yes, it's that time of the week again. the time where we let everyone out there know the little tricks and tips that keep us afloat. yes, it's what works for me wednesday. well today WWFMW is doing something a little different. see, it's everyone's {in elementary school, at least} favorite day -- backwards day! {at least it's not opposite day} the day where the bloggy's get to implore the universe for some serious answers. it is deeply profound and moving stuff.so here's my situation. I stepped out my front door today and saw a big truck full of pumpkins driving down the street. I remembered my cute, lonely pumpkin sitting on our steps and realized I had to do something with it before we left for costa rica. the seeds are already destined for this fate. but I'm lookin' for something to do with the guts.
so dear bloggy's, if you're out there, can you help a girl out? any good recipes you know of that use actual pumpkin guts, not the canned alternative? I'm trying to be a good, whole foods girl, so I'm trying to avoid canned versions of things I have at the ready. though it seems like in this case, the canned stuff might actually make recipes of this variety taste better. so I'm at a loss. before I start my thorough search, I thought I'd hit you all up for some ideas.photo above not my actual pumpkin. though I have been told that my pumpkin is very pretty and the perfect shape.
7 comments:
First of all - the guts actually are not good for anything as far as I know. And the pumpkins that you usually process into pumpkin pies are not the same ones used to make jack o lanterns.
So guess it depends on which you have.
Cut the pumpkin up - scoop out seeds and guts and toss.
Cut skin off and cut the flesh into manageable pcs.
Boil it up till soft. Mash or put into food processor. Now freeze in 1 or 2 cup amounts.
Use in any recipe calling for pumpkin - allrecipes.com can provide tons.
You probably want to google "processing a pumpkin" to make sure I didn't miss any steps.
brilliant! see, not only do I probably have the wrong pumpkin for anything yummy, but I don't even use the guts, I use the flesh! (that was probably pretty obvious to everyone else) I am so glad I threw this out to the bloggy's! thanks!
maybe I could just juice it... anyone ever had pumpkin juice?
I was just gonna say that the only pumpkin that's really good for baking are "sugar" pumpkins, or the really small ones that are about the size of a regular squash (not those teeny tiny baby ones). The Jack O' Lantern ones don't have any flavor at all. Trust me...when I lived in Scotland I tried it because you can't buy canned pumpkin there and they only sell pumpkins around Halloween for a small fortune. Sad, really.
If you do get your hands on a sugar pumpkin--which they're selling for about 98 cents at Wal-Mart right now--you can make practically anything pumpkin out of the flesh. I haven't tried to juice one. My personal favorite cooking website is www.recipezaar.com if you want some awesome recipes.
I'm so glad you love the seeds! Roasting them is my favorite part! YUMMM. :)
Not far from where we live is a huge farmer's market. Every year they have an amazing array of pumpkins, gourds and assorted fall doodads for decorating. One of the great finds we discovered there was the cornfield pumpkin, which is very light colored on the outside and thick brilliant orange flesh on the inside. The sugar pumpkins are good, but usually small and relatively more expensive than the cornfield variety for the amount of processed pumpkin you end up with.
The easiest way to prepare a pumpkin is to cut it in half, remove the seeds (which you can roast separately) and place cut side down on a foil lined jelly roll pan or roaster--it needs to have sides, though, as the pumpkin releases a lot of fluid as it cooks. Bake it in a 325 degree oven until the center caves in. The outside may be a little charred looking, but not usually. This takes quite a while, an hour? (it's been a long time.) Remove the pan from the oven and allow the pumpkin to cool enough to handle it. Turn it over and scoop out the soft flesh from the skin with a spoon. You can either mash it with a potato ricer or put it in a food processor. It will be very mushy at this point.
I freeze it in 2 cup increments in zipper bags and use it all year in recipes. It actually tastes much better than the canned variety in any recipe you have that calls for canned pumpkin.
I think I will post this info on my blog tomorrow and add a couple of recipes. We are wheat and sugar free, so I don't know if you are looking for that type of recipe.
TM
Growing up, my mom would make an oven stew in the gutted pumpkin. I'm not sure of the recipe, and since you don't eat beef (right?) you would probably want to make the vegetarian version anyway, but I could get it for you.
Anyway, you put all the stew ingredients in the pumpkin, set it on a baking sheet, and after you bake it, you can scrape the cooked pumpkin in with your other stew ingredients and it's really yummy. I'm probably not explaining this very well, but let me know if you want the recipe.
bethany, I remember that pumpkin stew! yeah, throw me the recipe, I just might make it! thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!
I basically make a veggie/lentil soup of sorts and do the soup in a pumpkin for the night of Halloween...we love it!
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