Cooking with Pumpkins

I have lots of Pumpkins left and have so far eaten
Pumpkin jam
Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin Tart
Pumpkin Curry
Pumpkin Chutney
Pumpkin Gratin
Pumpkin with mashed potato

I saw this recipe on another thread thanks Leila Rich

Pumpkin pie

Filling:
About 400g of your tastiest, orangest pumpkin, peeled.
1/2-1 cup Soft Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Allspice
1 tsp Cinnamon
pinch grated nutmeg
grind of black pepper
1/2 tsp Ground ginger
orange zest
vanilla
3 Eggs - lightly beaten
1 cup cream


Preheat oven to 160-170c.
Steam pumpkin and mash till smooth. I use a stick blender. Add rest of ingredients, mix well.
I pass it throgh a sieve, but that's just me
Check flavour. Add more sugar or spice if desired
Pour into cooked base, bake for 30 min or till set. Cool and serve with whipped cream.

I wondered if anyone would share any of their other recipies as I still have about 30 kg left

I did have over 100kg and traded and gave away lots as I did before I discovered Permiculture , its just the right thing to do

David

I don't have a recipe handy but I highly recommend pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins. It's delicious to stir in a bit of chopped candied ginger at the end, just before baking.

Pumpkin pie we make without a crust quite often, it's so easy.

I always roast the seeds, mmmmmm. Good with just salt or with spices. Mmmm, I may go crank up the oven this is making my mouth water...

Oh, I forgot one of my favorites, using mashed pumpkin with sage in place of tomato sauce on pizza!

Here's how I cook them:
Preheat oven to 425
I don't peel them, I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, clean the goop off the seeds (with fingers, don't rinse!) Mix seeds with oil, salt, fine garlic powder, cayenne for spicy. Spread on baking sheet and roast until golden puffed and crisp, stirring every eight or so minutes. Usually takes 15 to 30 minutes.
When you take the seeds out, put the halves cut side down on the baking sheet, turn the heat down to 375 and roast until they start to collapse and are very soft. Let them cool and the skins will be very easy to pull off.

We have a lot of success with pumpkins and squashes, so this is a staple crop for us. My favorite is currently long island cheese pumpkin. it's the color of a butternut but the shape of a handsome pumpkin. Mmm. I also love blue Hubbard.

I have Hungarian Blue , Poitimaron ,Musade du Provance mostly

David

I've just bought some of Carol Deppe's Oregon Homestead Sweetmeat seeds, and I want to try her recipe for crustless pumpkin pie.

Here's a link - Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Oh David all those wonderful pumpkins....
I hope you'll try
baked stuffed pumpkin...using a bread or rice stuffing
as Burra mentioned...crustless pumpkin pie....I love it.
I've been making pumpkin leather for using up softening ones...stores & travels easily and a yummy treat,too.
I'll look up the recipes if you'd like.
Matu..I will definitely be trying pumpkin with sage on my next pizza..sounds great
All the best
Kate

Et Al and the 'pClould' : While we are praising pumpkin at this time of the year, Read this, and take a moment to reflect, For all of the members of the 8th army air corp
who were shot down over Germany, and survived, their diets were poor, bland, lots of ersatz weevil-ly bread (with saw dust), and Red cross food parcels made a big
difference.

After the fall harvest was in, the Airmen's diet was heavily augmented with - ''Pumpkin Soup'', I met P.O.W.s who 50 years later would not allow ether any squash or
pumpkin pie at their holiday tables! Just thought I would share ! BIG AL

allen lumley wrote: I met P.O.W.s who 50 years later would not allow ether any squash or pumpkin pie at their holiday tables!

I've always loathed pumpkin if it's not totally pureed and hidden under strong flavours.
I'm getting there, but I still find it a challenge. It must have chewy edges, slightly burnt even, for me to attempt eating it.
In NZ it's traditional to slice and roast pumpkin, skin on.
Cut the slices about an inch thick, most people cut them again across the middle.
add salt and fat of your choice to the roasting dish, mix the slices so well covered in fat, lay the the slices in a single layer.
Roast in a hot oven. Turn only once to get both sides really caramelised. (Don't fiddle about moving them around)
David, I'd probably avoid using Muscade de Provence for this kind of roasting.
While it's extremely good looking, it's got quite watery flesh and you need a nice dry fleshed variety.
Roast pumpkin slices are good topped with pesto, fried onions, any kind of cheese, soy sauce, miso paste, sage (or any herbs)...

