This year I grew a beautiful pumpkin called the Hopi Pale
Grey Squash. I read about it in the Baker Creek seed catalog, and my interest
was captured by their description and its rave reviews.
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| An early season photo of the squash vines before they took over. I cover all of my beds with bird netting in the early season to keep stray cats from pooping in the garden. We have a LOT of stray cats... |
The plants were prolific producers and were even mildly
resistant to the Downy Mildew that attacked the rest of my squash this summer.
I’ve been making pies and sweet bread from these pumpkins like a mad-woman, and
I’m still elbow deep in pumpkins left to be eaten.
Here is my system for making pumpkin puree:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Half pumpkin and scoop out all the mush and seeds. Set
aside for seed saving. Taylor loves to pick through the goop and find all the
good seeds. He is less psyched on giving the seeds back to me when he is done…
3. Rub olive oil on the pumpkin flesh and place flesh down
onto baking sheet(s).
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then test for softness with a
fork. If you can easily poke through the skin in several places, then they are
done. Otherwise, pop back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes and repeat
the test. Obviously baking time will vary by pumpkin size, your oven, and even
your altitude- but I’ve never had even my biggest pumpkin take longer than 50
minutes baking to be done.
5. When the pumpkin halves are soft, remove from the oven
and let cool until they can be handled without burning you. Then, use a large
spoon to scoop and scrape the pumpkin meat from the skin.
What you want to do at this point will vary a lot depending
on what you are using the puree for and when. Pumpkin puree CANNOT be safely
canned at home, even with a pressure cooker – you can freeze it or
dehydrate it or use it right away.
Stringy pumpkin puree may need to be run through a blender
to get to a smooth consistency for pies. If it is a dry stringy pumpkin (pro
tip: the large Hopi Grey Squash are VERY dry and can be stringy), you may need
to add water for this to work – which you will then have to strain back out
(instruction for straining below).
If you have an overly moist pumpkin or you added water to
make a smooth puree, you will want to strain out excess moisture. To do this,
you can line a colander with a cheese cloth or clean handkerchief, pour in the
pumpkin goop, twist the cloth closed, and place a plate or small weight on top.
Then, leave it alone a few hours. You can save the strained pumpkin juice and
use it in place of water in bread recipes.
While it’s useful to know these processing tricks, you can
usually avoid the extra work by picking the right pumpkin for the right task –
overly large pumpkins tend to be more stringy and dry. Use them for breads
where this won’t matter. Smaller pumpkins have a sweeter taste and smoother
texture. Use them for pies where they can really perform.
I’ll work on writing up my recipes for pumpkin bread,
pumpkin pie, and a winter squash tort. Do you have a favorite
pumpkin recipe or processing tip? Feel free to post it in the comments!
Cheers,
Susan
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