Pumpkin: Tis the Season... Part 2

Salted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

Serves: 4

• 150g (5 oz) pumpkin or squash seeds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 15 mins

1.

Preheat the oven to 140 C / Gas mark 1. Line a baking tray with baking parchment or aluminium foil.

2.

After removing the seeds from the pumpkin, rinse with water, and remove any strings and bits of squash. Pat dry, and place in a small bowl. Stir the olive oil and salt into the seeds until evenly coated. Spread out in an even layer on the prepared baking tray.

3.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until seeds start to pop. Remove from oven and cool on the baking tray before serving.

Pumpkin: Tis the Season for.. Part 1

This is a recipe that I reccently tried with a friend who was suffering with a serious case of Massive Pumpkin Syndrom, MPS if not dealt with quickly can result in Pumpkin rot which is equally distressing.

Pumpkin Pie

The recipe that we used is from the BBC's Saturday Kitchen and the chef was Antony Worrall Thompson who is one of my favourite chefs.

Please note that we proudly used a shop bought sweet short crust pastry case.

Ingredients

For the pastry

• sweet short crust pastry case (or a packet of ready made sweet short crust pastry with 40g/1½oz crushed pecans mixed in.)

For the filling

• 450 g/1lb prepared weight pumpkin flesh, cut into 1in/2.5 cm chunks
• 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk (use the white for another dish)
• 3 oz/75g soft dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 10 fl oz/275 ml double cream

Preparation method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
   
2. Use a shop bought sweet crust pastry case, about 9 inch/23 cm diameter and 1½ inches/4 cm deep.
   
3. To make the filling, steam the pumpkin then place in a coarse sieve and press lightly to extract any excess water.
   
4. Then lightly whisk the eggs and extra yolk together in a large bowl.
   
5. Place the sugar, spices and the cream in a pan, bring to simmering point, giving it a whisk to mix everything together. Then pour it over the eggs and whisk it again briefly. (Your kitchen will start to smell so good that you may be temped to lick the spoon, I was).
   
6. Now add the pumpkin pureé, still whisking to combine everything thoroughly.
   
   Top Tip: If you puree is not that smooth it will make everything lumpy so throw everything into a blender or use a hand blender to solve that problem.
   
   
7. Pour the filling into your pastry case and bake for 35-40 minutes, by which time it will puff up round the edges but still feel slightly wobbly in the centre.
   
8. Remove the pie from the oven and place the tin on a wire cooling rack. Serve chilled (stored loosely covered in foil in the fridge) with some equally chilled créme fraïche, but warm or at room temperature would be fine.
   

By way of a blogging apology!

To all of you who have noticed a lack of weekly blog posts in the last few weeks, from tommorrow onwards I will be attempting to catch up and posting either a craft or recipe every other day.

TTFN,

MagpieSpirit