CARVE OUT A NEW RECIPE FOR YOUR PUMPKINS
Iam guessing that most American children believe that pumpkins come in but two forms: the ones with triangular eyes that they see on front stoops this time of year, and the ones grown in cans on the giant Libby’s Pumpkin Farm.
“We are the weird ones,” says Anita Rossi, whose family grows many sorts and forms of pumpkins at Rossi Dairy/Produce in Hudson, “who use mostly for decoration.”
Colorful forms of winter squash, pumpkins are cooked by people all over the world as everyday food.
The Thai sweeten the pulp of small pumpkins and serve them as self-standing desserts; Italians are famed for pasta stuffed with cooked and pureed “zucca” (their word for pumpkin).
Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, cooks in Australia
and New Zealand — all serve pumpkin prepared in myriad ways, literally from soup to “nuts,” the toasted seeds of pumpkins known in the Americas as “pepitas.”
Other cultures also eat pumpkin vine leaves and flowers, much in the same way that we might stuff and eat zucchini flowers.
The pumpkin squash originated millennia ago in North America. It’s time to return it to our own kitchens and cook it as other cultures do. It’s truly as American as, well, pumpkin pie — a preparation for which you don’t need my help here.
This week’s very straightforward recipe is for pumpkin fries, baked in the oven rather than in a deep-fat fryer. It was from among dozens of recipes using pumpkin meat that I found both in cookbooks and online.
The better pumpkins to use for cooking exclude the ubiquitous “jack o’ lantern” pumpkin, also known simply as the carving or orange pumpkin. Those carving pumpkins are relatively thin-walled (making them easier to clean out and carve), whereas cooking (or “pie” or “sugar”) pumpkins are thick-walled, sporting a lot of flesh that is vividly colored in light to deep hues of orange or orangered.
And what killer names they have: Jarrahdale, Tiger Stripes, Cheese Wheel, Red Warty Thing, Knucklehead, Fairytale, Porcelain Doll and the Cinderella or Rouge Vif d’Etampes, an heirloom French variety.
Pumpkin meat may be prepared for eating just as other squash are cooked: whole roasted; cut into large or small sections that are then boiled, steamed or roasted; even microwaved.
Tastes and textures will vary, too. The cooked flesh of a Jarrahdale, for exam- From marisolio.com Ingredients
1 cooking pumpkin (approximately 4 cups flesh) 1 teaspoon curry powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon onion powder ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the pumpkin for cooking by cutting it up, either in half lengthwise if not too large, or in quarters. Remove seeds and inner fibers. Peel off the skin. Cut the flesh into ¼- to ½-inch thick strips that resemble French fries.
Put seasonings and olive oil in a large bowl and mix well. With your hands, toss and coat well the pumpkin strips. Arrange the fries in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through, turning once if desired. Note: The fries may not be crisp-skinned depending on the initial moisture level of the sort of pumpkin. But they will be delicious!