Cooking For Engineers

[Alf]

Does anybody cook savoury dishes using pumpkin? I have never seen anybody do that... Any more sweet recipes using pumpkin, please?

[nina]

In Australia we never use Pumpkin for sweet dishes. We dry roast it with joints such as lamb and beef or even chicken. We boil and mash it and we even make deliciuos soup out of it. The variety we use most is called iron bark as it has dark blue skin and is very tough. Butternut pumkins are now popular but do not keep well. An iron bark can last up to a year in the back shed in the cool and dark. Peel chop and fry, either type, in butter and oil half and half mixture. Add Cummin Coriander garlic and salt. This makes a great side dish and is even ok cold as a salad.

[Guest]

Pumpkin soup - puree some roasted pumpkin with stock, garlic, rosemary etc. Thicken with milk or cream, very nice. You could also add a can of pureed white beans to thicken if you wanted to avoid dairy for some reason.

Also if you are making fresh pasta you can replace some of the eggs with pumpkin puree. Delicious.

I have to second the notion that in the Land of Oz using pumpkins in sweets is very unusual, if not unheard of.

And what is an Aussie pumpkin discussion without a mention of Lady Flo's Pumpkin Scones? http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s1143809.htm

cheers, Sophia

[hitherle]

Pumpkin Cake Roll
Beat in a blender for 5 minutes until thickened and light butter colored:
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
Add 2/3 of cup of pumpkin
1 tsp. of lemon juice

In a bowl combine the following ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
1tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt

Pour blender ingrediants over the dry ingredients. Mix well seeing no lumps. It should be very runny.

Grease a 10X13 cookie sheet, lay down wax paper and regrease the wax paper. Pour the contents over the cookie sheet spreading evenly.

An option is to sprinkle 1 c. of walnuts or pecan pieces over top of mixture. They may sink in some as it is so runny that is fine.

Place in a preheated oven of 375 F for 15 minutes.

While waiting for the cake to bake. Spread out a clean cotton towel large enough to hold the cake and sprinkle with a thick layer of powder sugar.

After the 15 minutes of cooking take out the cake, immediately cut off the crunchy outer edges of the cake, making it as straight as possible.

While still hot take cake top side down and lay over top of the the spread out towel. Carefully peel off wax paper from bottom side of cake.

With the towel roll up cake and towel together. Place into refrigerator for an hour or more until cake is cool to touch.

While cake is cooling, start making the filling...
Use room tempature or in microwave warm 8oz of cream cheese and 4Tbsp of margarine, add 1/2 tsp. vanilla and with a hand mixer blend together until smooth. Slowly add 1 cup of powder sugar to mixture, be careful it has a tendency to go every where.

After cake has cooled carefully unroll. spread filling mixture over evenly.

Roll the cake back up as tightly as possible without losing all the filling. Wrap up in tin foil and chill.

To cut use a very sharp knife, make sure knife is clean after each cut.

To serve cut 1/2 inch slices and lay piece out. I layer them in a circle shape to add to the character or pieces.

[Guest]

Pumpkin soup. Saute a couple of slices of bacon. Remove. Pour off all but a tablespoon or so of grease. Add peeled pie pumpkin (or butternut squash) in 1" cubes and sliced shallots. Saute until pumpkin starts to brown a little. Add chicken stock to cover. Simmer until soft. Puree. Thin with a little sherry or marsala. Serve with crumbled bacon.

I pour (not too sweet) pumpkin pie filling into ramekins and bake in a water bath. I like it as a quick breakfast or as dessert.

[Julie B]

I live in China. My Ayi cooks a great pumpkin soup which is very easy to make. She purees RAW pumpkin in the blender (or food processor) ending up with about 2 cups. She adds to this one can of coconut milk (NOT the sweet kind). Simmer in a covered pan with for about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and top with toasted pine nuts. She said the recipe is from Thailand. Your pan needs to be quite thick on the bottom to keep the soup from burning, but believe it or not, she stirs it very little. It seems that the trick is to keep the pan covered. The toasted pine nuts are absolutely delicious in the soup.

Enjoy!

[The Yakima Kid]

And then there is that wonderful Afghan classic, Kadu, neatly topped with a yogurt sauce or meat sauce AND yogurt sauce.

[smugexpat]

My fave savory pumpkin recipe is to grate up a bunch of pumpkin and add it to a bit of pesto made from sage, almonds, parm, olive oil in a big shallow pan. Add some chicken [or veg for those so inclined] broth and cook until pumpkin dissolves, then add precooked pasta. Easy peasy.

[SeligmansDog]

I've been reading this blog lately, thespicedlife.com, I haven't tried anything yet, but her Indian dishes are nicely detailed. I want to try the pumpkin and chickpea curry:

http://thespicedlife.com/2012/11/indian-inspired-pumpkin-chickpea-curry.html

[counter]

Here in Italy we make tortelli filled with pumpKin, usually dressed with butter and cheese.I love them,but someone doesn't like the mix sweet/savoury.