Now we’ve had our re/wedding and our birthday celebrations, I finally feel ready - after a good few months - to start writing and sharing again. The wedding and birthdays gave us a good reason to delay the onset of winter and the Christmassy madness that starts earlier every year.
I don’t know about you, but personally I find it really jarring to see Christmas lights in the street while people are still walking around with Poppies on their coats. My mum used to have a rule that we couldn’t do anything Christmassy until after my birthday (22nd) and even as an adult I’d found myself sticking to that rule.
I find it sad that November has become this in-between month between Halloween and Christmas, all in the name of capitalism. I’m all for people celebrating more in life and for people getting excited about things, but November has so much magic and beauty to offer before the inevitable greens and reds and sparkles take over every window display.
Pumpkin Puree
While I was desperate to mark Stir-Up Sunday this month (26th November) I decided to use that Sunday evening finishing up the last of my pumpkins I’d bought mainly for display purposes. I was always going to use them as a foodstuff but with all our eating out and takeaways from the last 2 weeks of merriment I struggled to cook an actual meal, let alone find interesting ways to cook pumpkins beyond curries.
With the 3 pumpkins I had left I kept it simple and just cooked them for half an hour at 180c fan with a drizzle of oil and a crack of salt and pepper. I chopped them up, skins and all and just left them until tender enough.
Then I transferred them to the blender in batches and whizzed until a puree had formed. Altogether my mini kabocha squashes and crown prince pumpkins made about 3 takeaway tubs full.
Here’s what I made with them:
Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Scones
The pumpkin gives these scones a delicate yellow colour and the pops of stilton give that fabulous salty hit.
Ingredients
300g pumpkin puree (see above)
500g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
110g butter, cold
1 tsp dried herbs (I used mixed Italian)
150g stilton
1 egg
100ml milk
- Preheat oven to 180c fan
- Combine the baking powder with the flour then rub in the butter to make rough breadcrumbs
- Beat the egg with the milk then add with the herbs, stilton and pumpkin puree, to the bowl. You don't want to put all the milk mixture in at first as the puree might be wet enough. Add it a little at a time and mix until you have a rough dough that's not too sticky.
- Knead the dough briefly on a floured surface and pat it into a flat-ish square till it's about 2cm thick.
- Cut out as many circles as you can using a cutter or a drinking glass, recycling the dough as many times as you can. Make a rough circle with the last bit of dough to use it all up.
- Place as many scones as you can on to a lined baking tray then book in the oven for 20 mins until risen and goldy. You may need to do this in batches.
- Place the baked scones on to a wire rack to cool, eat your rough circle first to test the consistency and put back in the oven if you think you need to.
- They will last a few days in an airtight container and upto 3 months in a freezer
Pumpkin Gnocchi
I made enough to freeze a couple of batches which will be perfect in those wintery nights when I want something wholesome but can’t be bothered to cook. Homemade gnocchi needs nothing more than a little butter and parmesan.
Ingredients
700g pumpkin puree
1kg plain flour
50g grated cheese (I used cheddar but parmesan is probably better!)
salt and pepper
nutmeg and cinnamon
1 egg yolk
(for cooking - butter and dried herbs - I used sage)
- Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a metal spoon and/or your hands until it's combined into a dough that isn't too sticky but not too stiff. You might want to start with a bit less flour and add incrementally. If your puree is pretty wet you'll need more flour and if it's a bit drier you might need less flour. Once it's easy enough to handle without slopping everywhere you'll know it's ready.
- Cover a tray with flour and dust a work surface with it too.
- Take a handful of the dough and roll on the surface into a rough sausage shape. Cut the sausage into 1-2cm blobs and place them into the floured tray. Repeat this with the dough until it is all in blobs in the tray.
- Divvy up the pasta into portions deciding how much is going in the freezer and how much will be cooked now. I recommend about 4-5 pieces per portion - it's deceptively rich, especially cooked in butter.
- In small batches place the pasta into a pan of boiling, salted water and cook for around 3 mins.
- Meanwhile, heat a generous knob of butter with the sage in a frying pan. When the pasta is ready, transfer them, using a small sieve, to the frying pan. Fry for another couple of minutes until the pasta has started to turn golden and is coated in the butter.
- Serve in a bowl with a nice crack of pepper and a sprinkling of parmesan/other hard cheese
As for the last try of puree, well that’s in the freezer ready to become a pumpkin pie or a soup another day! I also saved a few of the Crown Prince seeds, hoping for another successful year of pumpkin growing next year!
I hope you enjoyed these recipes and inspiration if you’re still figuring out what to do with your pumpkins - also bare in mind you can do these with butternut squash which is available most of the year in supermarkets.
Let me know if you try any of them, I’d love to know if they worked for you!
Take care
B x
Show me someone who doesn’t like a good pumpkin recipe, these are too drawer. Thank you.