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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Pumpkin puree

Prince Edward Island is strewn with pumpkins right now.  In fact, I can see a healthy pumpkin patch from the front window.  Last week, one of those pumpkins was hand-delivered by the farmer himself.  So we set right to making some pumpkin puree.

Step 1:  If you've ever carved a pumpkin, you know what to do.

Pumpkin

Step 2: Remove seeds.

Pumpkin guts

Step 3:  Cut pumpkin up into small pieces.  Arrange in a smiley face if you are a joker like my dad.

Funny ha-ha

Step 4:  Cook.  You can basically do this the same way you cook squash.  We chose to steam the cubes by covering a bowl with plastic wrap and microwaving for about nine minutes.  Later we did a batch by roasting in the oven for almost an hour.

Pumpkin, cubed

Pumpkin, nuking

Step 5:  Scoop flesh out and discard skin.

Step 6:  Puree.  You could use an immersion blender or food processor, whatever tickles your fancy.

Pumpkin puree

Step 7.  Drain.  Notice how juicy the above puree is?  We researched a bit and found the suggestion to strain the excess juice from several hours to overnight.  We set up a little device with some cheesecloth in a colander and refrigerated overnight.

Puree, draining

Step 8.  Put to good use!  Martha didn't let me down when I went looking for a recipe for pumpkin muffins.  It is a nice recipe - find it here.  I substituted pecans for walnuts since I love the pecans and one of my pet peeves is eating a walnut that's gone off - so bitter!  Between the puree and the yogurt (and the oil!) these muffins are nice and moist.  I also like the inclusion of some whole-wheat flour for that extra bit of fibre.  Thanks to my mom for creating a lovely little display for the finished product.

Pumpkin muffins

More pumpkin recipes to come!

4 comments:

Cathy said...Best Blogger Tips

They look yummy!

Erin O'Sullivan said...Best Blogger Tips

Glad to hear that your Martha recipe was more successful than mine!

Laura said...Best Blogger Tips

Haha, this one didn't have as high of a degree of difficulty.

For anyone wondering, here is the recipe Erin is talking about:

http://nerdywanderer.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-martha-ruined-my-sunday.html

Margie said...Best Blogger Tips

It was quite the learning experience !

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