Pumpkin time!
It’s that time of year where people are constantly posting pumpkin recipes on facebook. In East Africa there are always pumpkins for sale. I bought one yesterday for less than a dollar. To bake it I use a recipe from allrecipes.com, although just now I tried to find it again and it couldn’t. Here it is:
Baking a fresh pumpkin:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Cut the pumpkin in half, stem to base. Remove seeds and pulp. Cover each half with foil.
Bake in the preheated oven, foil side up, 1 hour, or until tender. (the one I cooked today took 1 1/2 hours - you want to be sure it’s tender/soft. I used a fork to see if it was done. The first time I checked it was still too firm.
Scrape pumpkin meat from shell halves and puree in a blender. (discard shell)
If you want to use it in a recipe that calls for canned pumpkin, you need to strain it. I put mine in a large plastic strainer. It takes several hours for it to drain properly.
The pumpkin water can be used in recipes in place of plain water. Just think of all the flavor you’ll add. Once it’s drained, put in freezer bags and freeze until needed.
Store in the freezer in freezer safe bags.
