Be a part of the community.
It's free, join today!
So, based on comments made by the head pastry chef at Blackberry Inn, I put in a small patch of Flat Tan Field Pumpkins this year. Despite using immature ones as summer squash, they're still going to drive us out. Near as I can tell, there are about 30 maturing ones (coming in at 15-20 lbs each).
I have a fair number of pumpkin recipes. But, obviously, I'm going to be using a lot of pumpkin this year. So I would appreciate any recipes and uses---sweet or savory---y'all can suggest.
Thanks.
Soup of course, served in a pumpkin shell. Maybe even make that and give it to a few neighbors or throw a fall party based on that?
I'm a fan of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies but that won't use up much pumpkin.
Save the seeds for roasting and making pipian sauce. Speaking of pipian, there should be Mexican recipes to use up some of that in interesting ways besides just the seeds.
You can used cooked pumpkin much as you'd use tomatoes for sauces in italian cuisine. Sounds odd but works pretty well, particularly with crumbled sausage.
Can some of course for later use.
I had some interesting pumpkin at an Afghan restaurant. Couldn't quite decide how they cooked it but it was sort of translucent and had a gelled quality to it. Maybe steamed and then chilled, then slowly roasted to remove the water? I can imagine some interesting curries based in pumpkin
I suppose you could make some interesting pumpkin "fruit leather" too. Make some sweet, spice some up with cajun flavors.
Donate some to an underprivileged school for October projects, or to a food bank/kitchen if they'll take some. Our local zoo collects pumpkins after Halloween to feed to some of the animals.
Thanks for the suggestions, Phil.
I've got several pumpkin soup recipes. But I'm always open to different variations on that theme. So if you've got one you particularly like......
It occurs to me that I've never had Afghan food, as such. That pumpkin dish sure sounds interesting, so. I'll have to do a search. And, no doubt, review all the African stuff as well, because they use a lot of pumpkin in subSaharan Africa. Pumpkin fritters are ubiquitous, for instance.
Canning, for sure. And sharing with others without doubt. I mean, I thought I had a heavy load after the year of the butternuts. But 30 of these monsters is way out of line.
Could use some as roast veg to accompany roast onions and potatoes.
Great suggestions Phil.
My favourite soup recipe includes sauted onions, garlic and ginger (raw root, not the dried ground stuff), then once fragrant addin cubed pumpkin and a couple of peeled and sliced carrots and potatoes. Cook until a little soft and browned, then add enough chicken stock to cover, simmer 30 mins or so, then whizz up with a stick blender. We did this today, made heaps of it, none left. Hooray!
I like to sieve mine, but it's not necessary. Serve with soured cream and lots of garlic and oil tossed oven crisped croutons. Can also top it with some spring onion tops roughly chopped.
Could also add sweet potatoes to the above veg mix if you like them. It freezes really well. What also helps just before serving is adding some soured cream, stirring it through. Don't boil, but you knew that 
Or greek yoghurt - that works well. Needs loads of S&P.
At times I'll also add a can of tomato soup, gives it a bit more depth. From which point you can turn it into a base for a minestrone soup....
Sautee them as you would potatoes for another option. They don't get quite as crisp but they go really well with a roast chicken or lamb.
Put left over cubed ones into one of those lovely big tortillas, adding peas and egg mix as per usual, served warm or even cold with a crisp green salad.
Ok...someone else's turn 
Pumpkin gnocchi - steam or roast the pumpkin, then cool a little, add about an equal part by volume of flour or a little less, and an egg - mix, and drop into boiling water by spoonfuls. I find they work well using one of those things that look like a large side of a box grater and a sort of spatula or trowel to push them through - they use them in hungarian cuisine to make galuska, or in other cuisines - german, maybe, or austrian. Season with butter and parmigiano, or whatever you like (someone recently posted something about them in a thread on fall cooking, and uses brown butter and sage).
you could do pumpkin turnovers or large savory pumpkin pies - I fry up onions (plenty) in butter, add to mashed pumpkin (best are the kind that don;t make much water, otehrwise let the pumpkin flesh drain very well for an hour or two before using) , add pine nuts and raisins, salt and pepper. A couple of handfuls of parmigiano can't hurt, and it really is very open to other seasonings (curry type seasoning perhaps). Make individual turnovers or long thin ones which you later cut into strips for finger food, using an olive oil crust. No time now but look for it on this website, i;ve posted it before. I put some pictures below. You can also make one large pie. I make the turnovers for my christmas party, about ten of them, and dozens of other dishes, for about fifty people. and i make the single pie for xmas dinner, where there are vegetarians. I also make these partially in advance. I make the filling, put it in parchment paper, making a sort of crib for them (like what they use to raise baguettes, out of foil, then roll them up and freeze. Then i make the dough and fill and then bake. Or you can freeze them unbaked with the dough. But my freezer is small so i make the smallest thing possible.
