Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Over the course of the last week, I roasted and pureed three pumpkins. Here are the photos and the steps I took.

First I cut the skin off. Last year when I did this, I cut the pumpkin up first and then cut the skin off, based on some advice I got. Boy that was a bummer of a job. This year I thought, why not cut the skin off while the pumpkin is whole. Yeah, this method made all the difference. I recommend using a sharp knife for this.

Now this pumpkin is ready to be cut in to quarters and cubed. For this particular pumpkin, I started out the traditional way, by cutting off the top and scraping out the seeds. However, since I was going to be cutting it into halves then quarters, I found on the other two pumpkins, it was easier to scrape out the seeds later on.


After I cubed the pumpkin, I transferred the pieces to a sheet tray. Before putting the tray in the oven, I added enough water cover the bottom of the tray. The water keeps the pumpkin from burning and sticking to the tray. I roasted the pumpkin in the oven at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until pumpkin is soft to the touch.


When the pumpkin had cooled, I put the cubes in a food processor to puree it. The last time I did this I think I had to add water to be able to puree it. Of course I didn't have this bad boy back then.. (Shout out to KJ, thanks for the goodies!!) After pureeing, it may be necessary to boil the pumpkin in order to evaporate the excess water. I tried doing this with the first pumpkin I did, but it wasn't really runny. I didn't even bother with the other two. After freezing and thawing, I strain out the excess water before incorporating the pumpking into any recipe. If you skip this step, expecially for a pie, it will come out really wet. No bueno..


Of course I dropped the ball as far as picture taking goes and all I can show you know is the finished product, already bagged and frozen. Between 3 pumpkins (one was a sugar pumpkin and the other two were of the regular carving kind), I got around 8lbs of pumpkin puree. I prefer to bag my pumpkin in increments of 1lb (2c). This is the amount of pumpkin I need to make one pumpkin pie. Since I have so much pumpkin, I have already started experimenting with other recipes. Last Sunday (11/14/10) I made my first batch of pumpkin pancakes. They were pretty good. When I perfect the recipe, I'll send out the memo...

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Pizzas from October

Wet your whistle with these: