Dressing Up Pumpkin

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 32

Dressing Up Pumpkin

OTH the provider of meals and the eaters thereof get a great deal of pleasure from pumpkins. They | may be hard shelled (ironbark), thin shelled, ? greenish or a deep and lovely orange-vellow. smooth

skinned or deeply furrowed-but all are useful in various ways. We use them as _ vegetables, in soup, in puddings and tarts or pies, in scones, in cakes, jam and in fillings, And in all these, woman’s ingenuity has devised more than one method of cooking them. Pumpkins are good for us, too, being tich in Vitamin A, and help to build up resistance to infections. In America, they have always been a standby, not only for the universal Pumpkin Pie at the Thanksgiving Day dinner, but even in the time of Christopher Columbus when the American Indians depended upon pumpkin and Indian corn (maize) to help them through the long cold winters. Pumpkin Soup Three pounds pumpkin, small onion, butter and milk. Prepare the pumpkin, cut into small pieces and boil in salted water with a small onion to flavour. When cooked, strain off a little of the water, mash, then add a good tablespoon butter and milk to make up the required quantity. Add pepper and more salt if necessary and thicken with a little cornflour and milk. A beef cube or two may be added to give more goodness. Pumpkin as Vegetable Cut in suitable sizes and leave in the thick skin. Bake or steam till tender. Scrape out of the shell and mash with butter, pepper and salt. Another idea is to mash together equal parts of potatoes and pumpkin, form into small pyramids, top with a tiny sprig of parsley and serve with grilled fish or meat. You don’t need reminding about baking thick chunks of pumpkin with a roast joint, like potatoes or kumaras. Pumpkin Scones : Cream 1% cup cooked, mashed pumpkin with 14 cup butter, add 1 tablespoon milk, then 1 cup flour sifted with 1 teaspoon baking powder, salt and sugar to taste. Add more milk to mix if necessary. Roll out, cut in pieces, bake like ordinary scones. Pumpkin Custard Tart Pastry: Seven ounces flour, 1 oz. custard powder, 1 oz. icing sugar, 5 oz. butter, about 1 tablespoon milk, pinch salt. Rub butter into flour, etc., mix with milk and roll out. Line pie plate. No baking powder. Custard: Two tablespoons butter, %4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk or more, 114 cups cold cooked sieved pumpkin, grated rind and juice of half a lemon, 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Cream butter and sugar, add pumpkin gradually, break in eggs and add milk. Pour into lined pieplate. Stand pie-plate on hot scone tray, near the top. Have hot oven at first, then reduce heat or put tart lower down. Should take about 30 to 40 minutes. Pastry may be brushed over with white of egg before putting in the custard. Boston Pumpkin Pie (Special) Three eggs, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 large cup rich milk, dash nutmeg, 1% teaspoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon dark molasses,- 94 cup sugar, salt to taste, 4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 large cup pumpkin (cooked, mashed and

sieved). Break eggs into a large bowl, add sugar, salt and molasses. Beat well. Add spices to pumpkin and mix smooth. Then add to mixture and stir well. Add milk and when all is well mixed, add vanilla. Taste mixture and adjust accordingly. Ginger gives the real flavour, salt counteracts the sweetness and the molasses gives the rich dark colour. Bake in one crust in hot oven at first, then slowly till pumpkin filling is nearly firm. Cook it in a pie-plate like custard tart. With this pie the Bostonians serve a rich cheese. Eggless Pumpkin Pie This is only a substitute for the real thing, but quite mice. Half tablespoon cornflour, ¥2 teaspoon baking powder, 12 teaspoon salt, 1 cup rich milk, 4% teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 cups dried and 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 crustlined plate. Sprinkle with the remaining spice and bake till firm, in the middle of a moderate oven, about 45 minutes. If you like you can sprinkle before baking with 4% cup finely chopped walnuts. Good Pumpkin Cake One cup mashed pumpkin, 2 eggs, 14 lb. butter, 1 small cup sugar, 2 large cups flour, pinch of salt, '2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon each almond and vanilla essence, 1 lb, mixed fruit, lemon peel if liked. Cream butter and sugar, add pumpkin and mix very well. Add eggs, essences and salt and beat well again. Add flour, baking powder and fruit. (Instead of mixed fruit, chopped preserved ginger and walnuts may be used, with a little mixed spices instead of essences, This makes a lovely cake.) Bake in a deep cake-tin in rather slow oven, like any fruit cake-approximately 2 hours, depending on depth of the tin. Pumpkin Sultana Cake (Eggless) Two cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup cold mashed pumpkin, % Ib. butter, 12 cup milk. 1 cup sultanas, 2 teaspoons baking. powder, chopped peel if liked, essence of lemon. Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add well mashed pumpkin and beat again. Add sultanas, then sift in flour and baking powder. Then add milk and essence. Mix thoroughly and bake about 1% to 112 hours, moderate oven. Pumpkin Jam Five pounds pumpkin, 44 lb. sugar, 2 oranges, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, pinch cayenne pepper, 1% teaspoon citric acid. Cut pumpkin into 12 inch squares, cover with sugar and stand all night, Put oranges and lemon through

mincer, catching juice. Add all to pumpkin. Boil slowly till clear. Add sugar. Stir till dissolved. Abount 1% hour béfore taking up add pepper and citric acid. Test.

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