Pumpkin – Halloween, Pies, Soups - Enjoying

it is fall and pumpkins are everywhere.
even in good old europe people started to enjoy pumpkin.
my 11yo rather eats pumpkin than cauliflower.

in a couple of weeks halloween is here again, and we will be all in the kitchen fighting with a big pumpkin to get a jackolaterne - sure i enjoy that.

but such a laterne leaves you alone in the kitchen with a huge amount of pumpkin-flesh and the thoughts: what shall i do with it.

so i would like to share the favorites recipes about pumpkin.
what do you enjoy most. tell us your secret pumpkin recipe.

is it it soup, hotpot, jam, pie?



source: my camera


[edit on 18-9-2008 by orange-light]

maybe i am the only one who enjoys pumpkin

ok pumpkin soup is great

cook the pumpkin in water with broth, smash it and season to taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinamon, broth
add a little cream and enjoy

any tricks to deal with the pumpkin while hollowing it?
to me that work is so nasty - hate it but somebody has to do it, and right after it i am going to paint the kitchen again

The pumpkin soup sounds DELICIOUS. I love pumpkin - It's just so hard to find in my neck of the woods. When you do find it, it's either the canned processed mash, or SUPER expensive for the real stuff.

All the same, that soup sounds SO good it might be worth it :-)

When I was younger I used to roast pumpkin seeds and deep fry thin slices to make pumpkin chips. SOO good!

heya celt angel

pumpkin chips?
wow sounds great

just deep frying? like french fries?
any spices with it?

yummy
have to try that - good for halloween!

i simply love pumpkin

i even do some pumpkin jam - mixed with a little orange or apple

and the soup is delicious

edit to ad:
a recipe i posted in another thread:

Originally posted by orange-light


pumpkin hotpot

1.
1 small or medium hokkaido pumpkin

cut in half and quaters, through seeds away, peel it
than cut it into small cube.


2.
heat olive oil in a big pan, add pumpkin pieces to the pan. fry them , than add 1 pint of milk and 1/2 pint of liquid cream.

3. cook for a while - about 10 or 15 minutes
try if the pumpkin is soft - we don.t need to get purree,
the sauce is supposed to be a bit viscid

4. season to taste with
a good amount of curry powder, if not i used mushroom seeds which i fryed in the olive oil before adding the pumpkin
tumeric, nutmeg (just a little of it) a little all spice, pepper, cayenne, salt, - if you like you could also add 1 or 2 teaspoons of powdered stock

5. when it is done you add either maultaschen which is very typically for southern germany or, if you can.t get them like i haven.t been able at my place , tortellini instead. mine have been filled with cheese.
mix it very well, and serve with cheese
preferable with parmesan


6. serve it

[edit on 19-9-2008 by orange-light]

What do you call a pumpkin? It turns out that there is a variety of opinions on this, depending on your geographic region. In East Asia, pumpkin is most often used to describe the Hokkaido pumpkin, sometimes the Kabocha squash ... both of these varieties are usually considered winter squashes in the Western Hemisphere.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on pumpkin varieties:


en.wikipedia.org...


Down at the bottom of that page they also have another link to "Squashes and Pumpkins" which discusses the differences between those 2 categories. Note: They currently don't include the Hokkaido pumpkin in any of those sections ... I guess it's a more recent variety in some geographic areas.

From a cooking standpoint, making a clear distinction between a squash and a pumpkin is crucial because the North American (NA) pumpkin is nowhere near as sweet as any winter squashes. So you may be very disappointed in your results if you try to substitute an NA pumpkin in a recipe designed for any type of winter squash. Be aware, for example, that the Jack-o-Lantern (very large) type of pumpkin is particularly low in sugar content.

CeltAngel, if pumpkins remain rarely available for you, check whether your area has any independent natural food stores ... those stores will place a bulk order for you. Also be sure to check with any of your local farmer's markets, which also may have an online website or 2 where you may be able to post your questions. I was amazed to find small pumpkins available at my local natural food store this weekend ... usually, they're not available until early October.

