Monday 19 October 2015

Pumpkin moan and bake...

First of all, welcome to Jean Scholefield and Catherine at ditzygranquilts via Bloglovin.

This time of the year sees the annual pumpkin harvest. They have been harvesting them close to us for a few weeks now. It is also a huge time of waste with all those lovely pumpkins being carved for Halloween then thrown away. I suspect most people simply thrown the insides of their pumpkins away, such a shame as there are loads of recipes that could use it all up.

On the hunt for something different this year I perused t'internet and came across this recipe and decided to give it a go. The only quarrel I had with her recipe is 'a spring of rosemary'. Now how long is a sprig - that sort of thing drives me mad. I mean, they must know how large a sprig they used, why can't they say so? In the end I used about 3".

Pumpkins seem very cheap this year, the one we bought was just 50p. Buying a pumpkin can sometimes be a bit of a lottery as you never know how much flesh is going to be inside until you cut it open:

Did well on this occasion. There are also loads of recipes on what to do with the seeds.

Anyway, I decided to roast half of it to be used in the scones and gently boil the rest for another recipe or two.

Once cooked, both were mashed, chavelled further with a stick blender, left to drain, then finely forced through a metal sieve to give me the puree I needed for all the recipes. Lots of washing up:)

Herewith the scones:
I could have made 13 but didn't have room on my tray hence the two large rustic ones middle and top left! I do not like to waste an egg yolk to coat scones so these had a little milk brushed on top and sprinkled with paparika before baking.

They are very very light and quite difficult to handle when first out of the oven. We had two each with some soup for lunch.

I couldn't find any baking powder in our cupboards so had to use equal amounts of cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda. Plus by doing so, also omited the 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar in her recipe. Enjoying the ones we had with our soup, and as we had run out of potatoes for this week, decided to warm two each for our tea:
The quick casserole was made from half a pork fillet, two small apples, cooked in cider then thickened. Less than 30 minutes for it all. Now that is the kind of evening meal we like!


17 comments:

  1. Looks very nice I think they are 50p in Morrisons at the moment, I might get one for soup.

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    1. That was where this one came one. We only buy one each year, preferring butternut squash for eating.

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  2. Here in the States we grow the large pumpkins for decoration and the small "pie" pumpkins for eating. The large ones are very watery and don t make good pies although I have cooked with them before. It is not necessary to put the puree through a sieve as you are taking out a lot of the fibre doing that. If it is too watery cook it in an open pan to dry it out a bit.......I dont follow recipes slavishly where it comes to herbs and spices....probably would have been great with thyme or the rosemary left out altogether.
    They look great though and the pie pumpkin for 50p was a bargain...
    Halloween is so much part of american culture that no-one gives it a second thought here....it was something I certainly never saw growing up in England....but a very good marketing job has been done to export it, I guess. Nevertheless, hayrides, visits to pumpkin patches, apple-picking and bobbing, scarecrows, strawbales and apple cider and doughnuts are all great fun..

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    1. We don't normally celebrate it in the full way you seem to, more a case of an excuse to get sweets for little effort although some do make an effort. There was nothing left in my sieve as it was all pushed through.

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  3. I did have a chuckle at your dismay over the sprig of Rosemary, Dc - I think to be fair it is a matter of taste; it's a very pungent herb and easy to over-do it, isn't it?

    Those scones look delicious and no less beautifully risen using the upgraded plain flour.

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    1. Like you say, a question of taste. We like it but as it is pungent a little goes a long way.

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  4. I'm sorry you find "a sprig of rosemary" an unhelpful measurement. By my reckoning it means you go to your rosemary plant and pick off the newest growth which could be 3" or could be 5" depending on the plant. It wouldn't really matter. I think you'd have a real problem with my usual herbal measurements. We work in "x number of leaves", "pinches", small handfuls, large handfuls and bowlfuls. It seems to work especially when you're in the middle of a field and don't have access to modern measuring devices. It makes me realise why the American pioneers used cups and I suspect our ancestors went by spoon and scoop measures as not every housewife could have afforded scales and metal weights until around 16th/17th century. Sometimes it's good to get away from reliance on boundaries. The reason Native American used chanting for their medicines was to measure how long to leave an infusion, I suspect our monks did the same. If you look at Bald's Leechcraft with it's medicinal chants they probably served the same purpose.

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  5. Those scones look lovely, I've never thought to add pumpkin puree to scones, I'll have to give it a go.

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    1. I think the pumpkin can make the scones a bit dense hence the amount of raising agents.

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  6. It may sound rather obvious, but after the first two soups, etc, I cut the remaining flesh into large lumps and freeze. Later in the year, or even next, a few lumps get thrown into soups yet again and are wonderful

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    1. We like butternut soup but are not too keen on pumpkin.

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  7. My problem is that when a recipe says - push mixture through a sieve, I sort of go off the whole idea!
    I wonder what the people did with the insides of those huge pumpkins we had for sale last year.

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    1. I normally don't use a sieve but for some reason I couldn't get it to mash properly.

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  8. They aren't cheap here in my bit of France - around €1.80 for a large slice! Thank goodness I grew loads, plus butternut squash and spaghetti squash.

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