Growing, storing and Using Pumpkins

Pumpkins would have to be one of the cheapest and easiest vegetable we grow, though they do spread out taking up alot of room they are great for those areas not alot else can be grown in. This past Spring we planted them on a pile of compost created over winter and on top of an area of lawn that allowed for plenty of growth. Pumpkin scraps and seeds are just thrown on top as we discard them, they don’t really need starting in pots and alot of TLC babying them along.

The only problem we ever experience with them may be powdery mildew which is (usually) easily fixed with milk sprays. Homegrown pumpkin is so much better than store bought, they are hardy both in growing and storage. We harvest after the plants have died off and we leave most of them to get a couple of good frosts…this gives a deep dark orange flesh and a rich, sweet flavour. Pumpkins should be harvested with a two cm stem on the fruit and stored, not touching each other, in a cool and dark airy place. They generally last up to 9 months but do need to be checked.

This week I have been going through our stored pumpkins and removing any that are showing signs of deterioration. Offending areas can be cut out and the rest used. Any excess can be just cut and frozen raw in bags. They won’t lose flavour but the texture is affected, they break down quicker on cooking.

I also cook pumpkin in salted water and mash it, freezing the puree in 1 cup quantities to use for baking. I also tend to make vegetarian lasagne, or a mixture of beef and vegetable, when I have the pumpkin already cooked and on hand to use.

In New Zealand pumpkin is used alot as a vegetable, eaten either roasted, boiled or mashed. My son’s new wife is from Indiana, USA, and she was surprised by this, telling me her family have bought pumpkins to hollow out for Halloween but the flesh has always been thrown away !! We don’t really celebrate Halloween here but pumpkin is a common fresh vegetable in meals. Canned pumpkin has never made the shelves in supermarkets here (as far as I know).

I have tried roasting pumpkin seeds a few times but have never got them quite right, I don’t know that I will try again. Pumpkin flowers, like zucchini, are delicious fried in batter and both the vegetable and the flower can end up on a platter of Beer Battered Tempura Vegetables.

We also use pumpkin, often leftover roasted, in vegetable quiches. Our absolute favourite though is this Pumpkin and Silverbeet Quiche

Though Roger isn’t much of a soup eater I could live on it. Pumpkin soup with a little bacon, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato and Roast Pumpkin and Carrot soups are all very yummy but my favourite is the Spicy Pumpkin and Lentil.

Pumpkin and Vegetable Bake (a terrible photo I have forgotten to sort!) and variations on Pumpkin Chickpea Patties are both good!! We also enjoy Roast pumpkin Hummus.

A recipe for Pumpkin Walnut and Raisin Bread here

Two things I still have not tried is the famous pumpkin pie and these yummy looking pumpkin pancakes at the wonderful Chocolate Covered Katie site.

Pumpkin, Walnut and Raisin Loaf

I just ended a three month baking hiatus and this was a yummy way to end it 🙂 I will put the original site I got the recipe from but I did change it just a little, increasing the amount of butter, walnuts, raisins and spice and I made the method easier. Served hot with butter it’s very delicious, on day 3 it still has a nice and moist texture.

4 oz (100 g) butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs,

1/4 cup water

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 cup walnuts

3/4 cup raisins or sultanas

Preheat oven to 350 (180) deg and prepare 1 large or 2 small loaf pans.

Soften butter and cream with sugar. Add eggs and beat, add pumpkin puree and water and beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients – the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and soda. Fold in the walnuts and raisins, pour into tins and bake a large one 55 – 60 minutes, smaller ones around 35 – 40 minutes.

The original recipe was found at About.com – submitted by Diana Rattray

 

 

 

Dark Chocolate and Beetroot (Beet) Mudcake

I have tried chocolate and beetroot cakes in the past but this one is by far the best. This is not too rich, heavy or sweet and both the texture and flavour are perfect. This recipe is by Gretchen Lowe and Homestyle Magazine, April/May edition.

This uses 250 g of pureed beetroot and I will be cooking some up to keep in the freezer for future cakes. The icing I used was a normal chocolate butter icing (a cheaper option for me) but I will give the recipe for the chocolate ganache she used.