Storage tip: The easiest way to store pumpkin is to steam it until it is soft, then scrape out the flesh and store it in smallish containers in your freezer ... the remaining hard skin goes onto a compost heap; the pumpkin flesh will freeze beautifully for at least 6 months. The easiest way to fit the pumpkin into your steamer pot is to take a big knife and cut into the flesh of the pumpkin, cutting down until you can start dividing the pumpkin into small enough chunks to toss into the steamer. 30 minutes of steaming should be sufficient. Be sure to check the steamer every 15 minutes or so to make sure that the water at the steamer base has not all boiled away.

Orange-Light, the most innovative recipe I've seen uses toasted and ground pumpkin seeds (these are green colored seeds in my neck of the woods) in the pie crust for the pumpkin pie. Pumpkin seeds are so high in oil that you can use the ground seeds with your choice of flour and a little sea salt to craft an amazingly savory pumpkin pie crust.

[edit on 9/22/2008 by Uphill]

I'm bummed I didn't see this thread earlier. Halloween is my wedding anniversary and all around favorite time of year. We had a pumpkin patch last year, but moved so have to wait until next spring to start a new one.

But we did go pumpkin crazy:

Bread
Pancakes
I've heard talk of pumpkin butter, but haven't found a recipe for that yet, or had the courage to try to make one up myself.
pies, of course
ice cream

Gosh, I do like my carbs, don't I? lol

I'll try and find a few recipes to share here a bit later tonight or tomorrow morning.

reply to post by Uphill


thanks for the storage tips Uphill

i am from germany and we are happy to get hokaido pumpin
last week i even saw a butternut at the store
and some big undefinded pumpkins which are simply called "halloween pumpkin"

Originally posted by Uphill

Orange-Light, the most innovative recipe I've seen uses toasted and ground pumpkin seeds (these are green colored seeds in my neck of the woods) in the pie crust for the pumpkin pie. Pumpkin seeds are so high in oil that you can use the ground seeds with your choice of flour and a little sea salt to craft an amazingly savory pumpkin pie crust.

[edit on 9/22/2008 by Uphill]

did you ever try that?
i am not sure what to do with the pumpkin seeds anyway

how do you ground them? just a coffee mill?

reply to post by Alora



you grow your pumpkins by yourself?
i would love to try this as well !
once i have sawn it and the plant made its way all through the garden
lovely to have pumpkin with your roses

do you have any recipes of pumkin bread and so on alora?


i love it


when you guys cook marmelade or jam do you have standardized sweetener with pektin in it - to thicken the jam?
jam sugar or preserving sugar?

reply to post by orange-light


In my above storage tips for cooked pumpkin, I forgot to say that when you first open the raw pumpkin, in order to cut it into smaller chunks for steaming, scrape out the seeds and the majority of the long strings from the inner pumpkin surface. I put those in the compost bin.

I always buy my pumpkin seeds in bulk at the natural food store; when you open a fresh pumpkin, you will see that each pumpkin seed is covered with a shell. The edible (and highly nutritious) dark-green seed is thus well protected. Unless someone has a tip on how to easily and quickly shell these seeds, I'll go on buying them in bulk at the store.

We just made pumpkin bread for the first time at home yesterday. Here is our recipe:

2 cups of flour from sweet brown rice (about 3 cups of organic sweet brown rice mills down to 2 or 2+ cups of flour, using either a Vita-Mix food processor or other food processor).
1 1/2 cups of spelt flour or whole wheat flour.
1 TBSP kuzu, dissolved in 1/4 cup apple juice for 10 minutes. (If no apple juice is on hand, water is okay.)
(Note: Substitute 1 beaten egg if you don't want to use kuzu.)
3 cups pumpkin puree, freshly steamed if in season.
1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg.
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. non-aluminum baking powder (natural food stores have this).
1/4 cup of unrefined (cold centrifuged) coconut oil, which becomes liquid at room temperature.
1/4 cup of maple syrup.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (in North America), 177 degrees Celsius otherwise. Use parchment paper to line a glass loaf pan (whose dimensions are normally 8 1/2 inches x 4 1/4 inches). When the fresh pumpkin has cooled down, scrape it from the pumpkin skin and set aside those skins for the compost pile. Puree the cooled pumpkin in a food processor (or a non-electric puree via Foley food mill). Mix all wet ingredients together along with the sea salt. Mix all dry ingredients together, then add a bit at a time to the wet ingredients. After making sure quickly (because of the baking powder) that all ingredients are combined, transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and five minutes, until the loaf turns golden and starts to shrink back from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven, place on a large wooden cutting board, and remove loaf from the glass pan to cool (on a wire rack if you have it, otherwide just on the flattened parchment paper on the cutting board is fine).

We leave nuts out of most of our baked recipes, but this recipe can be varied by adding chopped walnuts (about 1/2 cup should do).

If your local stores don't have unrefined coconut oil, here is the link of one such supplier:


www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com...


Reminder: This recipe works best with North American pumpkin ... if you use squashes such as the so-called "Hokkaido pumpkin", omit the maple syrup from the above recipe or your resulting bread will be toooooo sweet.

[edit on 10/13/2008 by Uphill]

Here is a link to a very large array of pumpkin recipes from the New York Times website. Also included are links from there to other websites with even more pumpkin recipes:


topics.nytimes.com...


Note: All those recipes use cooking and baking instructions for the North American market. Thus, oven temperatures are in Fahrenheit, measurements are in cups, ounces, etc.

Fall time is my favorite time. I love Halloween.

A while back I made a pumpkin / cheese cake. I think I got the recipe on the back of a package of cream cheese, It was delicious. I can't for the life of me remember the recipe. I'm sure it can be found on the internet. Just thought I'd throw it in for an idea.

Originally posted by orange-light


pumpkin hotpot

4. season to taste with
a good amount of curry powder, if not i used mushroom seeds which i fryed in the olive oil before adding the pumpkin
tumeric, nutmeg (just a little of it) a little all spice, pepper, cayenne, salt, - if you like you could also add 1 or 2 teaspoons of powdered stock

no mushroom seeds
but mustard seeds
i am so embarressed ;(

reply to post by TeeJay


hey pumpkin cheese cake sounds yummy

how do you do it? how can you survive not knowing it anymore - argh

@uphill
thanks for the link
the bread sounds so great
i guess i will try it today

really lovely

edit:
so the kuzu is just an egg substitute?
its different at my place of the world

i.g. in germany and austria no egg
you can also replace an egg by soyflour
1 TS soyflour + 1 TS water = 1 egg



[edit on 19-10-2008 by orange-light]

[edit on 19-10-2008 by orange-light]

Yes- Very yummy indeed. It's probably a good thing that i didn't keep the recipe handy, otherwise I'd have a pumpkin cheesecake butt

A little off the traditional pumpkin recipes topic, I'm always making up beauty recipes using fruits & other natural ingredients. I also hate to waste and often get creative with things instead of throwing them away. Pumpkin has alot of nutrients that are great for your skin. You can puree the innards, and even the rind to use as Masks, exfoliating rubs, etc. Just cook till soft, then put it in a blender. You may want to add other ingredients to suit your needs. For instance.
A foot rub:Some pumpkin puree, sugar, & cinnamon.
A facial mask: Pumpkin puree, honey, egg white, & either yogurt or buttermilk.
I often add vanilla extract, just because I love the way it smells.

i just don.t want to imagin a pumpkin cheesecake butt but i will definitly chase for a recipe like that


very interesting what you describe about masks made out of pumpkin
last weekend i got 3 big hokkaidos which i had to cook imediately - weren.t suitable for storing anymore
now i got about 8 l of pumpkin puree in my freezer!

Pumpkin muffins! Pumpkin bread!

Maybe even a bit of pumpkin and some traditional spices, blended into an ice cream ( if you have an ice cream maker).

But this could be the winner...

PUMPKIN CREME BRULEE

Ingredients for pastry layer
10 sheets filo pastry
2 ounces butter
1 cup almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
Ingredients for Custard:
12 eggs
2 cups cream, scalded
1 cup pumpkin, poached & peeled
3/4 cup sugar
Pastry Layer: Blend almonds and brown sugar together. Place 1 sheet filo pastry on workbench and drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with almond and butter mixture. Place another sheet of filo pastry on top, drizzle with butter and sprinkle with almond mixture. Repeat until you have 10 layers. Cut into 3-inch squares and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Custard: Whip egg and cream together. Add pumpkin and sugar and blend well. Pour into a shallow baking dish (custard should be about 1/2 inch deep in dish). Bake until golden brown. When cooled, cut into 12 squares.

Lay one square of filo on serving dish; place a square of custard on top and cover with another square of filo. Garnish with a fruit compote or coffee glaze.