{"id":677,"date":"2008-12-06T08:28:42","date_gmt":"2008-12-06T16:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/?p=677"},"modified":"2008-12-06T08:28:42","modified_gmt":"2008-12-06T16:28:42","slug":"pumpkin-puree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/2008\/12\/06\/pumpkin-puree\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Pumpkin Puree"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not going to pretend that making your own pumpkin puree is just as easy as opening a can and everyone should do it, but it is more satisfying, it tastes better, and does double duty using up your Halloween pumpkins.\u00a0 And it’s not particularly hard.<\/p>\n

Start with the right pumpkins.\u00a0 Your fabulous jack-o-lantern is not a good candidate, not even a fresh, uncarved one.\u00a0 Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are bred for looks.\u00a0 The inside is watery and does not taste very good, though it’s technically edible.\u00a0 Your compost pile or worm bin will love it though.<\/p>\n

Our pumpkins came from the pumpkin farm across the street from us, the Peterson Farm<\/a>.\u00a0 They grow several varieties, including the jack-o-lantern type.\u00a0 We got my favorite, the Cinderella Pumpkin (which Michael is cutting up below).\u00a0 It gets its name from the deep color and carriage shape.\u00a0 Plus a couple others, including the pumpkin pie pumpkin, which looks like a smaller version of a jack-o-lantern.<\/p>\n

Instead of carving, we displayed them outside in our Sukkah<\/a> and for Halloween.\u00a0 They lasted just fine for a few weeks outside in the cold (not freezing) and rain.<\/p>\n

\"Michael

Michael cuts a cinderella pumpkin in half<\/p><\/div>\n

Wash the pumpkin and cut it into manageable chunks, then remove the seeds with a fork.\u00a0 Roast the seeds<\/a> later.\u00a0 You can leave the gooey insides part (remove for jack-o-lanterns but don’t bother with other pumpkins). Cut the pumpkin sections further to good baking chunks (not too small or they’ll be a pain to peel).<\/p>\n

\"Cutting

Cutting the pumpkin into pieces (picture by Miriam Norwitz)<\/p><\/div>\n

We had three pumpkins and made three big trays of pumpkin chunks.<\/p>\n

\"Chunks

Chunks of pumpkin ready for baking<\/p><\/div>\n

Roast them until they are soft all the way through, but not burnt.\u00a0 Pretty much any temperature will do.\u00a0 Go ahead and put them in while cooking something else.\u00a0 At 350*F, expect it to take about an hour.\u00a0 But don’t go by timing: poke your pumpkin with a fork often.<\/p>\n

\"Pumpkin

Pumpkin fresh from the oven<\/p><\/div>\n

The only hard parts are cutting up the really big pumpkins and taking the skin off (okay, removing the skin isn’t hard, but it’s tedious).\u00a0 Do this after the pumpkins are cooked and when they are cool enough to handle (I left these out overnight).\u00a0 Pull off any burnt parts and peel or slice away the skin.\u00a0 Don’t worry about bits of skin that are left with the flesh.\u00a0 A small amount is fine.<\/p>\n

Important note: The juicier pumpkins will have liquid in the tray and drip more as you peel them.\u00a0 Lightly wring out the flesh before using.\u00a0 But don’t toss that liquid.\u00a0 I save it (in the fridge or freezer) and use it as an easy soup stock.<\/p>\n

\"Peeling

Peeling cooked pumpkins<\/p><\/div>\n

Take the pumpkin flesh and put it in the food processor.\u00a0 In batches if you need to.\u00a0 Process until smooth.\u00a0 I put the various batches into one big bowl since there were different pumpkin varieties and I wanted to mix them.\u00a0 This is the result.<\/p>\n

\"Pumpkin

Pumpkin Puree<\/p><\/div>\n

Anything you don’t use right away, freeze.\u00a0 It freezes very well with little to no loss in taste or texture.\u00a0 I like to measure it into 2 cup containers (zipper bags work but I prefer Pyrex storage containers (that’s glass with a tight plastic lid) if I have enough of them).\u00a0 That way I only have to defrost exactly what I need for a recipe.<\/p>\n

Now what do you do with it?\u00a0 Pumpkin pie<\/a> is the obvious first choice.\u00a0 I’ve also used it to thicken vegetable stews. When I could eat dairy and eggs, the puree was fabulous in pumpkin cheesecake<\/a>.\u00a0 Although most of us think dessert when we think pumpkin, the truth is its a wonderful savory food too, and it’s lowcarb, the lowest of all the winter squashes.<\/p>\n

As for more things to do with pumpkin puree, I’m stuck.\u00a0 If you have a good recipe, please link to it in the comments.\u00a0 I still have 10 cups worth to use up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not going to pretend that making your own pumpkin puree is just as easy as opening a can and everyone should do it, but it is more satisfying, it tastes better, and does double duty using up your Halloween pumpkins.\u00a0 And it’s not particularly hard. Start with the right pumpkins.\u00a0 Your fabulous jack-o-lantern is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,26,3,4,64,22],"tags":[7,6,8,11,51,77,5,12],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desserts","category-food","category-recipes","category-holidays","category-thanksgiving","category-vegetables","tag-dairy-free","tag-egg-free","tag-gluten-free","tag-lowcarb","tag-photos-family","tag-photos-food","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":684,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}