What Rhymes With Orange?

It's that time of the year, time to enjoy pumpkin. Ever since I was a kid the one thing I always enjoyed about this time of the year was pumpkin seeds. My dad and I would go to Keil Brothers, a local nursery in Queens, and grab a pumpkin from their giant patch. We would take it home to make a jack-o-lantern. In the kitchen the top would be cut off and I would help reach in and pull out pumpkin seeds. They were transferred to a sheet pan and roasted in the oven. Then using a spoon, the insides were scrapped clean, a face cut into it, usually something evil with fangs, and then add a candle. It would last a few weeks until my brother and I could poke holes in with pencils and it would be tossed into the trash.

After my wife and I got married, I decided one day for us to go to Keil Brothers to get a pumpkin, just like in my childhood. Found out that they moved from their location on Horace Harding and Springfield Blvd. This of course was after we got off the bus and then had to take another one to the new location, get a pumpkin, carry it back on the bus to our apartment, drag it up to the fifth floor....alright it wasn't that bad, we did have an elevator. But it wasn't easy to get a pumpkin, the supermarkets didn't sell them like they do out here in Oregon, you had to find a nursery or some guy in a back alley. To top it off, and the risk of rehashing a bitter moment in my marriage, the seeds were ruined. I was roasting them in the oven and then asked her to turn the oven off. She turned the knob the wrong way and set it from 250 to broil. About ten minutes later I asked what was burning, ran to the oven to find all of the seeds burned. No pumpkin seeds that year :-(.

But not all years were so bad. Why only a few years later at a Halloween party there was a pumpkin carving contest. Before anyone cut into their pumpkin I announced that I enjoy the seeds, please don't throw them out, I will gladly take them. The host gave me a trash bag and every one filled it with their seeds. I had at least five to ten pounds, took almost a month to finish them. Even though I was able to get as many pumpkins as I would like now, something kept bothering me. It was eating away at the frugal and environmental part of my brain.

You see, after I would open up the pumpkin and pull the seeds out, and seeing that I gave up on the jack-o-lantern years ago, I would throw out the rest of the pumpkin. I felt that this was a waste and that I should be doing something with this pumpkin. I don't like pumpkin pie and I couldn't think of anything else that you would use pumpkin for, so how could I use this pumpkin. I know that it is like a squash and can be eaten like squash. Have I mentioned that I don't like squash very much. To be honest I am learning how to cook it better now, but eating it plain is not on the top of my list of favorite foods. Part of this is due to the fact that my wife and I ate a lot of squash when we first moved in together, like two to three times a week. This was because squash is very cheap and when you don't have any money you eat what you can get as cheap as possible.

One day when I was making pumpkin seeds about ten years ago I decided that I was not going to throw out the pumpkin carcass. Too many people get rid of perfectly good pumpkins or engage in acts of pumpkin destruction. Smashing pumpkins, although one of the best alternative rock banks of the 90's,is a terrible pastime that needs to be stopped. I was now going to become of the few who will save the pumpkins. I will work to use all parts of the pumpkin. I will talk to the pumpkins, well maybe I'm going to far.

So I looked up in my cooking bible, Fanny Farmer, what to do with this pumpkin. I found a recipe for pumpkin bread, it called for a cup of pureed pumpkin. So I looked up how to make pureed pumpkin, made a few breads and came to the standard recipe that I now use all the time and will share with you. My wife also found a great recipe for pumpkin soup, I'll share it as well. Once I was armed on my mission to use pumpkin, I started to try and get as many as I could. I got them at work, the supermarket, the guy in the alley, anywhere there was pumpkin to be found, I was there. Now each year I prepare and pick up a few pumpkins during October and make enough puree to last me the entire year. Here is how you prepare pumpkin to use for cooking.

Step one, get a pumpkin. I recommend legal methods, but the adventure level of obtaining the pumpkin you use is still up to you, that is until the vegetable czar is named. First become one with the pumpkin. If that doesn't work, use a serrated knife to cut the pumpkin across the equator. Split it open and then scoop out the seeds. I recommend using your hands, it works best and gives you a sense of satisfaction, well it does for me.

Take the seeds and place them on a sheet pan, don't wash them off, leave bits of the stringy stuff, sprinkle with salt to your level of saltiness, about a even coat over the seeds. Put them in a 225 to 250 degree oven for about 75 to 90 minutes. Check every 20 to 30 minutes by shaking the pan and getting the seeds moving around. Test by taking a seed and seeing if you can crack it with your teeth and the meat inside comes out and can be eaten, it will be crunchy. They will last about a week to two weeks if you put them in an airtight container. I'm guessing since they only last a few days around me and my wife. Note, some people eat the shells, I would recommend against it. They can upset your stomach, I crack the seeds in my mouth, eat the meat and then spit out the shell.

