement, pumpkins keep for up to three months. But you've already heard about her battles with cooking up the dread parsnips (btw zucchini muffins never tasted so good!). Anyway, the pumpkin came home with me, and despite the firm family resolve to always buy canned pumpkin puree, I've had fabulous results from it and would like to share.
Insert a very sharp paring knife about an inch and a half away from the stem. You can cut out the top with this paring knife, but if you've got a double-sided serrated knife, that'll work better. Many of us have those knives specifically for carving Jack O' Lanterns. That'll work; I used a grapefruit sectioner.
You can use the same sharp paring knife, though if you've got a 6" or 8" chef's knife, I recommend using one of those (anything larger is likely to be more trouble than its worth with a pumpkin). You want to cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds (save them if you want to roast them, I'll explain how to do that in another post) but don't be too fastidious about cleaning out the stringy stuff. Once you've got the bulk of the seeds and crap out, slice the pumpkin into wedges, rather like you might do with a small melon. From there it's a simple matter to scrape the rest of the crap off the wedges with a sharp paring knife.
Set a baking rack inside a jelly roll pan (you know, those sheet pans we all used to use for baking cookies before they came out with those special flat pans) pour some water in the bottom of the pan - this will steam the wedges both helping to cook them and keeping them from drying out. Lay the wedges of pumkin on their sides on the rack and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour at 400F. You should be able to easily pierce them with a fork.
Once baked and cooled, the skin should peel off easily with a little encouragement from that paring knife. I found that sliced into thin wedges and baked so that they drained as they cooked, my pumpkin was the perfect consistency and did not require any draining.
If your pumpkin looks and/or feels soggy after baking, you've got a couple of options. First is to let it sit on that rack and let it drain itself over the course of several hours (overnight even). Second is to make the puree with soggy pumpkin and then place it in a sieve and let the puree drain. Third, and my personal favourite, is to wrap the soggy puree in a cheesecloth (or other lint-free non-fuzzy towel) and twist both ends of the cloth to squeeze out the water. If you go the cheescloth route, no superhuman efforts, please - there does need to be SOME moisture in the pumpkin! Note also that pumpkin stains.
Now then, I can't leave well enough alone. I also microwaved an acorn squash (stab it with a sharp paring knife several times, or it'll explode, and microwave 6 minutes per pound) and baked two sweet potatoes (one hour at 350F) and pureed them along with the pumpkin. I've already made a batch of pumpkin bars with this puree and they were LOVELY! I still have about three cups of puree left and am strongly considering baking up a couple of apples to add to the puree before making more bars and probably a pie.
Points: 1c canned = 1pt, 1c fresh = 0pts. To be safe, with the mixed puree, I'd give it 1pt per cup.
One last thing, I'm going to be posting several recipes today but I've also got a request. Poultry, could you please post that recipe for zucchini *cough* muffins? I believe I actually have the original recipe, but, erm, you've changed it quite a bit... I would like to know what substitutions you made and would also like to substitute applesauce for the oil.
Author Index
There's a reason for this. Most of the pumpkins in the market are Jack O' Lantern pumpkins and are grown specifically for size and not for flavour. Sweet pumpkins - the sort you'd actually want to eat or cook into a pie - are much smaller. So, if you actually want to cook your own pumpkin look for the batch of cantaloupe sized pumpkins that most grocery stores carry and call 'pie' pumpkins.
The other reason Mum has for not baking her own pumpkins is the matter of draining them. Pumpkins generally have a lot of excess water in them that must be drained from the cooked pumpkin or else you will have runny pies. There's a couple of quick methods for draining though, that would have made her life easier back when she was still cooking her own pumpkins...
Now then, I just came back from Michigan where poultrygeist99 is part of a veggie delivery service from a local farmer. The farmer simply delivers what's been freshly harvested each week to the recipients and they never know what they're going to get - only that it's fresh and locally grown. She happened to have a pie pumpkin from this farmer on hand and was afraid she was about to receive more. Now then, for the seasoned squash chef, this isn't a problem. Kept in a cool dry basement, pumpkins keep for up to three months. But you've already heard about her battles with cooking up the dread parsnips (btw zucchini muffins never tasted so good!). Anyway, the pumpkin came home with me, and despite the firm family resolve to always buy canned pumpkin puree, I've had fabulous results from it and would like to share.
Insert a very sharp paring knife about an inch and a half away from the stem. You can cut out the top with this paring knife, but if you've got a double-sided serrated knife, that'll work better. Many of us have those knives specifically for carving Jack O' Lanterns. That'll work; I used a grapefruit sectioner.
You can use the same sharp paring knife, though if you've got a 6" or 8" chef's knife, I recommend using one of those (anything larger is likely to be more trouble than its worth with a pumpkin). You want to cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds (save them if you want to roast them, I'll explain how to do that in another post) but don't be too fastidious about cleaning out the stringy stuff. Once you've got the bulk of the seeds and crap out, slice the pumpkin into wedges, rather like you might do with a small melon. From there it's a simple matter to scrape the rest of the crap off the wedges with a sharp paring knife.
Set a baking rack inside a jelly roll pan (you know, those sheet pans we all used to use for baking cookies before they came out with those special flat pans) pour some water in the bottom of the pan - this will steam the wedges both helping to cook them and keeping them from drying out. Lay the wedges of pumkin on their sides on the rack and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour at 400F. You should be able to easily pierce them with a fork.
Once baked and cooled, the skin should peel off easily with a little encouragement from that paring knife. I found that sliced into thin wedges and baked so that they drained as they cooked, my pumpkin was the perfect consistency and did not require any draining.
If your pumpkin looks and/or feels soggy after baking, you've got a couple of options. First is to let it sit on that rack and let it drain itself over the course of several hours (overnight even). Second is to make the puree with soggy pumpkin and then place it in a sieve and let the puree drain. Third, and my personal favourite, is to wrap the soggy puree in a cheesecloth (or other lint-free non-fuzzy towel) and twist both ends of the cloth to squeeze out the water. If you go the cheescloth route, no superhuman efforts, please - there does need to be SOME moisture in the pumpkin! Note also that pumpkin stains.
Now then, I can't leave well enough alone. I also microwaved an acorn squash (stab it with a sharp paring knife several times, or it'll explode, and microwave 6 minutes per pound) and baked two sweet potatoes (one hour at 350F) and pureed them along with the pumpkin. I've already made a batch of pumpkin bars with this puree and they were LOVELY! I still have about three cups of puree left and am strongly considering baking up a couple of apples to add to the puree before making more bars and probably a pie.
Points: 1c canned = 1pt, 1c fresh = 0pts. To be safe, with the mixed puree, I'd give it 1pt per cup.
One last thing, I'm going to be posting several recipes today but I've also got a request. Poultry, could you please post that recipe for zucchini *cough* muffins? I believe I actually have the original recipe, but, erm, you've changed it quite a bit... I would like to know what substitutions you made and would also like to substitute applesauce for the oil.
Author Index