Savory Pumpkin Recipes

So, I just got two sugar pumpkins in my CSA box and was perusing the net to get inspiration on what to do with them. I prefer savory dishes to sweet, generally. I loved Hellodali's soup at the small household exchange (from Smittenkitchen), so that's a thought. A quick LTH search yielded threads with baby food, dog food and soup suggestions. Soups a possibility. Baby and dog food are out. So I decided to start a new thread.
I found some good recipes on the internet. I'm leaning toward the pork and pumpkin stew.

Here are some links:
West Town Tavern Refried Pumpkin Tostadas
West Town Tavern Sweet 'n Spicy Pork and Pumpkin Chili
West Town Tavern Curry Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Galette
Smitten Kitchen Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup Based on Hellodali's rendition, I heartily endorse this one and may try it with pancetta (since I have some)
101 Cookbooks Roasted Pumpkin Salad
Martha Stewart Rigatoni with Pumpkin and Bacon

Other ideas?

Pumpkin ravioli? I don't have a recipe for it, though. And I don't have a good solution to what sauce to serve with it. My own attempts at sage butter have not so far succeeded.

Things to do with pumkins when they're dead

Also, last year I loosely followed this recipe from epicurious for my Thanksgiving stuffing/dressing. I cheated on the liquids, though: I used a combo of turkey stock, apple cider and white wine, and I used cubes of homeade french bread as well.

I've never tried this recipe, but am planning at some point to see if I can food-desert-ize it: Koloketes

And the Afgan pumpkin with yogurt(haven't tried this either, but I've had it in restaurants)

There's also apparently a pumpkin version of spanakopita, with pumpkin and feta, called kolokythopita - all three of these were from a random google, so try at your own risk.

The Koloketes and Kolokythopita sound particularly good. I may have to try one of those. I've got phyllo in the freezer.

Last year we were up to our ears in pumpkin from our last CSA. I often used it to make a spicy stir fry, trying to replicate a favorite dish I used to order at Grand Szechuan in New York.

The restaurant's dish was basically lots of dried chilis, finished off with some szechuan peppercorns. My weeknight cheat is to steam the pumpkin slices, and then finish with a quick stir fry with some of the magical chili oil/ fermented black bean sauce sitting in the fridge. (I can't remember the name and google isn't helping, but it's at all the Argyle markets). The sweetness of the pumpkin goes really well with the heat.

At The Bristol, I recently had a shaved pumpkin salad: raw pumpkin shaved into vegetable-peeler style strips, served with same-shaped shavings of mild cheese and endive and topped with toasted seeds. It was dressed with a simple lemon vinaigrette. I liked it.

veghound wrote:I often used it to make a spicy stir fry, trying to replicate a favorite dish I used to order at Grand Szechuan in New York.

Ok, that's next on my list. Grand Szechuan international on 9th ave was one of my favorite spots when I lived in NY.

The shaved pumpkin salad sounds good, too. I don't think I've ever eaten raw pumpkin but I like the idea of a little crunch...

I just came home from a reception where one of the passed appetizers was "sticks" of pumpkin (about 1/3 inch high, 1/3 inch wide, and 1-1/2 inches long) wrapped in bacon, rolled in black pepper, and broiled. They didn't last long.

Hi,

I recently bought a 22.5 pound Australian squash or Queensland Blue Winter Squash also known as the Jarrahdale Pumpkin. This robust squash cost a mere $2.99. It had fleshy walls 3-4 inches thick with a relatively small pocket of seeds in the center.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I cut a few deep slits to allow steam to release. I placed it on a jelly roll pan to bake for 90 minutes. I took the squash out of the oven, cut a lid. It didn't come out clean, it took a little extra knife work to loosen it. I removed the seeds and stringy pulp, which could be used later for salted seeds and/or making broth.

I returned the squash to the oven, then adjusted the temperature to 325 degrees for another hour. I then lowered the temperature to 300 degrees until it was cooked through. Deciding when it was finished reminded me of smoking pork shoulder: it looked like it was collapsing on itself. Total cooking time was at least five hours and likely several hours longer.

The first Jarrahdale was a gift. I wasn't sure I would like it. I gave away quite a few substantial chunks, before I got around to cooking it into a main course. Found I really liked it and bought a second squash the following weekend.