200g Dark chocolate (at least 62% cocoa)

4 tblspns hot espresso

200g butter

135 g flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp cocoa

5 eggs, separated

250 g cooked and peeled beetroot, pureed

190 g castor sugar (this can be made by putting normal white sugar through a blender)

GANACHE:

400g dark chocolate

400ml cream

ALTERNATIVE CHOCOLATE ICING:

50 g butter softened

1 tablespoon cocoa

little boiling water

1 tsp vanilla

approx 2 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Line a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan. Then pour in hot coffee and stir in the butter, leaving till softened. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Meanwhile sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into a bowl.

Separate the eggs and whisk yolks until frothy. Stir the yolks through chocolate mixture then fold in pureed beetroot.

Whisk whites till soft peaks form. Fold in sugar. Fold into and through the chocolate mixture then fold this mixture into the combined dry ingredients.

Pour batter into prepared tin and bake 35 minutes. Do not over-bake.

When cooked leave to cool before turning out of tin to decorate. When cold the cake can be cut into two layers.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

Place chocolate into a bowl. Heat the cream till nearly boiling then pour over chocolate, stirring gently till combined. Leave a room temperature till ganache has reached a spreadable consistency. Smooth generously between the layers and around the sides of cake. Cake can be topped with fresh berries or figs.

CHOCOLATE ICING:

Melt butter, add cocoa and vanilla. Add icing sugar and beat into a thick cream, adding boiling water as required to make a soft consistency. Icing will firm on cooling.

I made in a larger tin so only had one layer. Nice served with whipped cream.

 

 

 

Chocolate Almond Buckwheat Clusters

When Fran (from The Road to Serendipidity) posted her recipe for Narf’s Bolshie Blissful Buckwheat Granola Clusters I knew I had to try these. After going gluten free several month’s ago I was really missing the muesli I used to make. As always I have tweaked the recipe to suit what I had or made wee changes in the method. I did not use apple sauce or date paste as Fran did because I rushed to make these one morning before work and had neither on hand. This is a delicious cereal with the potential for many variations.

Specialty breakfast cereals similar to this retail here (NZ) for $12 – $16 a packet, way beyond my budget, or desire to pay that much! You need to make sunflower seed butter first for this  I worked out that both a batch of butter (around 2 cups)  and 1 batch of clusters at 1.2 kg cost me around $12 to make. The sliced almonds were purchased at a bulk store as was the buckwheat. I always have alot of sunflower seeds on hand anyway but these are also purchased from bulk bins.

My recipe:

3 cups buckwheat groats

1 – 1 1/2 cup almond pieces (or other nuts)

3/4 cup sunflower seed butter

1/2 cup ground sesame seeds

3 good tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon molasses (optional)

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup coconut sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 tsp vanilla

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 cups chopped dates

Preheat oven to 320 F and lined a large roasting dish with baking paper. Mix the dry ingredients in a large dish/bowl.

Mix the sunflower seed butter, coconut oil, vanilla and honey (molasses if using) and stir through dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly. The mixture appears quite crumbly but is ok.

Pour into oven dish and bake for around 15 minutes. Through this time the oils and sugars will combine to make a thick, sticky mass….you want this and it will dry out on cooking. BE MINDFUL TO STIR OFTEN, this would burn easily. After 10 minutes add the dates.

And at this stage I forgot to take photos!!

Once the mixture has started to dry out and appears crumbly again, but still sticky, remove from oven and leave to cool, tossing a few times. It will crunch up on standing and on stirring it will break into clusters.

Fran got her recipe from Oh, She Glows! so here are three variations of the recipe to ponder on and then create your own 🙂

I expect any nut butter would work just as well as the sunflower seed butter if it’s just too time consuming to make your own.

Apricot and White Chocolate Fudge Slice

 

Apricot and white chocolate fudge

Every year I send this to my son for Christmas….he asks for it. Totally decadent (and NOT at all healthy) it’s a truly morish delight, even his Mum will keep a piece out for herself 🙂

It’s simple and fail proof but keep the recipe right – this should be a firm mixture and if it’s too soft add more biscuits and coconut.