Another thing one can do with pumpkins or winter squash is to grate it, raw, and use it in cole slaw and similar dishes in place of carrots! With a sauce, it's difficult to taste the difference, and there are a lot of climates and seasons where pumpkin will grow and carrots won't....

I would further recommend trying sometime the Turkish pumpkin dessert, it involves a lot of walnuts and butter-smooth pumpkin slices.

I located this recipe in English:

http://turkishfood.about.com/od/DessertsSweets/r/Turkish-Candied-Pumpkin-Dessert.htm


Essential saucing ingredient, "Kaymak" is a close cousin of Italian Ricotta, it will definitely work just right as a substitute.

Finally, the sugar/honey syrup dosage depends on personal preferences. I find it more enjoyable when not that sugary.

Selim - that sounds absolutely heavenly. Do you know if you can make it using honey instead of sugar? And do you happen to know what type of pumpkin is usually used? I think this is going to be my yule-tide dessert. I'm drooling already.

Oh, and welcome to permies!

Last year for a post-harvest gathering, I peeled and cut up a couple of butternuts into large chunks and baked them with chunks of bacon, diced leeks, and a bit of olive oil, salt n pepper. I finished it with grated parmesan, and it was terrific. Of course, anything with chunks of bacon added to it...

In the restaurant I used to own, we'd make a soup by baking a huge Vit D'etampes in the oven - we'd cut the top off like you would if starting a jack o'lantern, hollow out the seeds, and fill it with cream and romano cheese. Bake it all till the pumpkin is almost ready to fall apart, then puree the whole mess (less the skin, as I remember). Top with a drizzle of crème fraiche...

I love squash or pumpkin in chicken soup, in place of potato. Or in venison stew...yum.

This fall, I found some frozen puree of butternut leftover from last year, and made a béchamel sauce (white sauce started with a roux of flour and butter) and added the squash puree. Sage is a great complement to pumpkin flavor. There are some delicious butternut squash lasagna recipes that use sage, as well.

Burra, it is possible to go with honey, I would actually recommend mixing honey and some syrups. I recall people mixing honey and a certain thick and dark grape syrup called Pekmez instead of typical sugar for such recipes (5:1).

Regarding the type of pumpkin, the good-old mainstream orange variant works as well, yet this one is more commonly used:




I would also imagine Hokkaido or other delicious variants working all good in their own ways.

(One final tip would be to use a mixture of grounded and crushed walnuts.)


And for the last but not the least, many thanks for the warm welcoming!

My mouth is watering with all these new ideas for pumpkin.
Jessica, your dish with the bacon, leeks and cheese is definitely on my must try list.
Alder, your use of raw pumpkin makes me wonder what pumpkin would be like fermented.
Have you tried this with shredded raw pumpkin?
Hmm...the next fermentation experiment on my kitchen counter may just be pumpkin.
I'm enjoying this thread.
Thanks
Kate

Any thoughts about canning them? Then you could save them to use when you're ready. Pumpkin cookies are good, too. I also think you could use chunks of it to make Mollie Katzen's Gypsy Soup from the Moosewood Resaurant cookbook (the first one).

Hello! I have been making a new crust for my pumpkin (and all squash) pies by crushing my gingerbread cookies and mixing in some butter and pressing this mixture into the bottom only of the pie pan, and I prefer to roast the pumpkins instead of steaming them....just sayin' if you cut them in half and put them skin side up on a baking sheet and bake until they caramelize you may enjoy the flavor.

Kim Arnold wrote:Any thoughts about canning them? Then you could save them to use when you're ready

I just used my last two pumpkins that I harvested in April, and I think they'd have lasted a lot longer.
I'm a big fan of storing things using minimal energy (by 'energy', I'm mostly talking mine )
And in my climate a mature, carefully stored pumpkin can nearly last till the next batch are ripe.
Considering pumpkin isn't one of my favourite foods, a couple of months without is ok with me!
If there's just too many to handle, they're going rotten and you have chickens, there's plenty of entertainment watching them attack a smashed pumpkin...
Has anyone mentioned alcohol? I'm sure my granddad made pumpkin wine or something.

