At my grocery store, there is a big display of little pumpkins and funny looking squash. Intrigued, I wandered over and noticed that each little pumpkin, and each little squash had a sticker with a recipe on it. Being a sucker for a new recipe, I picked up one little pumpkin, and two funny looking squash. Which I now know are actually called, sweet dumplings. I cooked them up, as per the recipe sticker, and holy turkey, thanksgiving at our house will never be the same.
This is what I started with. It may look like a festive centerpiece, but these guys are definitely better used as a yummy side dish.
I started with the sweet dumplings. I cut the sweet dumplings in half, removed the seeds, and put them cut side down on a baking sheet. I roasted them at 350F, and 40 minutes later they were done. I scooped out the flesh (ew, that's such a gross word) into a bowl and mixed it with a little drizzle of honey. I mashed it all up, put it back into the sweet dumpling shell, and that's it! Side dish perfection, and ridiculously easy. Make sure you pick up one sweet dumpling per person, as it will only fill half a shell once mashed.
Next I moved onto the pumpkin. I've never been a big pumpkin fan. When I was a kid, my mom would scoop out the gross insides when it was time to carve them, because it's gross. I don't like pumpkin spiced lattes, and I don't like pumpkin pie. I do, however, love the pumpkin scones from Starbucks, so I thought I'd give this a try. Plus, the little pumpkins are so cute, the insides can't be that gross, right? The answer is right! There aren't nearly the amount of seeds and gross stringy bits of pumpkin as there are in the big ones, so I was able to quarter the pumpkin, and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. I put the pumpkin quarters in a pot with water, brought it to a boil, and then lowered the heat and simmered until the pumpkin was tender, about 25 minutes. I removed the pumpkin quarters, emptied the water out of the pot, scooped the flesh (ew!) out of the pumpkin and back into the pot. Keeping the pot on the stove over a low temperature will help evaporate any excess liquid. Then I added butter, enough to make it mash nicely, a tablespoon or so of pumpkin pie spice (or you can use ground allspice) and a bit of maple syrup. Mash, mash, mash, and enjoy.
My husband said he doesn't eat pumpkin unless it's in a pie, so I brought three little tart shells out of the freezer, baked them, and filled them with the mashed pumpkin.
Happy thanksgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment