2007-10-22

Pumpkin

I was just over reading Half of Me and she was despairing of ever finding canned pumpkin in the grocers. It gave me today's topic.

I have always hated pumpkin pie. Now my mother made the best pie crusts in the world, but I never liked the taste of pumpkin pie. A friend of mine makes hers from scratch. No tins for this lady. What? how do you do that? you may say. Well, I'm here to tell her secrets!

First off, pumpkins are not only for carving at Hallowe'en, you can scape out the meat inside and boil it just as you would turnips or potatoes, 'til soft. The seeds of course can be roasted and salted and make a great snack. After boiling (you can do this while still hot) puree the pumpkin in a food processor, divide into freezer bags and freeze, or make pie:

28 oz pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp Allspice - optional
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups milk
6 eggs

Add all ingredients & blend thoroughly. Pour into unbaked pastry shells and bake @ 450 for 10 minutes and reduce heat to 300 until filling is set - about 50 mins longer.

Of course you have to buy whipping cream & make your own, none of this spray canned stuff this year.

Granted her crusts don't hold a candle to mom's, but they are getting better. I found a website here that has even more things to do with pumpkins, mostly recipes, some of which look pretty good.

So, when you carve your pumpkins do you just throw out the meat and seeds?

9 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

Seems to me I have roasted pumpkin seeds in the past. Or tried anyway. I think Mike took care of making pumpkin pie from scratch one year. We had an uncommonly bountiful carrot crop a few years back and I made carrot pie. It tastes close enough to pumpkin.

Reb said...

I surprised! I would have thought you would already be doing pumpkin from scratch. Well, now you have something new to try!

the Bag Lady said...

Pumpkin pie - yum. The Bag Lady roasted pumpkin seeds last year - soak 'em in salt water first. Yum.
The Bag Lady's mother-in-law had a bumper crop of pumpkins last year, so we had loads of pumpkin pie from scratch.
The Bag Lady also found a recipe in her book of preserves for Hot & Spicy Pumpkin Chutney. The Bag Lady is not fond of chutney, but holy crap, is that stuff ever good! (Especially spooned over cream cheese, then spread on crackers...divine!) She is planning on robbing a pumpkin patch in order to make more this year.

Reb said...

Just beware of the GreatPumpkin, Charlie

Post the recipe for the Chutney

the Bag Lady said...

Check out the bag lady's blog tomorrow for the recipe for the chutney.

Jennette Fulda said...

Mmm, sounds good. I'd probably sub the sugar with Splenda since I'm all about the sucralose.

Reb said...

Pasta Queen, thanks for stopping by. Yes, I don't imagine it would change the flavour all that much. I don't know if you could make it with skim milk, I think my friend uses 2%, but, it might be worth a try.

Virginia Lee said...

When I lived in 1891 (it was living history theatre - really!) my friend who played the ladies' maid was on duty in the servants' quarters of the mansion when we carved pumpkins. She carefully gathered up everyone's pumpkin seeds and roasted them in the giant 1890's era gas oven. The smell of roasted pumpkin seeds drove everyone crazy that whole day.

Have you ever tried sweet potato pie, Reb? Being from the Southern US, that's one of our favorite things around holiday time.

Oooh, chutney. I'm on my way to the bag lady's blog now.

Reb said...

Virginia Lee, I am one of the biggest picky eaters. I have had sweet potato pie and frankly, once was enough. I was polite (as I was company) and ate it, but if I never do again, I won't miss it. I don't eat turnips or beets either. My family was always surprised when I ate anything that wasn't meat & potatoes.