Pumpkin flavour

[Tay]

A neighbour has given us a pumpkin, but neither of us have eaten one before. I have found a number of recipes online, but don't know what to try as I don't know what they taste like.

I'd be grateful if somebody could try to describe the taste so I get a better idea of what to do with it! I am currently thinking of curried pumkin soup, but wonder if pumkin is too delicate for that.

[red]

not sure if i could describe the flavour - but it is delicate. i would try a pumpkin pie as a first go as thats a good way of experiencing it. or... just roast chucks of pumpkin for a more straight forward taster

[Tay]

Thanks. I may well try roasting chunks to get an idea of the flavour. Perhaps I should have said that we both dislike sweet food (chocolate included!), so I'm really looking to use the pumpkin in a savoury recipe.

[Millymollymandy]

Pumpkins are quite a sweet tasting vegetable. Some are a bit stringy inside (the Halloween types) and others have much smoother flesh (butternut). Roasted pumpkin is a similar flavour to roasted carrot (but nicer!).

Give it a go roasting it or making soup. Curried pumpkin soup would be a very good thing to make as pumpkin goes very well with spices - either sweet as pumpkin pie or savoury as a curry (Indian, Thai, they all work!).

Hope you enjoy it!

[Wormella]

there's a lovely rick stein recipe for pumpkin ravioli on the BBC food boards.

It's like a softer version of sweet potato. sort of.

[Tay]

Thank you both for your replies. As it is likely that two or three more pumpkins will be heading our way, I will be able to try out a few recipes. The ravioli will be a good way to use up eggs too.

[2steps]

we had some pumpkin bread last year made from the insides of our halloween pumpkin. Was very nice, never eaten it any other way though.

[Tay]

Pumpkin bread sounds interesting. I don't suppose you have a recipe for it?

[Millymollymandy]

There are thousands of pumpkins recipes on the Internet (including bread). Don't forget pumpkin cake and scones and muffins - it works equally well with sweet things as savoury. I'm looking forward to eating mine!

[Andy Hamilton]

I think that the closest flavour is butternut squash. Most recipes for squashes will work for pumkins if you get stuck.

[Chickpea]

My favourite thing to do with pumpkin is pumpkin pie. Here is the recipe I use - it's somewhat involved but well worth it.

Mel's Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Ingredients
1 lb pumpkin puree
½ lb shortcust pastry
½ pint cream
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
5oz caster sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Step 1 – Making the pumpkin puree
I usually make this pie on Hallowe'en using the scooped-out centre of the pumpkin I carve for the children, or you could buy a pumpkin for the purpose, in which case you'll have to peel it (the skin is quite thin), cut it in half and discard the seeds and the stringy material around them, then cut the flesh into chunks. Either way, boil what you've got with just a little water until the flesh is soft. Line a colander with a clean tea towel and let the cooked flesh stand until all the excess water is drained off. Then puree the pumpkin, either by rubbing through a sieve, with a food processor or hand blender, a ricer, or with a potato masher. I find that one Hallowe'en pumpkin usually yields about 2lbs of puree, so you could make two pies, or freeze some to make another pie later in the year.

Step 2 – Making the pastry case
You can use your own shortcrust pastry recipe, or ready-made pastry or a ready-made pie shell. But this is my favourite shortcrust pastry recipe for when I'm really pushing the boat out. It makes the best ever mince pies, for example. Sift 7oz plain flour into a bowl with ½ teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the centre. Add 4oz diced softened (really soft) unsalted butter, 2oz caster sugar, 4 egg yolks and ½ teaspoon vanilla essence into the well and then rub in. In fact I usually heave it all into my food processor with a dough hook attachment and let it run until it looks like pastry. Bring it together into a ball and knead it lightly, then wrap it in clingfilm and chill it for at least half an hour before using.
Roll it out, but it's a b****r to handle, so if it falls apart when you try to line your 9-10â€Â

[2steps]

Pumpkin bread sounds interesting. I don't suppose you have a recipe for it?

* 1 1/2 c. flour
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1 c. sugar
* 1 tsp. baking soda
* 1 c. pumpkin puree
* 1/2 c. vegetable oil
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/4 c. water
* 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
* 1 tsp. cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp. allspice
* 1/4 tsp. cloves
* 1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, & baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water, & spices. Pour into the bowl w/ dry ingredients & mix just until all are combined - don't stir too much! Stir in the nuts, if you're using them (I like it better w/o the nuts). Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3-in. loaf pan, bake 50-60 minutes until done in the middle. Remove from pan, cool on a rack.

[Tay]

I haven't tried butternut squash either! I have probably been missing out on these two vegetables for years!

I did Googled for pumpkin bread and other recipes, but there were so many to choose from. Plus, I prefer to use a recommended recipe as I know that someone has tried it and liked it. Thank you 2steps.

The pumpkin pie recipe sounds lovely and not really that involved. It is certainly good news that the puree can be frozen as there must be other uses for the puree too. Is there a particular reason to eat the pie cold? I had assumed that it was meant to be eaten warm...

One more question - how do you know when the pumpking is ripe/ready? We now have another one, but its underside is very pale as it had been sat on the ground. They are both a lovely orange/red colour, which I thought was the ripe colour as it is the same as the Halloween pumpkin colour. But Halloween isn't for another month, so do pumpkins store well or were these planted too early?

Thanks for all of your help.

[Millymollymandy]

If you search for pumpkin pie on this forum, you'll find two tried and tested recipes that I posted last year.

I suppose you could try pumpkin pie hot, but I think it is just supposed to be eaten cold. Like cheesecake!

As for when they are ripe, I don't know for sure. My living room windowsill is covered with 14 butternut pumpkins ripening in the sun. Some are already ripe but I'm just doing the side that is still a bit green.

When you think they are ripe they then need to go somewhere cool to store. For me that'll be soon when we get the wood burner going as it'll be too hot for them in the living room then.

I never managed to get a halloween type ripe, despite the skin being the 'right' colour and leaving it out to ripen in the sun after taking off the plant, outdoors to start with and then indoors. And that's in France with more heat than England!