Pumpkins

[KYHeirloomer]

In colonial days pumpkin (or pompion) was often used as a sweetener, because it's so high in saccerine. Pumpkin syrup was actually produced in parts of New England, for instance.

It was also used to both sweeten, and extend dwindling corn meal stocks, for making corn cakes. Here's an updated recipe:

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup honey
1 tbls baking powder
1 egg
milk or cream

Mix dry ingredients. Add the egg, honey, pumpkin, and enough milk to form a medium thick batter.

Drop by large spoonfulls onto a hot, bgreased griddle. Cook, turning once, about five minutes per side.

[KYHeirloomer]

Three Sisters Soup

1/2 lb dried baby limas
2 lb pumpkin, peeled & cubed (or 2 cups puree)
5 cup vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped fine
1 large leek, washed & sliced
2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 cup light cream or half & halt
Salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
chopped chives

Cook beans.

Place pumpkin, broth, onion, & leek in a kettle. Bring to boil, reduce heat, & simmer untill pumpkin is soft.

Puree vegetable mixture in blender, in batches, or mash by hand, and return to kettle.

Add corn & beans, bring to boil, reduce heat & simmer 5 minutes.

Add cream, slat & pepper. When very hot, but not boiling, serve. Sprinkle with chives.

For a party, first make pumpkin puree by taking a large pumpkin and a half dozen mini pumpkins. Cut off the tops, clean out the seeds and fibers, and bake at 350-400 degress until flesh is just tender.

Let cool. Scrape the flesh out of the shells, leaving a fairly thick border.

When soup is ready, serve is by pouring into the large shell, and ladle it out into the mini-shells as individual servings. If you can find a ladle made from a dipper gourd it really makes a nice touch.

[KYHeirloomer]

99.as high as you wish to go% of pumpkin bread recipes are for quick breads. I have several of them in my files.

Here's something different, though. A pumpkin yeast bread. The basic recipe comes from the book, "Ultimate Bread," and it's a real winner:

PUMPKIN BREAD

1 ¾ cups pumpkin puree 2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp honey 4 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt egg glaze made with yolk & milk
2 tbls pumpkin seeds, to decorate

Sprinkle yeast into ¼ cup water or reserved pumpkin-cooking liquid. Let stand 5 minutes. Add honey and stir to dissolve.

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast and honey, then add pumpkin puree. Mix in the flour gradually to form a fairly firm, coarse, sticky dough. If mixture is too dry add a few tablespoons liquid.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until very smooth, silky and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Put dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours. Punch down; rest 10 min.

Shape dough into a round loaf. Place on oiled baking sheet and cover with dish towel. Proof until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Brush dough with egg glaze and sprinkle pumpkin seeds over the top. Bake in preheated 425F oven for 40 minutes until golden colored. Cool on wire rack.

Note: Double recipe and bake in large loaf pans for sandwich bread.

[Mama Mangia]

DINNER IN A PUMPKIN

1 medium pumpkin
2 lbs. ground beef, cooked
1 chopped onion
3 sliced carrots
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can sliced mushroom, drained
1 tablespoons garlic salt
1 celery stalk, sliced
2-3 potatoes, diced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Bring all ingredients (except pumpkin) to a boil in a pot. Boil 10 minutes. Place pumpkin in sturdy baking pan. Fill pumpkin with hot mixture. Bake at 350 degrees, for approximately 45 minutes, until pumpkin is tender and brown.

[Mama Mangia]

PUMPKIN NUT BREAD

1 c. canned pumpkin
2 c. flour, sifted
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
½ c. milk
¼ c. butter or margarine, softened
1 c. chopped walnuts
2 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. nutmeg
1 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350* F. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. In a separate large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, milk and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and butter to pumpkin mixture until well blended. Mix in chopped nuts. Pour into greased loaf pans(9x5x3). Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Toothpick inserted in bread will come out clean.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

In addition to pumpkin pie, my two fav pumpkin recipes are for pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin gnocci.

Also, I cannot resist this thought... & please don't think of me as a party-pooper for it! If you already have pumpkins growing in your garden, by all means research fun things to do with them. But if you haven't yet planted pumpkin vines and are weighing whether or not to do so? My personal view is DON'T! Growing pumpkins, tending them, harvesting them and processing them really takes quite a bit of work. Plus, the satisfaction one gets from this, versus just opening a store-bought can of Libby's Pumpkin isn't really a very exciting pay-off... if you ask me, anyway.

[KYHeirloomer]

I'd have to disagree with that, Chubby. There are all sorts of good reasons to grow your own. For instance, there are "pumpkin" varieties (horticulturally speaking, pumpkin is a meaningless term) you might want that are just not available in cans of puree---most of which are hubbard squash anyway.

For instance, this year I'm growing Flat Tan Field pumkins---which at least one famous pastry chef considers the best culinary pumpkin you can get. But the only way to get them is to grow them yourself (or hire somebody to do so for you).

Calabrase, the small white African pumpkin I had hoped to get this year, is a similar case in point. It is essential to many African dishes. And, while Butternut can substitute, I'd rather go with the true gelt if I can.

In my experience, pumpkins are a low-maintainance crop. For most people in the U.S., squash vine borer is the only pest they need to particularly watch for. And that would be the same for any winter squash. Other than that, the only thing I do is train the vines to grow in the direction I want them to go. I don't even weed much, in a pumpkin patch, because the vines serve as a living mulch---one of the benefits of a Three Sisters planting, btw.

For those into the locovore movement---as more and more people are--- processing is a requirement, whether you grow your own or buy whole, locally grown pumpkins. So that part of your argument is a wash.

Pumpkins, for culinary use, are a side-benefit to many people who buy them for fall decorating (not just Halloweeen, you understand) and then, rather than waste them, use them for eating. True, jack-o-lantern type pumpkins are not the best for culinary purposes. But why waste food at all if you don't have to? Here, again, processing is required by the user.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Well, I stand corrected, KYH. You definitely raise many great points.

I like pumpkin for a simple pie and some basic baking- and obviously for jack-o-lanterns, but other than that I really have no pumpkin needs.

We grew them when I was growing up and Dad volenteered each year in various duties at the well known "Morton Pumpkin Festival" Morton Chamber of Commerce Morton Illinois IL and one hint he picked up there was to turn/rotate pumpkins every day on the vine to prevent mold growth and "pale sides". As a kid I always found this a pain- with little if no pay-off. But, as I've written elsewhere, I was a 'mater boy, anyway- Ha!

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

I am trying to grow my own this year this yr! Every yr. I will not allow real carving and make my "Pooh" paint her faces on our jack-o-lanterns, because we use our pumpkin pulp for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies; if it lasts til Christmas NOTHING compares to homemade pumpkin pie!!! So I have planted our own and am very hopeful to have our own pumpkins to harvest this year!

[Mama Mangia]

Growing pumpkins is fun - it's keeping your freakin' thievin' neighbors away from the flowers so that the pumpkins will grow. Who cares if you like pumpkin flowers - grow your own and leave mine alone!

Then they have the nerve to ask me for a recipe to batter them!

goola goola

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr