Pumpkins and Holidays

Happy Holidays to you, your family and friends.
I wish you peace, joy and love.

May you have plenty of opportunities to spend time with your family and friends, have meaningful conversations filled with laughter, and eat wonderful food.

We've already started all this and hope to continue throughout these holidays.

For example, I found a couple of great recipes yesterday while trying to solve an abundance of fresh pumpkin in our house right now.

You see, my Dad created a large garden in our backyard when he and his wife (also my Mom) came to live with us in America. Among other wonderful foods, he harvested 16 pumpkins this Fall and we've been enjoying them in traditional recipes including in porridge, blintzes. However, my short attention span and curiosity drove me look up some new recipes in which pumpkin is a dominant ingredient.

So, I found a recipe for fritters made with pumpkin and curry. They were very tasty and even more when dipped in mustard and/or chutney. I liked them better second day because I could really taste the successful marriage of the ingredients in this fritter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, egg, flour, baking powder, curry powder, and salt. Mix until smooth.
2. Heat oil in a deep saucepan to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, and serve immediately.
   
3. Having done these a couple of times, I discovered that to get these fritters round you need to flip them once the dough surfaced. To get the fritters golden on both sides you need to flip them a couple more times.
   

The other recipe is for sweet pumpkin with some variation from my part. I like to improvise and changed the pie crust to a combination of Whole Foods 365 organic vanilla wafers, Silk Soymilk Natural Nog, and rum. The rest I followed pretty closely.

Ingredients

• 1 sugar pumpkin
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

Directions

1. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C.)
2. In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition.
3. Pour mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over browning.
4. Bake 10 minutes at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown. Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

Whatever you're eating this Holiday Season, may it be filled with love and delicious taste.