What is vital here is the pumpkin. It must be an organic blue pumpkin (Hubbard) or Jarrahdale–a pale blue-skinned, very hard-fleshed, delicious pumpkin, which can be obtained at heath-food shops. Once you have tried one, the large, orange, woolly variety will become a thing of the past in your life.
shame
Pronunciation: ˈshām
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English scamu; akin to Old High German scama shame
1 a: A painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, usually felt after not updating a blog for TWO WEEKS.
Now that I’ve beaten myself up a little bit, since Halloween is right around the corner I figured working with pumpkin would be the perfect update. Not only was this recipe incredibly simple, it really opened my eyes to how pumpkin should taste.
Mr. Henderson is quite right: carve the big orange ones or turn them into pies. Delicious Jarrahdale pumpkins like this one are just perfect for savory dishes.
The flesh of the Jarrahdale was very, very, very hard. I had to fight with it for about 8 minutes before I was able to halve the darn thing. This is with a large, razor sharp knife to boot! Once I had it open though, all of the seeds and membranes were removed, with the seeds being saved for roasting later.
I cut the halves as close to 3/4-inch slices as I could, which was exacerbated by the tough flesh and rind. The slices were then dumped into a pot with olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. I double checked the oven to make sure it was hot enough, and placed the pumpkin slices inside.
Twenty minutes later, the majority of the pumpkin flesh was soft so I yanked the pot out of the oven. The very tips of the slices were overly cooked and dry, but the rest of the pumpkin was perfectly cooked, with a richer pumpkin flavor than I expected. The texture was very smooth, and I think that if I made a purée out of it with a little butter and cream, it’d be dynamite. Actually, I think I’ll give that a shot tomorrow.
One down, ninety six to go.