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

125 g butter

350g shortbread biscuits

1 1/4 cup chopped apricots

350g white chocolate, chopped

1 cup coconut

Melt the butter and condensed milk together slowly. Crush the biscuits in a food processor (or bag and rolling pin) and transfer to a large bowl. Add coconut to the crumbs, stir in apricots and mix through the melted butter and condensed milk. Leave to cool a little then add chocolate. Sprinkle with coconut or drizzle with white chocolate. Mix thoroughly and press into a slice tin. Chill before cutting

Almond, Quinoa and Pumpkin Seed Bread

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for non wheat bread using oats and psyllium husk. https://quarteracrelifestyle.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/nut-and-seed-bread-flourless/

I wanted to try making one using quinoa and googled to see if anyone had already tried this…and yes, they had! This uses quinoa flakes, almonds (ground), pumpkin seeds, flax seeds etc.

For the full recipe please see here http://deliciouslyella.com/almond-quinoa-pumpkin-seed-bread/

I have to be honest and say that though this is nice I found the taste of pumpkin seeds too overpowering for me personally, there is 1 1/2 cups of them in this loaf, most of them processed to a flour. But, that is just me and this recipe is one that could be adapted to taste. I also used the pulped and dried almonds leftover from milk and just a little less water. Though not as economical to make as the oat one this is a good bread that is lovely toasted.

Quinoa Chocolate and Coconut Balls….2 ways

Since going gluten free I have been baking for my husband but looking for other recipes to satisfy MY sweet tooth. There are many versions of these on the net, I looked at alot of them them then threw my own concoction together testing the flavours until I was happy with it. These are “cakey” in consistency but light, chocolaty but not too sweet or rich and they are yummy. This recipe made about 18 quite large balls, it could easily be halved.

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 cup dates

1/2 cup walnuts (or sunflower seeds)

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons cocoa

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 – 1 1/2 cups (approx) coconut

extra coconut for rolling

Put the dates and walnuts in a food processor and process till crumbly. Melt the coconut oil. Add all ingredients to dates and walnuts, starting with the one cup of coconut. Process till a consistency of dough that can be formed into balls, adding extra coconut if mixture too soft. Roll in coconut and chill.

Chocolate Cranberry Quinoa Balls

The second time I made these I changed the recipe a little. I used 1 cup of quinoa, omitted the peanut butter, increased the coconut to 2 cups, added 1 cup of cranberries.

I chilled these then dipped in melted dark chocolate combined with 2 tsp coconut oil. Chill and keep refrigerated. These were wonderful too.

Nut and Seed Bread (Flourless)

I came across this gorgeous recipe on Pinterest. Made with rolled oats and psyllium (to bind) it is studded with nuts, seeds and dried fruit. The original uses goji berries and hazelnuts, which looks delicious, however I just used what I had in the house – dates, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

1 cup nuts (any type) I used walnuts

1 cup of mixed seeds

1.5 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup dates

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons honey or molasses

4 flat tablespoons of psyllium

1.5 cups of water

I added 1/2 tsp salt (not in original recipe)

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the water mixed with the honey and oil – if the mixture is too wet add a little bit more water but I found mine was fine. I left mine in the bowl to absorb all the water for 1/2 hour, then tip into a paper lined loaf pan and press in firmly. Leave to sit for 2 – 4 hours until it is firm t touch and appears crusty along the top.

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.Bake for 30 minutes until browned on top and feels firm. Remove from oven, gently remove from tin onto baking tray and put back into oven, upside down for a further 20 – 30 minutes till baked and crusty in appearance.

Leave to cool, wrap in paper overnight before cutting. Serve in thin slices.

