De-stringing a Pumpkin

Food & Drink Discussion and Questions
1

A pumpkin I bought turned out to be a bit stringier than I had hoped (to be used in sauces, etc). The first sauce I made, well, turns out most of those strings don’t cook, :no_mouth:. So I needed to get them out.

Thus, using my sweet bean paste method…I squeezed it through my strainer.

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Was worried I wasn’t going to get much out of it, but I did, heh.

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Still have maybe half an ice cube tray that I can fill.

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All in all not too bad for $2.50, plus I have some seeds I pounded in my mortar (the pumpkin was a hair under ripe so the seeds are mostly underdeveloped).

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2

What kind of sauce do you make with your pumpkin? I mean… pumpkin sauce… but for what dish?

3

it was a pasta sauce. A small clove of garlic, peach wine, sugar, and salt, with cheese stuffed tortalini.

Next time I want to try to add clove and nutmeg, as I think that would really add a happy little zip to it. :thinking:.

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4

Oh yum! And peach wine? Is it… made from peaches? Can it be wine then? Or does it just have a peach flavor?

5

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it definitely has a peach flavor to it. However, I think this is a subpar wine for cooking, but it’s good enough for now, heh.

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6

Nice trick for de-stringing the pumpkin! And those flavors do sound intriguing.

7

It’s actual a grape wine infused with peach flavor…their peach flavored brandy is very delicious!

I have used pumpkin to make ravioli…the flavor is sweet and nutty…this sauce sounds delicious!

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8

Oh yeah! I think Trader Joes has a butternut squash ravioli.

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9

I tend to use gooseneck pumpkins because they have so few seeds…but my favorite pumpkin is kabocha…I just toss it whole into the oven and bake it…yummy!

10

Where are you finding these pumpkins? Also, it sounds awesome to just put a whole pumpkin in your oven.

11

Our local grocery stores carry most of them but for sure the Asian markets have them. My mom used to make kobacha soup…it was sweet and creamy…squash is good for tummy problems as well.

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12

My husband’s mom was from Japan. He loves kobacha. Recently, he’s been keeping the seeds and is planning to try to grow some in his garden.

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13

I think they are pretty easy to grow and are tough plants. My mom used to grow all sorts of Japanese greens and beans in her garden.

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14

Mine has always been butternuts, cushaw, and acorn, and the only times I’ve ever cooked with pumpkin has been for other people (so I guess by being surprised by how stringy the last few pumpkins were, I never really paid attention, :no_mouth:).

Aaaaah! That would explain the weird feeling I had when I tasted it, peach flavored (but if I would have thought about it other alcoholic beverages made from other fruits are not called wine…Which I don’t remember the terms, :thinking:).

Meh, it’s fine as is. The peach flavor works quite well with sweetened sauces.

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15

I am unable to process most alcoholic beverages as I like a certain enzyme. I can drink them, but they make me drunk after even a small drink and then I usually feel ill for a few days…not worth it to me…but, for cooking, the alcohol burns off so I can use cooking wines and brandy to make things. I love peach schnapps and anything peach to add flavor…yummy…

16

Oof! Yeah! After this GERD started up, I knew better than to drink anything alcoholic, but I really didn’t drink in the first place. With this, though, I really needed to gage the flavor for use in cooking, so I drank only a very tiny little bit (with food, to make sure it didn’t affect my stomach too much).

Huh! never thought about schnapps. :thinking: Those are pretty flavorful. Ooh! I bet the cinnamon schnapps would make an excellent rice pudding. :thinking:. That will be some time in the far future, if ever, though, heh. I think I’ll just stick with basic wines, sherries for now.

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