Now that the seeds are in the oven, the time has come to process the pumpkin. Using a spoon, scrape out the orange stringy stuff until all you see is the white inside the pumpkin. The stringy stuff can be added to your compost bin, or in my case, compost crime scene. Cut the pumpkin up into wedge sized pieces and then drop into a pot, I used my pressure caner since it can hold two medium sized pumpkins cut up. The preferred method is to steam the pumpkin but you can boil it. I added about five to six cups of water, put the lid on and set the stove on high. After about twenty minutes I was able to poke though the pieces with a knife. You want the pumpkin to cook and get soft but not mushy. Carefully remove pieces and using a sharp knife slide under the skin and remove. The skin as well can go into the compost pile.



After all the pumpkin was peeled I added it back to the pot and using a hand blender pureed the pumpkin. When it was all smooth, I let it cool for about thirty minutes to an hour and then transferred it to Tupperware bowls as shown in the photo or when I did my second batch into gallon sized freezer bags. I set aside four cups at a time, this is what I use mainly to make pumpkin breads in batches of four. I'll put it in the freezer and pull it out later in the year when I want to cook with it. Here are two recipes that you may have not though of using pumpkin for. Escape from only using pumpkin for pumpkin pie, try these as well.

Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Sugar
2 Eggs beaten
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Water
1 cup pureed Pumpkin
1 Tbl Pumpkin Pie Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice)
1/2 cup dried Cranberries

1. Reserve a small amount of flour to sprinkle on the cranberries, take remaining and sift. Add the other dry ingredients, stir and set aside.
2. In a different bowl combine the eggs, oil, water, pumpkin and spices. Stir until well mixed and then add to the dry mixture. Add the cranberries and stir until the entire batter is moistened.
3. Pour into a greased bread pan and cook at 350 degrees for 55 minutes, turn half way through to ensure even baking. Bread will be done when a knife is poked in and comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy. Bread can be frozen, recommend covering it with aluminum foil first to avoid freezer burn.

Pumpkin Soup
2 cups pureed Pumpkin
4 cups Broth
14.5 oz can Chopped Tomatoes
1 lb Ham Steak
14.5 oz can Black Beans
1 onion
Garlic
2 tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt
Pepper

1. Cut the onion and garlic (I'll usually use five to six cloves, you may want to adjust according to your taste) and saute in a soup pot in olive oil. Add the turmeric powder, salt and pepper. Cook until just tender.
2. Dice the ham steak and add to the pot, saute for two to three minutes.
3. Add the broth, pumpkin, beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then simmer for thirty minutes.

Chicken broth is most commonly used but if you want to make a vegetarian option then use vegetable broth and don't add the ham.

I must add in closing that I saved three of the seeds from one of the pumpkins. I plan on trying to grow my own plant next year. I've heard that a medium plant will give about three to four pumpkins, just enough for me to use for the year. I think I have enough space, I hear that they can grow ten to fifteen feet long, so I don't want them to take over my garden. If anything messes with my eggplant...........

Ok, you did hear an explosion, but it wasn't my pressure canner.

My previous post about canning I talked about my fears and all of the urban legends about canning disasters. Add to that I broke one of the locking handles on the top of the caner, I was ready for my kitchen to explode. I was taking time to show people which direction to look at over the weekend when they hear the explosion and they could watch my pressure caner shoot up to the stratosphere. I was convinced that I would blow up my kitchen trying to can some tomatoes.

After taking a class on how to can, doing a hot water bath for some pickled tomatoes, I was anxious and ready to use the pressure caner. But of course like a mental patient I ended up breaking it. Well just the locking handle, but it's not safe if the equipment is not fully 100% workable. I removed the lid while the water was boiling on the pickled tomatoes, realized that it was very, very hot and it dropped on my kitchen floor. I should consider myself lucky, it could have been worse. The pressure gauge could have broke, the floor could have broke, my foot, so all in all I should be appreciative of it not being worse. But I was still upset.

After I calmed down and allowed the aloe to soothe the burn, I went online and found that Presto, the maker of my pressure caner, has all of these parts on their website. I was satisfied but didn't order the part right then. A week later I realized, when trying to use my birthday gift certificate to Amazon, (thank you to Claire, Andrew, Anni and William) I found out that I couldn't order this part from Amazon. So I went back to the Presto website, ordered one for five dollars, two dollars for shipping and was told to wait ten to fourteen days. About a week later it showed up, I replaced it and was ready to start pressuring.

