Pumpkin carving how-to
A JACK-O’-LANTERN WILL TAKE YOUR HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Celebrating Halloween at home is causing many Australian households to splurge on decorations and treats. And pumpkin sales ahead of tomorrow’s spooky festivities have hit record levels as families buy them to carve and create what has been a tradition overseas for centuries: the jack-o’-lantern.
Plenty of supermarkets and fruit shops have been stocking up on the easier-to-carve Halloween pumpkins, which are grown specially for the annual scarefest.
Coles has sold up to 80 per cent of its lines of confectionery, costumes and pumpkins in the lead-up to Halloween, as children pester their parents to decorate the front yard.
This year, Marnee Dixon is carving pumpkins with her children Claudia, 6, and Malcolm, 4, before welcoming a stream of trick and treaters.
“Making a jack-o’-lantern is a great opportunity for the kids to socialise, make a mess and show off their creative skills,” she says.
Here, Coles senior development chef and former Masterchef contestant Michael Weldon offers pumpkincarving tips to bring your jacko’-lantern to life.
PICK YOUR PUMPKIN
It’s important to put some thought into your pumpkin selection.
Weldon says a good carving pumpkin costs about $2.90/kg.
“They typically have flesh only a few centimetres thick, with a few seeds, making them easy to prepare for carving,” he said.
When it comes to size and shape, larger pumpkins with flatter sides are easier to place your stencil on but, really, it comes down to your design.
HOLLOW IT OUT
Before you can get on to carving, you have to prep your pumpkin.
“Cut out the top so that you can
hollow out and clean up the inside,” Weldon says.
There are special pumpkincarving knives so children can do some of the cutting, but without one of those it’s best that the adults do the work with a sharp knife.
Create a back-and-forth slicing motion to cut through the skin. The hole should be large enough to allow you to scoop out the centre.
Angle the knife to prevent the lid from falling into the hole.
This is the fun bit for kids: Using a big spoon or your hands, scoop out the seeds and all the stringy webbing that comes with them. “A lot of kits come with a handy pumpkin scraper that will help you get out the seeds, but it also helps you to thin down the walls of the pumpkin,” Weldon says. Save the seeds – they can be roasted on a tray with a little oil and salt as a delicious snack.
CREATE YOUR DESIGN