Well, actually kind of a bluish-greenish grey. A few weeks ago I mentioned taking Hambet to the pumpkin patch, and how Iris and I brought home some heirloom pumpkins.
Mine was a bluish-gray thing, and I recently discovered that it is a“Jarrahdale” pumpkin.
Last weekend I set about cooking and eating it. This was the first time I’d cooked a pumpkin (I usually use canned.) I took out the seeds, scraped out the pulp, and cut the pumpkin into wedges. The wedges went on a baking sheet and into the oven for about at hour at 300 degrees.
After the pumpkin was cooked, it was time to puree the flesh. That was such a hassle. I went for the food processor first and discovered it’s broken. So then I tried the blender, which was miserable — I had to puree the stuff in microbatches, and even then it didn’t work well — the thick pumpkin kept getting wedged under the blades. I had to add bits of water so that it would move around in the blender jar.
Eventually I got the knack of it, but it wasn’t until the second to last batch that I remembered the food mill. That would have been the ideal tool.
One pumpkin yielded about two pounds of cooked, pureed pumpkin flesh. I made a pie with half of it, and I might make some muffins with the other half.
I did save the seeds, so maybe I’ll be able to grow my own grey pumpkins next year.
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So how was the pie? I would be hesitant to make a pie from something bluish-grey. Was it still orangey inside?
I am not sure what a food mill is. Some time when I’m not fighting to keep my eyes open, I should look into it.
oh it was delicious. I forgot to mention that the inside is indeed very orange, deep orange, almost like a sweet potato. It has a nice mellow taste, and came out great in the pie.
Here’s an example of a food mill. (You can get decent ones for less.) Basically you snap in a perforated disk into the bottom of the mill, and then snap in a gizmo that looks like a propellor attached to a crank. (It is much less complicated in real life!) You turn the crank and the propellor pushes the food through the holes in the bottom. Any seeds, skins, big fibers, etc get left behind in the bowl. There is nothing sharp.
A quick tip for cooking with not-from-a-can pumpkin:
You could boil the pumpkin flesh in water until it’s soft as well. Then all you have to do is dump the water out and puree it in the pot with a cheap hand held blender (I think I bought mine for $12 at Wal-Mart). I’ve found that’s much easier than trying to use a food processor or stand alone blender which usually require adding water.
Jeanetta,
When boiling the pumpkin flesh, do you first peel away the outer shell of the pumpkin, or do you scape out the flesh after boiling it? (cut it into wedges?)
David,
I had cut it into wedges and then cut off the skin and just boiled the chunks of flesh.