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Yankee Pier: Fall Food Staple - Pumpkins!
Pumpkins are an important fall food staple, rich with history and charm. Though in modern times, they are often utilized more for carving than eating, these delicious gourd-like squash have been around as food for centuries. Believed to have originated in ancient North America, the pumpkin provided Native Americans, and eventually Pilgrims, with a bountiful harvest in the New World.
The New Americans embraced the pumpkin fondly; its sweet, multi-purpose flesh used in a number of ways; roasted, boiled, dried; assisting in side dishes, desserts and even fermented with persimmons, hops, and maple sugar to make beer. The seeds were eaten and taken as medicine (which although haven’t been proven to cure anything, is chockfull of nutrients), while its blossoms were often thrown into stews and other meals. Dried pumpkin was even ground into flour. It was an important crop that preserved well, despite its short season (October to December) and got many through a hard winter. Hence, its celebratory use as a main component in both Halloween celebrations (to emphasize community and the importance of sharing) and Thanksgiving dinners, often finished with pumpkin pie.
Although the “pie” back then was nothing like today’s buttery crust filled with sweetened pumpkin meat, but a rustic custard made of cream, eggs, spices and honey, baked in the cavity of the pumpkin, buried in hot ash.
Its usefulness did not end in the culinary department; as colonists often crowned heads with scooped out pumpkins to assist in a proper haircut (resulting in the nickname, “pumpkinheads”) or filled them with belongings to carry to and fro. Native Americans even wove dried strands of pumpkin into sturdy rugs and used them for trade.
Today, pumpkins are even more versatile. Though we may not use them to ensure the perfect bowl haircut or carry our school supplies in them, we definitely employ the pumpkin to its fullest potential. The flesh is eaten cooked, often as a soup or gratin, baked with cheese and onion. In the Middle East it is utilized as an earthy, sweetening agent for certain dishes, while in Japan it’s battered and fried to make tempura. In Italy, it is often combined with cheese within a savory ravioli, sauced with brown butter and crispy sage. In the Southern United States and Mexico, pumpkin flowers are often filled with cheese, battered and fried, while the seeds assist chile and chocolate to create a traditional mole. Oil from pumpkin seeds is also widely used as an ingredient in salad dressings or as a surprising finishing sauce for soup or ice cream.
We are celebrating this fruit all October long to welcome the autumn harvest. Try it in our famous bread pudding, in our kitchen or yours.
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
1) 5 Eggs
2) 2 cups Pumpkin Puree
3) 1 ½ cups Milk
4) 2/3 cups Dark Brown Sugar, Packed
5) 1 cup Sugar, Granulated
6) 2 tbls Vanilla Extract
7) 1 ea. Vanilla Bean, scraped
8) 1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
9) 1 tsp. Ground Ginger
10) 4 cups Pull-Apart Bread, ½ inch diced
11) 1 tbls. Soft Butter
Procedure:
1) Whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, heavy cream, milk, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla and spices. Strain
2) Butter the muffin tins and place a small amount of the bread in each cup.
3) Pour the pumpkin mix over the bread in the cups and push the bread so it is submerged in the pumpkin mix.
4) Let stand for 15 minutes to let the bread soak up the Pumpkin mix.
5) Cook in a pre-heated 300 degree oven in a water bath. Bake covered for the first 30 minutes and uncovered for the last 15 minutes. The bread pudding is finished when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
6) Serve with bourbon whipped cream and caramel sauce.
Eat fresh, eat local, always!