A favourite of mine that's proved popular gets called Asian or Satay Pumpkin Soup. In its simplest form its a balance of coconut cream, peanut butter, curry powder & banana. The trick is the balancing (skewed to personal preference) and the danger is the banana...I screwed up enough times that I now add it incrementally in small pieces. It's evolved now to using my peanut-based spice paste 'cos I have it on hand but the original is quick, easy and different.
I also love roast (baked) pumpkin hummus, so much so we put it out a stiffer version as a starch under a dukkar crusted chicken breast with grilled courgettes and lemon thyme aioli...
Linda loves this.
Hilarity ensues.
Note: With very little effort you may alter this for raviolis.
BDL
PS. This recipe is original with me. If you want to share it or repost it on your own blog, you may do so on conditions that it is not for profit, you do not change it, and you attribute it to me, Boar D. Laze. I would consider it a kindness if you would steer errant pilgrims of the plate to my blog, www.cookfood.com -- where it will no doubt also appear in a more structured form when I get around to it. Thank you, very much. You've been a great audience. Don't forget to try your waitress and tip the veal.
If you grow pumpkins next year, you might consider planting seeds for pie pumpkins, or even butternut squash, rather than field pumpkins. They tend to mature at a smaller size, and the flesh is much meatier, has a richer color and flavor, not so much water and very little fiber.
Don't let the name fool you, Grace. These are culinary pumpkins.
In fact, the head pastry chef at Blackberry considers them to be the finest culinary pumpkins in the world. Obviously I haven't used any yet (except as a summer squash), so can neither confirm nor deny. But I have no reason to doubt her.
What took me by surprise was the productivity of these plants. When I grew the same number of hills of butternut I wound up with 18 mature squash. Counting all the ones we ate over the summer, and the new ones forming now I'd say there were actually about 45 total.
Common names of plants, particularly heirloom veggies like this, can be very misleading. For instance, botanically speaking there is no such thing, specifically, as a pumpkin. Yet, there are pumpkins varieties found in all four of the commonly grown squash species.
In this case, "field" is used only to differentiate it from a squash that would be grown in a kitchen garden. That's the same reason cowpeas are often identified, generically, as field peas.
Anyway, the flat tans are supposed to be thick fleshed, meaty, very sweet, with great texture (no stringyness at all). Presumably they'll be on the dry side. They belong to the group known as "cheese" pumpkins, because of their shape, which is slightly flattened and ovoid, sort of like old-time cheese boxes.
Next year, no matter what happens with these, I'll be growing the Boer White Pumpkin, from South Africa. Another one said to be "the sweetest." Took me three years to track down seed, so I have to grow them.
You're right that modern pie pumpkins mature smaller. But that's only because they've been bred that way. Most of those smaller ones are hybrids, though, and even if I wanted a smaller squash I won't put a hybrid in the ground.
Among older varieties there are some hummongous squashes that meet all the criteria for pie pumpkins--sweet, tight flesh, low moisture, etc.. In fact, most commercially canned pumpkin actually is hubbard, and, depending on variety, they go as much as 45 pounds. If I had to guess, I'd say that most culinary pumpkins fall in the 20-30 pound range.
BDL: Now that's what I'm talking about. Something that pushes the envelope a little.
Thanx for the recipe.
Curried pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins all come to mind. I'm not a fan of pumpkin, except in the jack o'lantern department so I'm not much help.
Pumpkins here are already ripe and early this season.. we had a stupid hot summer so everything matured faster. I'm afraid to see what will be lurking about come Hallowe'en (and we always carve four pumpkins.. one for each of us!!)
