Shades of Orange

So, today was pumpkin processing day! I still have three squash on the vine and I fear they will not ripen all the way. So I went ahead and processed the other three, plus one that B brought home for Halloween and two we got in the veggie delivery box. The last three were pie pumpkins, the three I grew were called luxury pie squash. We got two butternut in the box too, but I am saving those for another day.

I baked them all in the oven and while they were baking, B and I separated seeds from the eating squash and the saved guts of the Jack o' lantern pumpkins for roasting later. I put aside the pie pumpkin guts for soup stock and composted the Jack o' Lantern guts. You can eat Jack o' Lantern pumpkins, but they are not as good as ones grown for eating. The seeds however, are awesome for roasting.

Seeds were washed and set aside and the pumpkins done roasting so I separated the skins from the flesh and put the skins in the stock pot along with the saved celery tops, carrot greens onion and garlic skins, pepper innards and other misc veggie stuff we normally compost. I figured out that I can freeze the veggie bits that make good stock until I have enough to make stock...duuuurr. So much less waste. I mean, I still compost the stuff after I make stock out of it, but I have extracted much of their nutrient and flavor goodness and gotten the maximum benefit from the veggies before my garden will get their benefit. =)

So the pumpkin stock is simmering, I pureed the pumpkin flesh and set it to drain.
While it was draining, I mixed up two batches of seeds.( about half the total, B has his own recipe plans for roasting the other half.) I used sunflower oil, which is a high heat oil and very tasty for roasted stuff. I used salt and pepper on one batch and cinnamon nutmeg clove and salt on the other.


(The jack o' lantern on the left was a bunny with a carrot in it's mouth on Friday, the ears curled up and now we decided it looks like a squirrel and so D put a hazelnut in it's mouth.)

The stock was done, so I strained it and added the bit of pumpkin that didn't get soft in the oven to boil, and added some more pumpkin as needed and left to simmer. When the pumpkin soft-end I pureed it all and spiced it with curry ginger clove nutmeg and cinnamon, salt and pepper. After it had thickened (evaporated excess water) I added coconut milk.



The rest of the strained pumpkin i put up in a large jar, realized smaller jars would be more utilitarian and the moved it into smaller jars and put them up in the freezer, along with some chicken stock I made the other day and won't be using soon.

Funny aside: one of the pumpkins was rotten inside, partly. This was one of the pumpkins the squirrels has tried to eat so I decided they could have it. I put it out on the porch and they chowed down on the seeds and made a huge mess. We put the jack o lantern guts in the compost and they were rooting through that like it was Halloween! Looking for seeds. It was quite the scene.

Pie!
I made a pumpkin pie that is dairy and gluten free, low sugar and could be vegan but for I used an egg and not egg replacer. (None of us are vegan, but the recipe is.)
It has a crust, it has a silkier than custard texture and it's fantastic.



See, B and D combined are lactose intolerant, low glycemic and gluten free. So are several other people in my life here in Portland, in addition or vegan and vegetarian. so I now have a pie recipe that everyone can eat! (if I leave out the egg and use egg replacer. =) )

The recipe for the pie is here.
The crust is Jungle shortening (non hydrogenated oils) and amaranth flour, salt and water. I pressed it into place, it's not a roll out kinda crust, but it's very crispy. and although I don't think it's tasty on it's own, with the pie and whipped cream it's texture is great.

And aside from the shortening in the crust, it's actually pretty darned healthy. Some sugar. I left the olive oil out of the recipe, it didn't seem to need it anyways. The original recipe is crust less, so if you made this, the most unhealthy thing about it, is the 3/4 cup of brown sugar. And you could get the same flavour out of a half a cup of agave syrup and a tablespoon or so of molasses.

The filling texture is AMAZING it melts on the tongue. Dawn thought it should be more sweet, and if I didn't have sweetened whipped cream on mine, I would have agreed.