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When life gives you pumpkins......
Jan. 1st, 2013 11:06 pmThere's a local roadside fruit stand/green grocer that closes for the season every year, not to re-open until spring. Usually it's just prior to Thanksgiving, but this year they opted to stay open to just before X-mas. I've been shopping there for years as the prices beats most all of the local supermarkets for price and often for quality as well. The produce is mostly local, with some from the Central Valley, and occasionally things from abroad, mostly tropical fruit, like bananas, pineapples and mangos. Anyway, when they close the place they sell off their entire stock for 1/2 price.
On the 22nd I stopped in to get pine nuts for the spanikopita I had promised to make for the office X-mas party. They were just starting their close out sale. I grabbed a bunch of things and to my surprise, they just stopped ringing me up about 1/2 way thru and told me just to take everything they had not rung up. As he helped me out to my car, he started grabbing pumpkins and putting them in my trunk. He just looked at me and said, "I know you know what to do with these. We're not gonna sell them all. Please, just take 'em, so they won't go to waste." I wasn't going to argue. I was walking out with somewhere north of $200 worth of groceries and I had just given him $75.
When I unpacked at home there were 14, thank the lord, none of them huge. There were 5 white pumpkins each the size of a volley ball, 2 Japanese green pumpkins, 2 larger but flatter pumpkins, a midsize spaghetti, one large turban and 3 large acorn squash.
LJ helped me carry them in, snidely commenting, "shall we throw them out now, or are we going to wait for them to go bad?" Not a good move on his part. Challenging me like that is going to guarantee you're about to get very tired of eating pumpkin.
The following morning I dispatched the first of the white pumpkins and made gnocchi de zucca. I served it in pesto and topped it with a bit of shredded parmigiana reggiano. We finally finished the last of it yesterday. This evening? Curried pumpkin soup.
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ogam sent me herbs and seasonings for the holidays (yes, seasoning's greetings.) and they included three different types of curry. The Maharaja curry had its tryout tonight and judging from the dinner guests, it was a successful test run.
Curried pumpkin soup
1 5-6 lb pumpkin
1 qt chicken broth
2 large shallots, minced
3 tbsp of curry
4 tbsp of flour
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of agave syrup
I cut the pumpkin in half, pulled the seeds out, and microwaved it covered lightly by saran wrap. Each half got 15 minutes on high, and was then scooped out into a batter bowl and hit with the stick blender till smooth. That was set aside.
The shallots were minced and sauteed in the stock pot with 1/2 stick of butter. When they were translucent, in went the curry and the flour to make a roux and then in went the broth. when that was starting to thicken, in went the pumpkin and then after blending it all well, I added the agave just to give it a bit more sweetness.
It was served with a nice dollop of sour cream, along with a slice of whole grain toast and a glass of Chardonnay.
2 squash down, 12 to go. (I'm open to suggestions, folks.)
On the 22nd I stopped in to get pine nuts for the spanikopita I had promised to make for the office X-mas party. They were just starting their close out sale. I grabbed a bunch of things and to my surprise, they just stopped ringing me up about 1/2 way thru and told me just to take everything they had not rung up. As he helped me out to my car, he started grabbing pumpkins and putting them in my trunk. He just looked at me and said, "I know you know what to do with these. We're not gonna sell them all. Please, just take 'em, so they won't go to waste." I wasn't going to argue. I was walking out with somewhere north of $200 worth of groceries and I had just given him $75.
When I unpacked at home there were 14, thank the lord, none of them huge. There were 5 white pumpkins each the size of a volley ball, 2 Japanese green pumpkins, 2 larger but flatter pumpkins, a midsize spaghetti, one large turban and 3 large acorn squash.
LJ helped me carry them in, snidely commenting, "shall we throw them out now, or are we going to wait for them to go bad?" Not a good move on his part. Challenging me like that is going to guarantee you're about to get very tired of eating pumpkin.
The following morning I dispatched the first of the white pumpkins and made gnocchi de zucca. I served it in pesto and topped it with a bit of shredded parmigiana reggiano. We finally finished the last of it yesterday. This evening? Curried pumpkin soup.
ogam sent me herbs and seasonings for the holidays (yes, seasoning's greetings.) and they included three different types of curry. The Maharaja curry had its tryout tonight and judging from the dinner guests, it was a successful test run.Curried pumpkin soup
1 5-6 lb pumpkin
1 qt chicken broth
2 large shallots, minced
3 tbsp of curry
4 tbsp of flour
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of agave syrup
I cut the pumpkin in half, pulled the seeds out, and microwaved it covered lightly by saran wrap. Each half got 15 minutes on high, and was then scooped out into a batter bowl and hit with the stick blender till smooth. That was set aside.
The shallots were minced and sauteed in the stock pot with 1/2 stick of butter. When they were translucent, in went the curry and the flour to make a roux and then in went the broth. when that was starting to thicken, in went the pumpkin and then after blending it all well, I added the agave just to give it a bit more sweetness.
It was served with a nice dollop of sour cream, along with a slice of whole grain toast and a glass of Chardonnay.
2 squash down, 12 to go. (I'm open to suggestions, folks.)
