Peter Piper picked a pumpkin - Now what?
I have always wanted to use fresh pumpkin but I don't know the best way to go about doing just that. Are all pumpkins you see good to eat? How do you prepare one? Cook it first? Recipes for fresh pumpkin?
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10 Comments:
Cut a small orange ( pie) pumpkin in half horizontally, clean out seeds and strings and place cut side down on a foil lined cookie sheet. Roast in a 350 degree oven for 30 min. or until tender when poked with a fork. Let cool. Peel and then mash ( I use the food processor.) Use the baked pumpkin in place of canned pumpkin in any recipe. Trust me, you will NEVER go back to canned pumpkin.
ocarol at 10:44PM on 10/05/08
Peter Piper was a sex addict and deviant, and he wasn't "picking" that pumpkin.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, assuming he and the pumpkin were involved in a loving, committed relationship.
I'm just saying...
FastFoodCritic at 11:29PM on 10/05/08
The "pie" pumpkins (small pumpkins) are sweeter and sometimes less stringy than the large "jack-o-lantern" pumpkins. I had a pumpkin soup recipe (believe I got it from epicurious) that was outstanding that called for roasted pumpkin pureed with some other ingredients. Sadly, I lost the recipe. I need to find that one again. :)
beth1 at 12:42AM on 10/06/08
Hi there. I'm Australian and we eat pumpkin as a savoury vegetable ALOT! Either roasted alongside the potatoes, or mashed with potatoes, and of course pumpkin soup.
I like to make mine by peeling and seeding the pumpkin, cutting it into large chunks and tossing it in a baking dish with some chunked peeled potatoes (probably even quantities of both). Drizzle with EVOO, season with salt & pepper and a teaspoon or so of ground cumin. I also toss in a head of garlic to roast alongside the vegies as well. Roast for about an hour until tender.
Then saute some diced onion in a soup pot, add the vegies and a few cloves of roasted garlic, cover generously with chicken stock (or water at a pinch), and simmer gently until the pumpkin and potatoes are literally falling apart. Then just blend the soup and serve with a swirl of cream or sour cream, some chopped parsley and toasted sourdough bread. YUM!
vegemite at 4:42AM on 10/06/08
@ fastfoodcritic- haha I was going for an alliteration, but thanks for the background info.
mikemcl55 at 7:10AM on 10/06/08
...and don't let the seeds go to waste! They're great baked.
I have never eaten fresh (orange) pumpkin as a savory dish before. Can it be cooked in the same manner as kabocha? My mother would chop it up in bite sized cubes and cook the kabocha with shoyu, skin included, as a side dish.
Cassaendra at 9:27AM on 10/06/08
Pumpkins, remember, are basically squashes, and can be cubed and roasted, pureed for soups, etc., the same way. Me, I've been jonesing for a pumpkin soup I had in Aix-en-Provence several autumns past.
lemons at 9:46AM on 10/06/08
@FastFoodCritic - that made me laugh out loud!!!
CookiePie at 10:19AM on 10/06/08
Visit The Pioneer Woman's website, she's doing stuff with fresh pumpkins all this week.
wookie at 5:13PM on 10/06/08
LOL FFC! But that's nothing new--I think I laugh at something you say at least once a day.
I love pumpkin soup. I make it pretty much the way I make squash soup--roast the pumpkin, scoop it out, cook it with chicken stock, garlic, s&p, and cream, then puree. Yum.
And just for the record... didn't Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
buffy at 7:11PM on 10/06/08