Couscous? I never was much of a fan of it until someone from Morocco made us a vegetarian one, which featured pumpkin. It was really wonderful.
In Italy they fry it but I never had it. I believe it's dipped in egg and flour and fried or just egg (dorato e fritto), but I imagine using a breading would be even better. Maybe (very unitalian) some sort of sour cream sauce. Sour cream or Greek yoghurt with lemon and maybe something else.
I bet if you grated them raw you could come up with some interesting fritter or pancake type things (think latkes) - maybe with a sauce with sage and garlic and hot pepper in butter or oil to drizzle on top? Or with those in the fritter itself?
I'd experiment also with slicing them thin and making a baked dish with some kind of sauce (like you can do with potatoes).
Ravioli, if you have a lot of time on your hands.
They sell pumpkin here at the markets by the chunk - and they always have them. I think they;re put in minestrone (it seems a waste to me, since the flavor would be overwhelmed) but also they make risotto with the kind that go mushy. I don;t know which type you have, the kind that cook into sort of watery strands (good for risotto) or the kind that make a thick, more homogeneous kind of mass. The latter are good for turnovers, ravioli, gnocchi. They also make the greatest pumpkin pies.
Here, everything is called a zucca, there is no distinction between pumpkin and squash, so i don't really know the differences. Can you post a photo of these heirloomers, KY?
Unfortunately, Siduri, I don't even own a digital camera. So can't post pix. I'll try and find photos on line.
Paula Wolfert has a wonderful sounding Pumpkin Couscous recipe that I've been meaning to try anyway. So there's a way to kill two birds with one stone. Thanks for reminding me.
That's a good point about all of them just being called "squash" where you are. A point I keep trying to make is that winter squashes are interchangeable in most recipes, and the same can be said for summer squashes. An interesting comment, in this regard, comes from Ilkin and Kaufman's brand new The Turkish Cookbook: "The term 'pumpkin'," they say in their into to a pumpkin soup recipe, "is used to indentify nearly all hard-skinned squash. What the term refers to changes from region to region and from country to country."
I'm extrapolating from what others have said, but presume that the Flat Tan will cook into a thick, homogeneous puree, rather than a watery one. Ideal, that is, for gnocci and pastries. We'll see soon enough.
KY, you might be interested in the typical italian pumpkins. Besides butternut and another that looks like an acorn (why is the squash that actually looks like an acorn not called :acorn squash"???) these are the most common here. I looked up flat tan but couldn;t find anything.
this is one type I've seen around
this is another, i believe the modena one, great for ravioli etc
This is the standard one you get at the market, in chunks like this:
the one on the right is mandolino - also good for ravioli
By the way, since you grow your own stuff, have you ever had the whole zucchine plant? I think they're called by different names, i just found one site that calls them Talli. They sell it sometimes at the market . It's the vine with all the tiny baby zucchine still on it, and the small leaves and flowers. It grows up between the flowers. You peel the stems and then quickly blanch it in boiling water and serve it simply with olive oil. It's heavenly. They also make pasta with it and other dishes, but it;s so delicate it's worth eating on its own.
http://foto.lericettedicucina.com/forum1/cucinalucana/cucinalucana_8259876275.jpg
Thanks for the pix, Siduri.
If you go here: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Heirloom-Pumpkins-Squash you'll find a slideshow of several heirloom squash and pumpkins. Scroll through to the Long Island Cheese and you find an almost spitting image of the Flat Tan.
FWIW, the Rouge Vif d'Etampes you'll see there is also known as the Cinderella Pumpkin, because one of them was used as the model for her coach in the Disney animated feature.
For other views, scroll down at this site: http://www.liseed.org/moschata.html
I saw the cheese one and it looked like something that would be called flat tan. nice.
Watch that they don;t turn into carriages!
But if they did I could ride off to the castle, where a team of culinary professionals would be waiting to take care of the pumpkins, and I wouldn't have to worry about it.
Do you think if I wish upon a star..........
But if they did I could ride off to the castle, where a team of culinary professionals would be waiting to take care of the pumpkins, and I wouldn't have to worry about it.
Do you think if I wish upon a star..........
Yeah, you can try, but just try walking in high-heeled glass slippers!
You're in big trouble now, Siduri.
Who's gonna clean the coffee off my monitor and keyboard!
