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Well, the joke (?!) is on me. What the pumpkin producer at the farmers' market sold me back in October are NOT pie pumpkins. They seem to be a small variety of the jack-o-lantern type pumpkin. The first clue was the extremely hard-to-cut through skin. The second was when that skin was still hard after an hour, an hour and a half, and two hours of roasting. The third clue, when I took them out after the two-hour mark, is that the hard shells separated almost completely intact from the puree, which I was able to cut into chunks. There was no caramelization, so these two are definitely not sugar pumpkins.
They won't have much taste. I don't want to use them in baking. I'm not ready to make pumpkin/black bean/tomato soup again, where the pumpkin is just an element without much taste, and what taste it has is not tasty. I have thrown it away.
I have another three small pumpkins. I'm pretty sure one is a sugar pumpkin, so I may go ahead and bake it for my rolls. I'm not sure that I want to deal with the other two today.
I think that these vendors grow the pumpkin as a side project. From talking with them, I gather that the wife does not cook or bake with them. I may have to stick with peanut pumpkins and the blue-green ones and look elsewhere for my pie pumpkins.
Note: I also could not read the article because of the paywall.
The two sugar pumpkins that I now have roasting were very difficult to cut open for some reason, even with my Kuhn-Rikon sawtooth pumpkin knife if was quite a struggle. I resorted to sticking a butter knife in where I'd started cutting to create a wedge, but it was hard going. At that moment, a can opener and a can of pumpkin looked appealing....
Jack-o-lantern pumpkins make very thin puree, and as Skeptic notes, do not have much taste. My mom used to cook them--even roast them--when she got a good deal at the end of Halloween (free). It's a wonder any of us still like pumpkin.
The key to making pumpkin pies from scratch is to start with the right pumpkin. I've used sugar (pie) pumpkins for years. The "peanut pumpkin" (origin France) has particularly nice texture, as does the blue/grey Jarrahdale pumpkin (origin in Australia). I like a nice thick, non-stringy puree. Some pumpkin varieties taste better than others. I did not like the white Lumina. The Cinderella had far too much water to make it worth the trouble, given how little puree was produced after extensive draining.
I cut the pumpkin in half vertically (a sawing knife helps) and scoop out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon. I roast the pumpkin in a Calphalon roaster, cut side down, at 325F for at least an hour or until flesh softens. With some varieties, water may accumulate in the pan; just pour it off. I turn the sliced halves over and let them cool briefly--until I can handle them. I scoop out the flesh and make puree in my Cuisinart food processor.
I've done five pumpkins so far, and I have five more to do. I'll be roasting two of the pie pumpkins tomorrow.
Chocomouse--We bought our turkey a week ago because we were afraid there would be no small ones left. I've never roasted such giant turkeys.
For dinner on Monday night, I roasted four chicken legs on a rack, so that the grease would run off. I roasted them at 400 for 30 minutes, then moved the pan to one side of the oven and added another pan with cut up sweet potato chunks rubbed with olive oil and drizzled with maple syrup. I reduced the heat to 375F and roasted for another 30 minutes. The potatoes were not glazed, but they were tender and delicious—unlike last time when I over-roasted them. These are Beauregard sweet potatoes from the farmers’ market, and they have more moisture and cook up so tender. They are vastly superior to what I usually find in the grocery store. We had microwaved peas on the side
At my husband's family reunion in October, we did an early Thanksgiving dinner, and one of his cousins spatchcocked the turkey. Lots of butter seems to have been involved, as well as cheesecloth. It did make a succulent and delicious turkey. (I tried not to think of the saturated fat in it or the mashed potatoes.)
Hm--so they want to make smaller turkeys, even as they are growing larger chickens--with the white striping issue we discussed on this site affecting the chicken breast meat. I seem to recall that smaller turkeys used to be easily available. Perhaps too much Norman Rockwell and Charles Dickens (yes, I know it was a goose) in marketing has led the American public astray.
We are invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of friends, and given that we are readying the house for renovation, that is a blessing. Our turkey--12 pounds--will stay in the freezer for Christmas. I'm going to bring Stella Parks' Yeasted Pumpkin Bread made as rolls, so I'll be baking not cooking this year.
On Monday morning, I adapted a recipe for Orange-Cardamom Loaves that appeared in the Bake from Scratch special issue, One Layer Cakes (p. 23) in the spring of 2017. My lime tree gifted me with an outstanding harvest, so I need lower-in-saturated-fat recipes to use it, and this one seemed a good candidate. I switched out the cardamom for nutmeg, as Mike Nolan suggested.
Here is a link to the original recipe:
I then did what I rarely do with a cake recipe: I made a lot of changes, which is scary since I know less about what makes a great cake than I know about bread. I substituted in 1 cup barley flour, then made up the difference in weight (the recipe gives weights as well as the usual cups), which meant a total of 375g.
The recipe calls for 500g (2 ½ cups) sugar, which seems high to me. More than once, Cass has fixed a recipe for me and explained that the weight of the sugar is too great. I cut it back to 2 cups or 400g.
I used buttermilk in place of whole milk. I decided, since it is 1 ½ cups buttermilk to reduce 1 ½ tsp. baking powder to 1 tsp., and to substitute in ¼ tsp. baking soda—a bit more than the usual 1/8 tsp. I would normally use to replace ½ tsp. baking powder. The recipe called for 1 cup oil. I reduced it to ¾ cup.
Finally, instead of making two 8x4-inch loaves, I decided to bake it in a Bundt pan. An online conversion chart at Epicurious suggested a 12-cup Bundt pan as the equivalent. That is the size still packed away. I worried that a 10 cup would be too small, so I used my 12-16 cup pan. I baked it for about 55 minutes, then cooled for 15 minutes. I had used THE grease. At first, it seemed stuck, but I rapped it on the rack, and it came out beautifully.
Once it is completely cool, I will glaze it, since I have the lime juice after using the lime zest. I'll report back on taste and texture.
The glaze came out too thin, and I did not want to add any more powdered sugar. Next time, I'll add less lime juice to get the correct consistency. I might also halve the glaze recipe. The cake is delicious, and it reminds me very much of a pound cake, even though it has no butter. I'm not sure that the nutmeg comes through that strongly. I will definitely make this adaptation again.
For lunch today, I made Black Bean Pumpkin soup, from a recipe that I found at Smitten Kitchen:
I made a few changes (why do I hear Wonky giggling in the background?):
I used 1 pound, 8 oz. of my homemade pumpkin puree. (I'm using up that white pumpkin that I don't care for in my baked goods.
I deleted the 1/2 cup minced shallot--(I'm not sure why shallot is used with onion, and I was not going to find them in a small town grocery store.)
I reduced the cumin to 1 1/2 tsp. (I want to be able to taste the sherry!) I added it later, along with the pepper.
I used 14 oz. diced tomatoes in very little juice, so I put it all in.
I deleted the salt (There was plenty in the black beans, as I could not find low-sodium in this store, and I did not want to take the time to cook my own.)
I used 2 Tbs. olive oil in place of the 4 Tbs. butter. (I'm saving butter for a recipe where it is essential.)
I used 1 Tbs. of Penzey's beef base with 4 cups boiling water. (Plenty of salt in there as well.)
I did not add diced ham or sherry vinegar. (I have neither in the house.)
The soup is delicious--and the reduced spice is just right for me. It's a healthy soup, although somewhat high in sodium but does not taste salty. I can reduce the salt content next time by cooking my black beans from scratch. I'm looking forward to having this soup for lunches into the coming week.
