PUMPKINS ARE IMPORTANT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 22

PUMPKINS ARE IMPORTANT

ptm as just a watery vegetable which helps out in winter-time. They are actually one of the richly-coloured "yellow" vegetables, which, like carrots, are recommended by health experts for building up resistance to’ germ infections. The pioneer settlers depended upon them as an important and necessary vegetable, grew them in quantities and stored them carefully for winter use. : Perhaps the favourite way. of ‘serving them is baked with a joint of meat; but they are especially valuable cooked with potatoes, which are themselves important for their "protective" value. MPKINS are not to be

And, of course, pumpkin pie is an absolutely "de luxe" dish, if properly made -it is a "special" in American cookery. It has been said that American pumpkins are different, but I have eaten pumpkin pie at a fourth of July dinner in an American household in New Zealand, where the pie was definitely made with New Zealand pumpkins, and it was "really something." It is important to have the pumpkin sieved finely-mash-ing barely gets it fine enough. Molasses, too, is used in some of the States-to give the rich dark colour. Powdered ginger is also important; and, like their butterscotch pies, the undercrust is thin. The crust may be brushed over with white of egg before putting in the pumpkin custard, to prevent it being soggy; and it is a good plan to stand the pie-plate on a hot scone-tray. Have the oven hot at first (say, 425deg.), and then reduce the heat, or stand the pie lower down in the oven or both. The filling is really a custard and must not be allowed to boil. There is no topcrust, of course. Pennsylvania Pumpkin Pie Two cups cooked mashed pumpkin, 3 egg yolks, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 2 teaspoon salt; 4% teaspoon nutmeg; 3 egg whites; 1 teaspoon ginger; Y teaspoon cloves; ¥% teaspoon allspice; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 3 cups scalded milk. Mix pumpkin, spices, salt, egg yolks, then add scalded milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour mixture into

a pie-dish lined with pastry, first bruvhing pastry with egg white. Bake in hot oven till baked. Pumpkin Pie (Eggless) Half a tablespoon of cornflour; 1, teaspoon baking powder; 1% teaspoon salt; 1 cup rich milk; % teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg; 2 cups dry sieved cooked pumpkin; 1 cup brown sugar. Line pie-plate with a rich pie crust, and flute the edges. Stir the cornflour, baking powder, salt, milk and half the spice into the pumpkin pulp. Add the sugar. Pour into the crust-lined plate. Sprinkle with "the remaining spice, and bake till firm in the centre of a moderate oven, about 45 minutes. If you like you can sprinkle before baking with 4% cup finely chopped walnuts. Pumpkin Cake One cup mashed pumpkin; 2 eggs; Yalb. codfat or butter; 1 small cup sugar; 2. large ¢ups flour; a pinch of. salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; % teaspoon each almond and _ "yanilla essence; 1lb. mixed fruit; lemon peel if liked. Cream fat and sugar, add pumpkin and mix very well. Add eggs, essences and salt and beat well again. Add ftour, baking powder and fruit, Instead of mixed fruit, chopped preserved ginger and walnuts may be used, with a little mixed spice instead of the essences. This makes a lovely cake. Bake in a déep cake-tin in a rather slow oven, like any fruit cake-approxi-mately 2 hours, depending on depth of cake. Pumpkin Scones Cream % cup cooked mashed pumpkin with ¥2 cup butter or good dripping, and 1 tablespoon milk, then 1 cup flour sifted with 1 teaspoon of ‘baking powder, salt and sugar to taste. Add more milk to mix if necessary. Roll out, cut in pieces, bake like ordinary scones, Gramma Squares This is an Australian recipe. Mix in the following order: One and one-third cups boiled and sifted pumpkin, 1 cup boiling milk; 4% cup sugar; 4% teaspoon salt; 4% teaspoon ginger; 42 teaspoon cinnamon; a little less of nutmeg, and 1 egg beaten slightly. Roll out 2 pieces of good pastry, and place one on a baking sheet or tin, and spread equally over it the pumpkin mixture, lay over this the other piece of pastry, press the edges together all round. Mark the pastry in lines with a knife on the surface to show where to cut when baxed, Bake 20 to 30 minutes. Just before the pastry is done brush it over with the white of an egg, sift over pounded sugar, and put it back in the oven to colour. Pumpkin Soup Boil a piece of pumpkin large enough to give a good cupful of mashed pumpkin. Cook with it a good-sized onion; boil both in little salted water till cooked. Strain; mash together the two vegetables, add a shake of pepper and about a quart of milk. Mix well, add

a knob of butter, bring to boiling point, stir in about a dessertspoonful of cornflour, moistened with a little milk or water, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes. Strain again into tureen or serving dish, and sprinkle with plenty of chopped parsley. Serve with squares of toast. Do not save the first water, just use the vegetables.