My morgen in law made pickled pumpkins - it was like the best treat ever! She is dead now, but I would love a recipe.

This year I dehydrated pumpkin and butternut squash purees for the first time, with the intention of grinding them up into powder and using in baked goods, soups, even hot chocolate.  I haven't gotten that far yet because I've been eating them just so like chips, no salt or spices added.  I might do a batch with garam masala and a little brown sugar and salt just for the express purpose of snacking.

Most of the time I use my pumpkin in what's basically a pottage- I brown onions in fat of some kind, toast whatever spices and grains I'm going to use in the fat, then add liquid (and any purees like tomato or pumpkin) and simmer for a bit before dumping in whatever vegetables I plan on using.  Sometimes I start with browning meat with the onions or add leftover cooked meat later on.  I'm a fan of thick, gloopy one-pot meals, which I realize don't appeal to most people.

I also like to use it mashed with black beans and tex-mex type seasonings in veggie burgers.  

My pumpkins have hulless seeds so while drying the seeds I also dehydrate the flesh. It requires no other cooking. I have decided the most efficient method is chop it in squares and triangles that fit on my mandoline and slice it down to the skin which I compost. For making pumpkin lour I use the french fry blade and they dehydrate to match stick size which powders easily in a coffee mill when I am grinding my other seeds. I had fun passing around the chips and asking people to guess what they were. They can be dusted with pumpkin pie spice for snacks

I love all these ideas for squash/pumpkin recipes.

When we have lots I put it into almost everything. Cornbread made with pureed squash as most of the liquid is delicious, no need to add any other sweetener to the batter. Likewise for any pancake recipe. Another use I found for winter squash is "marmellata di zucca" or pumpkin jam. Pureed squash, orange juice & zest (or lemon), cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc, a bit of honey or syrup, and then slowly cooked and evaporated like you would apple butter. I did mine in my "bake oven" which is a bread/pizza/cook oven above the firebox of the masonry heater. It can get up to 200° F just from the heat of the firebox below. A crock pot would work too, with the lid cracked open to let moisture escape. Or very low heat on the stove. Needs to be stirred occasionally. If the squash is sweet enough it doesn't require additional sugar or honey. I make it in smallish amounts with leftover puree and then freeze it. It is good used like jam or even added to morning cereal instead of fruit.

Would love a recipe for pickled pumpkin! My guess is it might be similar to pickled crab apples? kind of sweet and sour?

We've done this "stew-baked-in-the-shell" recipe for a few years now and a great
meal for introducing the home to late fall and early winter. (photo below)
The ingredients can be just about anything you want for a stew; the perk is
that you can scrape cooked pumpkin off of the insides of the cooked shell
to be a part of the stew.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 2-1/2 hours Bake: 2 hoursYIELD:8-10 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 cup water
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 medium carrots, sliced
1 large green pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pumpkin (10 to 12 pounds)

Directions
1. In a Dutch oven, brown meat in 2 tablespoons oil. Add water, potatoes, carrots, green pepper, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Stir in bouillon and tomatoes. Wash pumpkin; cut to 6 to 8 in. circle around top stem. Remove top and set aside; discard seeds and loosen fibers from inside.
2. Place (cleaned out) pumpkin in a shallow sturdy baking pan. Spoon stew into pumpkin and replace top. Brush outside of pumpkin with remaining oil. Bake at 325°(F) for 2 hours or just until the pumpkin is tender (do not overbake). Serve stew from pumpkin, scooping out a little pumpkin with each serving. Yield: 8-10 servings.

It seems like much of the discussion in this thread is about moschata and maxima squash...  I'm wondering if any of you are eating pepo pumpkins like "Connecticut Field", or "Jack-o-lantern"? Do you like them? Do your prefer other squash like Hubbards, Butternuts, Turbans, Buttercups, etc.? For me, pepo winter squash are pretty much banned from my kitchen and my farm. Even though people ask for them routinely at market, I don't grow them, because they don't seem like food to me.

This is my favorite (okay, only liked) pumpkin recipe


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130704456


It is DELICIOUS and you can forget it's a squash. (But youc an do it to other kinds of squash too!)