What have I made with the bounty of squash?
- Squash risotto using techniques from Cook's Illustrated.
- Several batches of Squash and roasted garlic bisque from epicurious.com with one batch going to the food exchange
- Squash gratin
- Squash-tomato sauce, another fine epicurious.com inspiration, which was dinner and lunch earlier this week.
- My friends ate it as-is with a little salt.
- I contemplated making a Bolognese-ish lasagna, but found exactly two no-boil noodles in the house.

My friend who introduced me to Jarrahdale. She added ginger laced sugar syrup into the middle of her squash while it cooked. It sounded great, though I didn't want to commit that much squash to that.

A food writer friend from Springfield had her daughter in New Zealand as an exchange student. Jarrahdale was a favorite squash served there in savory dishes exclusively. They thought her daughter's efforts to make pumpkin pie with it an odd use for a squash.

Saturday is the last day my farmer friends are open this year. I hope to drive out there for a few more Jarrahdale to tide me over.

Regards,

How about a pumpkin pizza. Today's trib had a blurb about a restaurant doing a pizza with pumpkin, pecorino cheese, and cipollini onions. I did a quick search and found variations on the theme interestingly enough on some Australian sites.

KCRW's Good Food podcast discussed a recipe of Ruth Reichel's from Gourmet Today for a savory pumpkin dish. The pumpkin is scooped out and filled with a strata-like filling, then roasted. The filling souffles up, but is "fondue-like" in the middle. It sounded fantastic.

Here is the recipe from the Gourmet website:
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/20 ... ese-fondue

Here is Evan Klieman's take on it:
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf0 ... _delica#at

This fall, Evan Kleiman is making Ruth Reichl's Roast Pumpkin with Cheese Fondue. It's a whole pumpkin filled with a strata, which is basically layers of bread, cheese, chicken broth and cream. The strata becomes puffed like a souffle, but melted like fondue. You can use any type of squash but kabocha squash is best. Serve by scooping the souffle with a little bit of squash.

If I get another pumpkin or other stuffable squash, I might give this a try.

Cheers, Jen

I haven't made it in a few years, but a nice lamb stew can be made with pumpkin, white beans, prunes and onion, The recipe I used to use was from an old Lee Bailey cookbook, and I believe it was supposed to be a Georgian dish. Seems like anyone who knows how to cook could make up a batch to suit their own taste without the recipe.

Has anyone made a dish using the "new" cinderella pumpkins, green, blue or grey pumpkins? We got 3 (cinderella, a dark green and a blueish/grey one) this year for carving. Here is what we discovered. 1) they are very difficult to carve...bumpy and the flesh is really thick. 2)They don't have a lot of guts, very few seeds...but a lot of meat. 3)cinderella meat is sweet, almost honeydew melon tasting 3)green and blueish-grey meat tasted more like a carrot.

We debated keeping the meat and doing something with it, but then opted to toss it out last night.

Edited to add: just re-read this thread and saw Cathy's Jarrahdale Pumpkin ideas. Will have to try out next year.

How long can you store toasted pumpkin seeds?

shorty wrote:How long can you store toasted pumpkin seeds?

I don't know, though I suggest freezing whatever may not be eaten in the near term. You will have them when you want them, because sitting around they will likely get rancid.

Regards,

Hi,

Today was the last day for most farmstands. I went to Von Bergen's between Hebron and Richmond to get a couple of Jarrahdale squashes. All squashes from mighty large to rather small were priced at 99 cents each.

I bought two Jarrahdale, a long and large pink banana squash and something whose name I cannot recall. For less than $4., I bought at least 50 pounds in squash.

Jarrahdale Squash


Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Today was the last day for most farmstands. I went to Von Bergen's between Hebron and Richmond to get a couple of Jarrahdale squashes. All squashes from mighty large to rather small were priced at 99 cents each.

I bought two Jarrahdale, a long and large pink banana squash and something whose name I cannot recall. For less than $4., I bought at least 50 pounds in squash.

Regards,

Given that Jarrah is an Australian tree, is it safe to guess that these are Aussie breeds of squash (or pumpkin as they'd call them in Australia)?