I was getting worried that my tomatoes were not going to make it. When I picked everything I separated the green from the red and somewhat red. Over the next few weeks the somewhat red turned red and the red turned very red. I knew I had to act soon. I could have easily did a hot water bath but it takes about 85 minutes, compared to the pressure method which takes 25 minutes. Not hard to see which one is better, and obviously uses less energy. I read my canning book, a government pamphlet handed out at the Forest Grove canning class and the instruction book from Presto, all said that I must can at 11 pounds of pressure. I took this a sign that I should use this level of pressure.

I still had 10 pint sized jars left over from my pickling canning, I ran them through the dishwasher with all of the utensils I would use. I started to boil water, frantically re-read over and over again the instructions and got all my ingredients together. After putting my lids in hot water and putting the jars in hot water, I started to cut up my tomatoes. I cut them into medium sized pieces, not minced but not halved or quartered. I put them into a large bowl and when I took each jar out of the hot water I put in a teaspoon of bottled lemon juice and then filled the jar with tomatoes. I didn't add salt since my wife and I have high blood pressure and we need to watch our sodium. We buy the no salt added diced tomatoes at the store, stock up when they are on sale, but this will be cheaper and healthier in the long run. And of course I reduce my carbon footprint, blah, blah, blah.

Jars filled to just under the neck, lids carefully placed on the top, band tighten slightly, added back to the pressure caner with the hot water. Put the lid on and started to boil, watched for the steam to start escaping. When it did I set a timer for ten minutes, then put the weight on and waited for the pressure to rise. I am skipping a few steps, all of the details are in the instruction manual, sorry to edit the blog for content, I just don't remember at this moment.

It seemed like forever but the pressure gauge started to climb. I will be honest and mention what I moron I can be, but like a dummy I touched the weight while the pressure was climbing. Instead of the steam only seeping out slightly, it was a runaway train rolling around. I was afraid to take it off and put it on again, I thought that I may end up breaking my jars. Seeing that this was the last of my tomatoes, I would not allow that to happen. So I gently placed a pot holder over the weigh, it help calm it down and the pressure started to rise.

At 11psi I started the timer, but now I needed to lower the heat since I have to keep it at that level for 25 minutes. Yes, I stood there watching it the entire time. A proud father to my tomatoes, curiosity of what will happen and a fear that it will explode kept me in front of my stove. I also realized that by messing with the weight I had to make sure enough steam was escaping but not too much. After 25 minutes at 11psi I turned off the heat and then waited for the thing that pops up to go down, real proud how technical I am. I was told that if I remove the weight before the pop up gauge goes down, which is a sign that the pressure has reduced, the jars will explode. It seem to take a while but it went down, I took off the weight, opened the lid and saw my jars below.

And then I realized that these would not be going to the county fair. To save them the embarrassment I didn't take a photo. The top of the jar had the tomatoes, looking almost crushed, and on the bottom a reddish colored water. I had separation because I didn't pack the jars well enough and probably from my messing with the weight, d'oh! But after a few hours it seemed to settle to the bottom leaving a gap at the top. This actually turns out for the best. The caned tomatoes, tin can that is, are 14.5 ounces. Most recipes list this as the amount of diced tomatoes to add. Seeing that I had about a half of inch space, it should be around 14 to 15 ounces in my pint sized container. This means I have extra tomatoes, which I will use first, to cook with.

In fact I cooked with one of them the other day, I added them to jambalaya that I made. Talk about a good seal, I had to use a can opener and pry the top off. Heard the loud pop, looked in the jar to see if anything moved, smelled to see if it went bad and took a taste. Literally tasted like it did the day I canned it, horrible! No I'm kidding, it tasted fresh. And with no added salt from the tomatoes I probably only had the 37000mg of salt that was in the prepared rice mix to deal with.

I also took advantage of the heat and hot water and while the tomatoes were cooling, made up another brine and pickled my neighbor's tomatoes. He grew one plant using that topsy turvey tomato grower, but started late so they were still green in October. A few were turning red but almost everything was all solid green. I offered to pickle them for him but keeping one jar as payment. He agreed and I picked them and made a milder brine than the white vinegar one I used for my last batch. I used apple cider vinegar, more water and very little garlic. Put them into pint size jars and hot water caned them for ten minutes. I ended up getting five jars out of the batch. So all in all I ended up with twelve more jars, minus four for my neighbor, of canned delights. I have overcome the fear, now I just need to figure out what I'm doing.