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
It seems like much of the discussion in this thread is about moschata and maxima squash...  I'm wondering if any of you are eating pepo pumpkins like "Connecticut Field", or "Jack-o-lantern"? Do you like them? Do your prefer other squash like Hubbards, Butternuts, Turbans, Buttercups, etc.? For me, pepo winter squash are pretty much banned from my kitchen and my farm. Even though people ask for them routinely at market, I don't grow them, because they don't seem like food to me.

I used Sugar Pie pumpkins (c. pepo) exclusively for years, since I had it in my head that I didn't like "squash."  Apparently insipid grocery store acorn squash isn't the best for a first experience, who woulda thunk it.  

I still grow and use the Sugar Pie every year for their predictability (1 pumpkin= 1 pie, more or less) and decent flavor, though I do agree they aren't the best overall.  Ever since discovering I actually do like (most) squash, I've grown a few different varieties each year.  I'm still finding out what characteristics I like and don't like.  I only grow named varieties right now, as I have a growing area the size of a postage stamp; I need that predictability when I'm planning every year.  My observations over the last few years have me thinking I like maxima for sweet and moschata for savory applications.  Moschata (at least PA Dutch Crookneck, butternut, and tromboncino) seem to have more of a salty, umami meatiness that I don't care for in pies/ cakes/ cookies etc.  The only other pepo winter squash I've grown was Sweet Dumpling, which I would only eat again as a famine food.  I do grow spaghetti squash, but the way the flesh is used is so completely different that I'm not counting it.  

Joseph is definitely on to something with the whole "the more orange the flesh, the better the flavor" thing.  All of the pepo winter types I've tried have had very light flesh, more on the yellow end of the orange spectrum rather than red.

We are primal so we make a "primal pumpkin pie" for our Thanksgiving dessert.  Honey instead of sugar.  Fresh pumpkin, not canned.  Coconut oil and coconut flour, no grains.  My wife has made it the last 3 years and it came out best this year (on her pre-Thanksgiving practice pie).

We made a video showing how we make our pie:

My blue hubbards are so productive this year but the woodchucks keep getting them! I only have one saved

Kate Nudd wrote:Oh David all those wonderful pumpkins....
I hope you'll try
baked stuffed pumpkin...using a bread or rice stuffing
as Burra mentioned...crustless pumpkin pie....I love it.
I've been making pumpkin leather for using up softening ones...stores & travels easily and a yummy treat,too.
I'll look up the recipes if you'd like.
Matu..I will definitely be trying pumpkin with sage on my next pizza..sounds great
All the best
Kate

A stuffed pumpkin recipe I enjoyed as best as I can remember -

Brown hamburger
Mix with veggies, seasoning, a few eggs
Fill small pumpkin with the mixture
Put the stem back on
Bake a couple hours at 350 Fahrenheit
Slice into wedges

I imagine you could use a large pumpkin.
However, that would take a lot of filling.

Hot buttered Pumpkin scones ... yum!

We love stuffed pumpkins.  We use Sugar Pie pumpkins for stuffing, and the stuffing itself is a mixture of rice, sausage, onions, celery, and sage, with some chicken stock to keep it moist.  Yum!

We also stuff spaghetti squash with a variety of things.  The current favorite is an enchalada stuffing, with leftover chicken/turkey, corn, beans, enchalada sauce, and cheese.  This one converts to vegetarian very well - just leave out the meat, and it still tastes great.  Our other one is rice and ground beef with tomato sauce and basil, and cheese on top.  Also quite tasty.

We eat a lot of squash here - mostly c. maxima, as our season is too short for most c. moschata.  The maximas are fantastic in curries, stews, roasted veggie mixes, burritos, muffins...the list goes on and on.  Our current favorites are Red Kuri, Mandan, and Sweet Meat, but we're always trying something new, so the list tends to change.  

My sister likes to do a custom version of Sheppard’s pie. She layers in a baking dish: ground turkey, frozen mixed veggies (I substitute chopped fresh veggies par boiled) and puréed pumpkin or butternut squash. Bake at 350f until just browning on top.

It so delicious I think I need to make some again soon.

Picked the last dozen Seminole pumpkins yesterday. Already dehydrated & canned the previous batches. Now it's time to try some of these recipes. Some are unusual & all look delicious.

