Let's Cook Squash: Sweet Pumpkin

    

Turban squash with eyes and a shy pie pumpkin (l) and examples of fruit with buboes (r).

I bought some small weird squash to pal around with Mr. Pumpkin (amazingly still around). Spaghetti squash, turban squash, [pie] pumpkin, and two ornamental squash: one yellow with wings and one black with bumps. Woogly eyes!

Roasted pumpkin cooling on a rack.

Pie pumpkin is the kind of pumpkin one uses to make . . . . pie. They are smaller and sweeter than carving pumpkins. It's typically roasted first which causes the sugars inside to cook and ooze out of the exposed flesh: pumpkin syrup.

How to Roast Pumpkin
Heat oven to 375F. Slice off the very top of the pumpkin to remove the stem. Cut the pumpkin into quarters. Scoop and scrape away the goop and seeds inside (save the seeds!). Place pumpkin skin side own in a cookie sheet and roast for 45 minutes.

Once the pumpkin is roasted the skin peels away easily.

Allow to cool so try can be handled. Peel away the skin which comes away easily.

Chop the flesh into cubes and either purée in a food processor adding just a tiny bit of water if needed, OR chop and mince finely by hand which is what I did.

Roasted pumpkin seeds.

What to do with the seeds: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Pull the seeds away from the goop and rinse them in a strainer. Pick out all strings and goopy bits. Drain and dry seeds with paper towels. Spread seeds on a baking sheet, sprinkle a bit of salt over them, and bake at 300 for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool. Neat thing about roasted pumpkin seeds: you can eat the shells.

What the hell do you do with it now?
I did two things: tamale pie and . . . pumpkin pie.

Tamale pie.

Tamale pie is a casserole made with chili and corn bread batter. Basically, you put the chili in the bottom of a casserole dish, top it with corn bread batter, and bake it until the batter is done. The corn bread cooks up moist and delicious and not unlike a tamale (a bit drier). I added 1/2 cup of pumpkin to my corn bread batter. Tamale pie goes excellently with salsa, pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream, plain yogurt, or some peppery-spicy something.

What does that do? It adds moisture, density, and color to the bread. Also it adds additional nutrients. Also it makes use of the left over 1/2 cup of pumpkin I/you did/may have in preparation for the next recipe.

Pumpkin Pie

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
2C pumpkin purée
3/4-1C sugar
2T brown sugar
8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4C warm milk
2T butter, room temperature
1t vanilla extract
1.5t cinnamon
1/2t allspice
1/2t nutmeg
1 prepared pie shell

Add spices and extract to pumpkin and combine.  Combine sugars, cream cheese, butter, egg, and milk. Fold pumpkin mixture into cream cheese mixture. Pour into pie shell and bake at 375F for 50 minutes. Allow to cool before serving (if served warm, it will have a fluffy texture). Refrigerate.

Pie Notes:
•  You can warm up your milk with 3-4 whole cloves to add more flavor. Remove them before using the milk in the pie (°_o) 
 •  I topped my pie with chopped walnuts before baking.