Getting serious again, take a look at that Messico squash photo. There's an interesting story there.
Notice how it's identified as a cross between Cucurbita moschata and Cucurbita mixta. Seems to fly in the face of plant genetics, because the general rule is that varieties can cross within a species, but not between species. Ha!
It was long known that those two could cross in the wild, but it was thought such crosses were rare. As little as five years ago some horticulturists were questioning whether it could even happen. And nobody thought such crosses were taking place in home gardens.
Now there are so many of those crosses around that they've been assigned their own species name, and are called C. argyrosperma. In fact, several old time squashes have been reclassified. For instance, all of the so-called "sweet potato" squashes are now listed as agyrosperma.
Does this matter to anyone? Only if you're a horticulturist or a seed saver. Otherwise, you grow or buy squash based on what you think tastes good. But, if you grow for seed saving, better be leery of planting moschatas and mixtas near each other.
Throwing discipline to the winds, I went and harvested one of the Flat Tans, even though I knew it was a bit early, yet. Sure enough, although the flesh was a beautiful orange it was a bit on the moist side. I figure it'll be another two weeks before they're actually ripe and start to cure.
Anyway, I used part of the pumpkin to make a soup. I've had this one before, and, as expected, it didn't have that full-bodied squash flavor. In fact, it way more on the apple side than the squash side. Which is understandable, given the unripe stage of the pumpkin.
Be that as it may, I thought I'd shrare the recipe with y'all, as a thank-you for all the suggestions:
Curried Apple-Squash Bisque with Shrimp
3 tbls unslated butter
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 1/2 tbls curry powder
1 winter squash, about 2 lbs
1 tart apple, chopped small
2 cups chicken or veggie stock
1 cup apple cider or juice
Salt & pepper to taste
12 medium shrimp, cooked
Small pumpkin seeds, toasted
Melt butter in a soup pot. Add the curry powder and onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender.
Peel, deseed, and cube the squash. When onions are tender add the stock, squash and apple. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until squash is very tender.
Drain soup, reserving liqud. Transfer solids and one cup of liquid to a food processor and process until very smooth. Alternatively, use an immersion blender right in the pot to puree the solids.
Return puree to pot. Add apple cider and remaining cooking liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer briefly to heat through.
Ladle soup into bowls. Arrange 3 shrimp in the center of bowl. Scatter a few pumpking seeds on soup surface as garnish.
Pumpkin soup is always a good option, and you can make large quantities to freeze! Pumpkin filled ravioli. Whole wheat pumpkin pancakes. You could always make lots of pumpkin muffins to give to people!
I like to add pumpkin to all my chili recipes. It is delicious. I also like to saute it in some olive oil until don. Toss in some frsh spinach, corn and cooked bacon and serve. Very tasty
Last week I made 3 dishes with only 1 not too big Japanese pumpkin, also known as Hokkaido pumpkin or uchiki kuri.
This variety is -to my taste- the very best I ever tasted! Quite ferm meat, even roasted and a delicious nutty taste.
I took some more pictures of the preparations, and they are over here;
http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv92/ChrisBelgium1/Pumpkin%20Pompoen/
For the 3 preparations I used ovenroasted pumpkin.
Start by cutting the pumpkin in wedges, skin on. Sprinkle some sunflower oil over them, a few pinches of dried thyme, P&S.
Cook at 180° C in the oven for 45-60 minutes. You can eat them like this or puree them. BTW thyme on pumpkin is waaaaw.
1. Pumpkin gnocchi (I used around 500 gr potatoes + 300 gr pumpkin)
I ovenroasted some potatoes together with the pumpkin. Make gnocchi while the potatoes and pumpkin are still warm!!
Quickly mash the potatoes (never mix potatoes!). Mixed the pumpkin with a few dried sageleaves. Very lightly fold both together, add 15-20% in volume flour and knead lighthandedly for only a minute or so. Don't forget P&S! You now have a sticky dough. Cut off some strips and lightly roll into 2cm thick sausages. Cut in 2cm chunks. Cook them immediately!
Put a few at a time in boiling water until they come to the surface. They are now ready to serve, or... Cool them quickly as I did (I put them in icecold water for 20 sec.).
Melt some butter, add a few dried sageleaves and fry. Add the gnocchi.