One thing I didn't see mentioned is eating the young green pumpkins. Softball size & smaller can be boiled whole or sliced then sauteed with garlic, onions, & mushrooms. Or baked. Basically cooked the same ways as potatos. Flavor & texture is somewhere between yellow squash & zucchini.

Since pumpkin & sweet potato harvests coincide I make a "pudding" out of both. Essentially a pie without the crust. Flavored with all the usual pie spices & a little honey. Yum.  

I made a very good tamale pie with pumpkin the other day. Basically, the tamale layer was 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup masa harina, 2 Tbsp. oil/fat of your choice (I used chicken fat because that's what I had), and 2 Tbsp. chile puree (I make a New Mexican chile puree, but chili powder could be subbed), then I topped it with shredded chicken, sweated onions, pepper and garlic, mixed with cream cheese and cream, and topped with shredded cheese.

It was very good, even my pumpkin/squash hating kid liked it.

For the vegans and/or those who want a pumpkin pie w/o dairy or eggs, this one is pretty simple and turned out well.  (I did decrease the sugar a bit.)

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216554/tofu-pumpkin-pie/

Finally, just as my youngest child decides he's grown out of Halloween (and we didn't even do it with the eldest as I was not allowed to as a child), I found the best thing for hollowing out the pumpkin.  It's a fairly robust metal cookie cutter which is a heart shape and happens to fit over my hand (along one of the straight sides) like a knuckleduster.  Sooo much quicker and easier than using a spoon or ice-cream scoop!  The flesh comes out kind of ready-grated like short noodles.

I grow hokkaido pumpkins which have soft skins that can be eaten.
My favourite is baked sesame pumpkin "steaks".
Ingredients:
Hokkaido pumpkin
sesame seeds
oil
salt
peber
Cut in half, remove seeds and gunk. Slice into 2-3 cm thick (1 inch) wedges and place in a roasting pan. Cover in oil - I put a splash of oil in the pan and them rub it all over the slices like you do with soap when washing your hands. This way you use less oil. Sprinkle with salt, peber and a generous layer of sesame seeds. Roast in the oven at 200 degrees celcius for between 20-40 mins depenping on the thickness of the slice - check to see if they're finish by pricking them with a fork like you would do when boiling potatoes. You're looking for the same consistancy.
You can eat it as both a side or a main dish.

We have a couple of good pumpkin chili recipes.  There's a lot of different recipes online for those of you who use them.  I have good results adding a little apple cider vinegar to cut the sweetness and then just tasting until the traditional spices have the right balance.

Just yesterday I finally figured out pumpkin makes a really tasty savory pancake. Eggs,onions (I precaramelize them), garlic, fresh ginger, black pepper, and a splash of wotchershire sauce.  

The second batch using dehydrated pumpkin and adding ground flax was even tastier. They're like a gingery potato pancake.  They even pass all of my mom's new dietary restrictions.

Casie Becker wrote:Just yesterday I finally figured out pumpkin makes a really tasty savory pancake. Eggs,onions (I precaramelize them), garlic, fresh ginger, black pepper, and a splash of wotchershire sauce.  

The second batch using dehydrated pumpkin and adding ground flax was even tastier. They're like a gingery potato pancake.  They even pass all of my mom's new dietary restrictions.

Casie, can you give an approximate recipe or a how-to for your pancakes?  I'd really like to try this!  Did you rehdrate the pumpkin first or use it ground like flour?  About how much flax, and was that in addition to the egg?  Are they thin like a crepe?  Thanks in advance

I'm not a very precise cook, but I'll give the approximates.  This morning was for the whole family so it was a fairly large batch.  5 eggs, half a cup powdered squash, half an onion diced then lightly caramelized and one cup of water. I probably added another quarter cup combined liquid between the minced garlic, onions and splash of worcestershire. I used perhaps two tablespoons ground flax for a little extra flavor and nutrition. Salt, pepper, and tumeric finished the dry ingredients. It ended up looking like a thick cornbread batter.

In cooking I kept the heat where I would for traditional pancakes and greased the pan with coconut oil.  If it weren't for my mother, I would have used butter. Each cake was around three inches across.  Larger than that they cracked while getting a spatula under for flipping. It was still neccesary to slide the spatula under the whole cake before carefully turning, but once the second side cooks they hold together very well as you pull them out and eat them.  They also reheat well, just firming up more in the process.

Edit : I am attaching a picture to better show size.