All things pumpkin

Now is the season for all things pumpkin!  I LOVE fresh pumpkin.  There once was a time that I thought fresh pumpkins were for carving and making pretty fall decorations from.  The thought of actually taking a fresh pumpkin and turning it into anything edible was...well...frightful!  

Then I found out how easy it really is to cook a pumpkin and I fell in love with FRESH pumpkin.  All canned pumpkin is now forever forbidden from my kitchen.  As soon as pumpkin season is in full swing, you will find me at the city market dragging a cart full of pumpkins to my car.  I covet the pumpkins and usually buy them in bulk.

Now, let me explain..not all pumpkins were created equally.  There are those big yellow pumpkins that you see at the grocery store that make wonderful jack o lanterns....these are NOT the pumpkins we will be baking with.  What you want is a much smaller PIE pumpkin!  They have a higher sugar content and are well....more pumpkinny!  Those are the pumpkins we want.

I've had quite a few people tell me that they have no idea how to cook a pumpkin and turn it into something they can use in their favorite pumpkin recipe, so here is my pictorial guide.

First, get your pie pumpkin and cut it into chunks.  I use an ice cream scoop to remove the seeds.  You will then place your steamer (see the picture) into a pot with enough water to come up to the bottom of the steamer.  

Place  your wonderful chunks of beautiful, orange pumpkin into the pot.  I put as much in there as I can and still be able to put the lid on tight.  You want to steam the pumpkin, not boil it.  So, a medium to low heat is all that's needed.  Steam the pumpkin until a knife easily goes through the pumpkin shell.

Next, lay the pumpkin out to cool.

You will have plenty of time to do other things while your pumpkin is cooling (including just smelling that wonderful pumpkin aroma).  I decided to make some Greek chicken and paint the inside of my bake ware cabinet (cause yes, I'm just crazy like that).

So, once the pumpkin has cooled so that you can handle it, I use a serving spoon and just scrape the pumpkin flesh out of the shell.  It just comes right out (don't get too aggressive or you'll be picking pieces of the shell out of your pumpkin).  

Some people discard the stringy fibers, but I don't want to waste one bit of the pumpkin and it cooks up anyway.  When you have scraped the pumpkin out, you should have a shell that looks like this:  

Best of all, you will have a bowl full of wonderful, orange pumpkinny goodness that looks like this:

I then use my potato masher to blend it.  You could also use your food processor or blender, but I kind of like the little chunks of pumpkin.  

Now just look at this wonderful pumpkin!  It's ready to use in any of your favorite recipes.  I freeze it in zip lock bags in 1 or 2 cup quantities.

See how easy that is!  Once you use fresh pumpkin, you will wonder why you ever wasted your money on canned pumpkin.  Just look what I made with it today!

Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting covered in chocolate ganache!!!

Oh, and the greek chicken?