Not All Pumpkins Are Created Equal

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This time of year my thoughts turn to the impending doom of the Holiday Season. I shouldn't say impending doom, but let's face it, someone has to do the dishes. This time of year often finds me in a sweater or "hooded sweatshirt" (as i recently discovered from a very trendy person that Hoodie just doesn't work) until my blood is up and i'm toasty and moving. My suppers have begun to change, whereas we had quiche the other night instead of something else because i no longer have to worry about the oven overheating the downstairs. Then naturally, like so many generations before me, i begin the process of putting up certain foods for the winter.
Back in August, i roasted and peeled a twenty pound case of Hatch green chiles and tossed them in the freezer. We're about a third of the way through them already, but it'll do. I have my dried chile pods to make chile sauce and the jars to put that up; I just haven't done it yet. This week, it was pumpkin.
In years past, i'd just grab an extra pumpkin when i got one to carve for the kiddies at Halloween. I'd bake it off and rice out/ puree the flesh and generally i'd have enough pumpkin to get me through the holidays.
This year, i did just that. Then, something hit me while i was writing my post about winter squash: What do all those other weirdo squash taste like. While i have eaten most of the popular varieties, the question remained: What does a Turban Squash taste like. So my kooky alter ego, we'll call him, Dave, began researching the flavors of winter squash. To get a good baseline of the reviewers taste buds, i associated their assessment of Acorn, Butternut, and Spaghetti Squash with my own taste for them. Next, with my extrapolation (best guess opinion) i looked at their descriptions of things like the Turban Squash, Banana Squash, and interestingly enough the Fairytale Pumpkin. I do want to say at this time that i could not eat these gourds daily, but everything in this world has its purpose.
Turban, has a so so or ho hum flavor. Yeah! I want to eat that. The Banana Squash, is much like an Acorn or Butternut only it is so large most places sell pieces of it. The description of the Fairytale was akin to a Butternut but leaning toward a sweet potato. Hmmmm, Time to reassess the decision making paradigm on pumpkin but first, let's give one a go and see what happens.

 So the next time i went to the store, i picked one that had a good weight to it and was solid. I mean that sucker was pretty hard. I cut it in half, like ya do, and scraped out the seeds. There aren't that many seeds in a pumpkin like this. I'd say about half of what you'd find in a regular one and the meat is considerably thicker. By the by, this variety is called Cinderella.
Once i had the inside cleaned out, i sprayed some oil on one of my cake pans, placed the cut side down and popped it in the oven on 300 for 2 hours. I set the timer and went off to bigger and better things.
After about an hour and a half, the house smelled wonderful!!! I got up from what i was doing (i wrote about this in my last post) and went to take a look. My oven was a swamp!!! The bottom was completely filled with pumpkin juice and the cake pan was overflowing. I grabbed a few of my pretty white auto store towels and just tossed them on the liquid in the bottom. I couldn't find my baster, so i grabbed my large injector and a 6qt pot and drained the cake pan into the pot using the injector. At this point the pumpkin was still upright. so i tossed the towels in the wash and let it continue baking. When the timer went off they had collapsed (as pictured to the left). Once again i had to drain the cake pan of pumpkin juice. By this time, i had over a half a pot of juice. I decided i'd reduce it down and use it in a loaf of bread or something. The problem was, the damn thing kept leaking and leaking. More and more juice filled the pan until my pot was all but full. I reduced that pot down until all that was left was a golden brown syrup. Yes, i do mean a syrup.
I peeled and pureed the pumpkin and added the syrup to it. I did taste it before and after adding the reduction and it was really good, but went to "that justifies the work" after adding the reduced syrup.
The pumpkin on the left in the blue bowl is a regular pumpkin, above you can see the gorgeous orange flesh of the Cinderella, and in the white bowl is the Cinderella with the reduction. I have to admit, it is pumpkin with overtones of sweet potato.
In the next couple of months, i'll make about six pies (holidays and all of that), 2 pumpkin rolls, a bisque for when the guys aren't home and when i get some whole wheat berry flour, and if i have it figured right there will be enough left over for about four dinners of pumpkin pancakes before my menu flops back over to the warmer months.
In my house if you say you made banana nut bread you get a great big, "so what". However, if you even whisper the word pumpkin, the leeching tax deductions come out of the woodwork. If you've never tried making your own pumpkin, here's what i'd suggest: first get you a fairytale pumpkin that's heavy for its size, then reduce the juice, and last but not least make something fun with it. I promise you won't regret it.

Until the next time, Peace be with you. Dave