It's very important to lightly knead, as less as possible, and to use quite dry, preferably ovenroasted ingredients. Only then will your gnocchi be featherlight!
2. Pumpkin risotto
I made some chickenstock the day before with an entire chicken and some aromates. No big deal.
Basicly it's making a traditional risotto with a shallot, white wine, arborio, chickenstock. Just add a few tablespoons of chopped or roughly mixed roasted pumpkin at 2/3th of the cooking time of the rice. Add butter and parmezan at the end. I also put some chickenmeat in the rice and a few bits on top.
Keep the peel of the pumpkin for the soup!!!
3. Pumpkin soup
Sweat a medium onion, add roughly chopped roasted pumpkin, with skins; they give a nice color and taste. Add a very small piece of ginger, a little orange zeste, a pinch of chiliflakes, only 1 lovageleaf (strong celery taste), chickenstock. Cook 20 minutes and mix.
I served it with sour cream and a sprinkle of ovendried serranoham. My advice; don't dry serrano or any other ham for that matter. Such nonsense to spoil a perfectly good product by drying it.
Thanks, Chris.
I'm familiar with kuri sqaush, and they do rank very high. Dense flesh, with no stringiness, great flavor, and that drop-dead gorgeous color.
And, yes, one of them can stretch pretty far. But you can say the same about many squashes.
I will, no doubt, try your recipes using the flat tan pumpkins. All three sound good.
For the record, I couldn't agree more about roasting rather than boiling squash. Roasting not only reduces some of the natural moisture, it intensifies the squash flavor. In my experience, boiling squash (or, even worse, cooking it in the microwave) does exactly the opposite. Flavor and texture are effected in a negative way.
After a little experimentation I came up with a salad course using pumpkin. Here it is:
Pumpkin/Jicama Slaw
1 lbs grated raw pumpkin*
½-3/4 lb grated raw jicama*
3 tangerines
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar or blood orange vinegar if available
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
1 tsp grated fresh ginger root
Pinch cayenne
Salt & pepper to taste
Toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish
Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanch the pumpkin one minute, then shock in ice water. Drain dry well by wringing in a towel. Toss the pumpkin and jicama in a large bowl.
Segment 2 of the tangerines into supremes, reserving any excess juice in a separate bowl. Juice the remaining tangerine and combine with reserved juice.
In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, tangerine juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cayenne and olive oil. Combine with the jicame/pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Gently fold in the tangerine supremes.
Divide salad among individual salad bowls. Sprinkle a few pumpkin seeds on top of each serving.
*I actually “grated” these using the fine julienne setting on my mandoline, so they'd have a little more body.
pumpkin is very big in the caribbean, although its not the same breed as yours, and lends itself so well to curries and spices, like allspice, ginger and nutmeg, chilies...a few off the top here....pumpkin buns or a tea loaf with raisins,allspice, ginger....seasoned (cubed, floured and sauteed in salt pork, then cooked down a bit til thick...served as a side)..add pickapeppa, or hot sauce to it...soup variation...make a creamy pumpkin(not curried) and add sherry and oysters...whenever i get overloaded with garden goodies from friends, i puree it ( its when the fp becomes your bff), and freeze it, then deal with it at a later date...like sometime in the deepest darkest days of winter....last year my friend gave me a 50lb feed bag full of arugula....i processed it, adding oil and froze it...later made pesto...still got some...would something like that work for you? guess having the space to store it is crucial.....seems you're biggest hassle will be the peeling and cubing, but i suppose if you roast it first, its easier...good luck.....of course, there are always the local shelters/soup kitchens in town that would love to have them...and they will last a very, very long time without refrigeration.....and last, but not least, if left in the field, well, the foxes, ground squirrels and birds will love them as well..so in the end, worst case scenario, nothing will go to waste..
joey
siduri, yo, those look marvelous....maybe with a little chutney?..i'm there!
siduri, yo, those look marvelous....maybe with a little chutney?..i'm there!
Chutney, eh? Now i never would have thought of that, but that might be nice.
curious though ky,
how do you get them in the house?...chainsaw them up in the field first? at your expense,but with no malice, the visual is pretty funny!!!
joey
also siduri, i was thinking more of a mincemeat type chutney
