Sunday, February 03, 2008

The pumpkins that ate Mr Angry

I am possibly the worst gardener in the world. The most successful vegetable growing I have ever done was a few years ago when some potatoes and tomatoes started growing out of my compost pile. Now it's happened again. We set up a little garden in the backyard and planted NO pumpkins.

The pumpkins apparently took this as some sort of personal insult and struck back. I suppose it's stating the obvious to say that there must have been pumpkin seeds in the compost. The plants have been growing so fast I thought it was a good idea to warn the little angries to be on the guard with this feral pumpkin outbreak.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_sgO1P4fCqE


My Youtube viewers have already given me a few recipes to deal with the thousands of pumpkins I'll be harvesting and I share them with you now. Feel free to add your own.

Granny's Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
Cooked Pumpkin:
1 medium pumpkin
Preheat oven to 300F (150C).
Cut pumpkin into small manageable pieces and cut off pith and seeds.
Place cut pumpkin skin side up in a large roasting pan. Add 1/4 inch of water and bake uncovered for 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven and allow pumpkin to cool.
When cooled, cut away skin and mash or puree. Use in any recipe that calls for canned pureed pumpkin.

Bread pudding:
2 cups half and half
1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2-inch cubes pumpkin bread (or egg bread) (about 10-ounces)
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 cups cooked pumpkin or 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin

For bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350F (177C). Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in golden raisins. Transfer mixture to 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Caramel sauce:
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
Powdered sugar

Prepare caramel sauce:
Whisk brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over bread pudding. Serve warm with caramel sauce.

The following exuberant recipe comes from the effervescent Emma who has possibly the best user name on YouTube, "KilledTheCheerleader".

WONDERFUL FANTASTIC HAM HOCK PUMKIN SOUP YAY!

big pot! yay!

cut up pumpkin no skin annoying to get off but tastes yukky!
put up potato no skin again but potato skin is yummy just not needed
ham hock on bone for yummy yummyness!!
veggie stock! lots of it boil for ages!!!

add salt and pepper to taste let it boil down!

after all lovely and cookeddd take out ham hock bone take off any left meat from bone

blend it up so all smooth and lovely add some cream if u want not too much just to make it slightly thicker!!

eat yay fantastic!!

And here's another pumpkin bread recipe:

Pumpkin Bread recipe

1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (1/4 L) pumpkin purée*
1/2 cup (1 dL) olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 dL) chopped walnuts (optional)

* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.

1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.

2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.

3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.

Makes one loaf. Can easily double the recipe.

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