All About Pumpkin and Recipes

Image source: Wikipedia

Pumpkin is gourd like squash and native to North America. They typically have a thick, orange or yellow shell, creased from the stem to the bottom, containing the seeds and pulp.

Where does the word Pumpkin Originates from?

According to Wikipedia, The word pumpkin originates from the word pepon which is Greek for “large melon”. The French adapted this word to pompon, which the British changed to pumpkion and later American colonists changed that to the word we use today, “pumpkin.

Pumpkin is Versatile

Pumpkin is actually fruit as it has seeds. Pumpkin comes in variety of colors such as orange, red, white, yellow and there has been some pumpkin patches have shown also grey, and green color pumpkin as well. Pumpkin can be very small or very large weighing  over 75 lbs in some cases.

Not only pumpkin has varied, sizes, shapes and colors. One can make dessert, soup, rice and other dishes with pumpkin. All though pumpkin are native to North America, they are grown today all over the world. The biggest international producers of pumpkins include the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, and China. The only place pumpkin does not grow is on Antarctica.

Pumpkin In Cooking:

Pumpkin is used for commercial, agricultural such as animal feed and ornamental purposes. Almost all parts of pumpkin are edible from flesh, seeds, leaves, even flowers can be cooked and eaten.

Pumpkin can be cooking in variety of ways when it  is ripe can be boiled, mashed, baked, steamed and roasted. Seeds are often roasted and eaten as a crunchy snack. One of the popular recipe of pumpkin is pumpkin pie which is eaten during American and Canadian Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin and Halloween:

One can not think of Halloween without thinking Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin. Pumpkins are commonly carved into decorative lanterns called jack-o’-lanterns for the Halloween season in North America. Throughout Britain and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip.  The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.

In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. In 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o’-lantern as part of the festivities that encourage kids and families to join together to make their own jack-o-lanterns.

Click here to see How to create a great Halloween Bash  for fun party and Halloween Recipes.

Pumpkin in Fiction and Media

  • In the folk tale Cinderella, the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage, but at midnight it reverts back into a pumpkin.
  • Linus’ belief in the Great Pumpkin in Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts.
  • Juice from a pumpkin has magical effects in the short story “Pumpkin Juice” by R. L. Stine.
  • The Harry Potter novels, in which pumpkin juice as a favorite drink of the students of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a recurring element
  • The pumpkin hurled by the “Headless Horseman” in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  • Jack Pumpkinhead, a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, with a pumpkin for a head on a wooden body, brought to life in the second book
  • In Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, the main character, Jack Skellington, is “the Pumpkin King.”
  • Precious Ramotswe, the fictional detective from Botswana in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of novels by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, often cooks and eats pumpkin.
  • In a short fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Feathertop from 1852, a witch turns a scarecrow with a “pumpkinhead” into a man.

Pumpkin Recipes:

Marbled Chocolate-Pumpkin Brownies

Marbled Chocolate-Pumpkin Brownies

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar or maple syrup
1 egg
1cup canned pumpkin
Ingredients
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger1
tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup butter, cut up
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over the edges of the pan. Grease the foil; set pan aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl beat cream cheese and the 1 tablespoon butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until well combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in 1 egg, the pumpkin, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the cinnamon, and ginger until combined. Stir in the 1 tablespoon flour. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl stir together the 1-1/4 cups flour, the baking powder, and salt; set aside.

4. In a large saucepan combine the chocolate and 3/4 cup butter. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually add the 2-1/4 cups sugar, beating with an electric mixer on low speed just until combined. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in milk and the 2 teaspoons vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture just until combined.

5. Spread chocolate mixture evenly in the prepared pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture in several mounds on top of the chocolate batter. Using a narrow metal spatula, gently swirl the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate batter. If desired, sprinkle with walnuts.

6. Bake about 60 minutes or until center is just set when pan is gently shaken. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use foil to lift uncut brownies out of pan. Cut into brownies.

Above recipe and image adapted from BHG

 Pumpkin Crescent Rolls with Honey Butter

Ingredient

5 1/2 – 6 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup water
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
6 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
Honey Butter
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and the yeast; set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan heat and stir pumpkin, the water, milk powder, the 6 tablespoons butter, the brown sugar, honey, salt, and cinnamon over medium heat until warm (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F) and butter just melts. Add pumpkin mixture and eggs to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the whole wheat flour and as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as you can.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (1 hour).

4. Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into thirds. Cover dough; let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease three baking sheets or line them with parchment paper; set aside.

5. On the lightly floured surface, roll each dough portion into a 12-inch circle. Spread with Honey Butter. Cut each dough circle into 12 wedges. To shape rolls, begin at wide end of each wedge and loosely roll toward the point. Place, point sides down, 2 to 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Cover; let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Uncover and bake rolls, 1 or 2 sheets at a time, about 15 minutes or until golden, rotating baking sheets halfway through baking if necessary. (Cover and chill remaining baking sheet[s] until ready to bake.) Brush tops of rolls with melted butter. Serve warm.

This recipe was adapted from better home and garden from here.

Coconut-Pumpkin Soup

Coconut-Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium green sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 15 ounce can pumpkin
1 14 ounce can unsweetened light coconut milk
1 14 ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 medium fresh jalapeno chile pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro or parsley

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, cook carrots, sweet pepper, and onion in hot oil over medium heat about 5 minutes or until vegetables are nearly tender. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, coconut milk, and broth. Stir in brown sugar, jalapeno pepper, salt, and ginger. Stir pumpkin mixture into cooked carrot mixture.

2. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently. Before serving, stir in cilantro. Makes 12 (1/2-cup) servings.

Above recipe and image was adapted from BHG

Enjoy!

Information used from: Wikipedia, Better Home and Garden (Recipes)

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