Fiber Fool

I *love* pumpkin! This is probably not news to most of you if you’ve visited in autumns past. I am in heaven this time of year when you can get Pumpkin Pie Blizzards, pumpkin bagels and cream cheese at Gib’s NY, pumpkin cake donuts, pumpkin beer, pumpkin spice lattes at every coffeeshop in town, pumpkin breads and muffins. If pumpkin is in the ingredients (or in some cases just in the name) I am there! I haven’t yet tried the pumpkin fudge from Kilwin’s but I think it is on the list for this year!

So, it should be no surprise that when Drew and I ventured to the Osborn Farm Market Days earlier this month with Amanda and her two little guys we didn’t just photograph Sundog. We also loaded up the car with 32 pounds of pie pumpkins. Pie pumpkins are smaller 1-3 pounds and generally have a lower moisture and higher sugar content than your standard jack o’ lantern type of pumpkin. They produce a bit fuller flavored baked good, whether it be pie or breads and muffins or even just soup. I had planted some in the garden this year, but the copious hail storms took their toll and we had none to harvest ourselves.

I finally turned up the oven and roasted a few of them this week. To prep the pie pumpkins I coat them in organic canola oil and roast them whole on a sheet pan in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. After roasting it is so much easier to cut the pumpkin as well as separate the seeds from the flesh and the flesh from the skin. I then scoop out the flesh and place it in a colander over a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight to let moisture drain out (I often save this liquid and use in soup or making bread later in the week). The next day I process it all in the food processor to break up any long fibrous strands. From there I may drain it further depending upon how wet it is and what the final use is going to be. If I won’t be using it in the next few days I’ll freeze it in 1 cup portions so it is easy to thaw and use.

Pie pumpkin or not, all pumpkins are not equal. Some are more watery and have much less flavor than others. I’ve yet to find a way to know which pumpkins are more flavorful before roasting so I always like to roast up 2-4 at a time and combine the flesh from the whole batch. That way if there is a lesser pumpkin in the batch it gets covered up by it’s better brethren. Some choose to save off the lesser pumpkin flesh for use in things where flavor isn’t as important such as in a soup broth (one that isn’t specifically pumpkin soup anyway).

Of course the flesh is my favorite part of the pumpkin, but I try not to waste anything whenever possible so doing something with the seeds is required too! This time I decided to try Spicy Sweet Pumpkin Seeds from A Veggie Venture. The result is somewhat similar to a recipe I did off the cuff a couple of years ago, but a little less spicy. Boiling the seeds in simple syrup was a first for me. I did find the seeds were not drying on their own so I ended up roasting them in a very low oven (200 degrees) to finish them. The result is flavorful and complex — kind of Indian in flavor with the coriander and cumin, and I like the use of smokey paprika. I think next time I may sub some of the smokey paprika with some chipotle powder and perhaps a small dash of cayenne to kick up the heat.