I love this and can imagine making it often but will experiment with the nuts and fruits.  The recipe on Pinterest was from a Belgium site which needs to be translated, find here http://gotujebolubi.pl/niezwykly-chleb-bez-grama-maki/along with her lovely photos, one of which I have pinched because it just looks stunning

The woman who originally came up with this recipe can be found on My New Roots http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2013/02/the-life-changing-loaf-of-bread/ and she also has gorgeous photography and writes much more about this so please do pay her a visit if you are going to be trying this!

Nut milks (and using leftover pulp)

I just changed from dairy to nut milks a couple of weeks ago. This is expensive to buy, it’s cheaper and very easy to make. I will be making the walnut milk in future as we have heaps of these already. A bonus using the almonds is the leftover pulp which is delicious and can be used to lots of different ways.

Almond Milk:

Take one cup of almonds and soak in two cups of water for a minimum of four hours (overnight is fine).

Drain and rinse the nuts. I leave the skins on feeling no need to remove them, the resulting milk is still white.

Put the nuts in a blender with 3 cups of fresh water. Blend till milky and almonds quite fine. Strain through a fine sieve or

muslin.

That’s it 🙂

(Edited) see Narf’s interesting comments below about how she makes her almond milk.

Walnut Milk:

Made the same way as above but us 4 cups water. The walnuts are alot softer and I find very little pulp remains at the end.

Almond Meal:

This can be used as is or dried in the oven on a low temperature for several hours. It can also be frozen if desired for later use. I have been using it in smoothies, porridge and baking but am wanting to try some “cheeses” and pates. Below are some links for some recipes I have tried that are both delicious (the pulp must be dried for both) and a link for some others that sound nice.

Coconut and Almond Macaroons:

8oz dried almond meal

3/4 cup toasted coconut

2 egg whites

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 deg. Toast coconut by putting into small fring pan and cooking over lowish heat, stirring till golden. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Whisk the egg whites, sugar and vanilla together till blended and add to combined nut mixture. Drop heaped tablespoonsful (is that a word?) onto tray and bake till browned around edges and golden on top.

Quinoa Almond Joy Bars:

The recipe can be found here http://skinnyms.com/skinny-mini-desserts-quinoa-almond-joy-bars/

And a link with a few nice recipes is here http://cafe-janae.blogspot.co.nz/2008/07/what-to-do-with-nut-pulp.html

And one for Banana Bread courtesy of Jamie 🙂 http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-banana-bread/

Very Yummy Savoury Scrolls :)

Cheese, pesto, bacon, sundried tomatoes and baby spinach wrapped in a light, buttery cheese scone mix, these are perfection.

Preheat oven to 400 deg F and line a tray with baking paper.

Scone dough:

3 cups flour

6 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

2 oz (50 gr) softened butter

1 cup grated cheese

1 1/3 cups milk

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Rub in the softened butter and add the grated cheese. Make a well in the centre and add the milk. Mix from the inside out, drawing in the flour from the outer edges as you go. Only mix long enough to form into a evenly mixed dough (don’t knead the dough, it will toughen it) Tip onto a floured bench top or board and roll out to around a 1 cm (1/2″ thick) rectangle.

Topping:

3/4 cup grated cheese

3 rashers bacon, chopped

1 cup pesto

3/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped

Good handful of baby spinach leaves

I prefer to saute the bacon lightly before using in baking, it’s potional whether to do this or not. Spread the dough with the pesto, then spinach, cheese, sundried tomato and bacon pieces, leaving the outer edges bare.

Roll up slowly, but firmly, as you would sushi. Using a sharp knife that has been dipped in flour, cut the scrolls into even slices, around 1 1/4 ” thick, I got 10 of these. Place carefully on tray and bake for around 10 – 12 minutes. Serve hot with butter.

These wouldn’t normally come under the guise of frugal food, but as I grow/make my own tomatoes, pesto and spinach these cost me very little to make. The pesto is a parsley and sunflower seed one I make and freeze in ice cube trays https://quarteracrelifestyle.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/parsley-sunflower-pesto/

I saw a similar recipe last year in a magazine and always intended making something similar so this is what I came up with. The original recipe used plain dough and feta cheese in the filling which looked so good but I can’t run to feta cheese these days!

Enjoy these if you make them, they are delicious 🙂