Pepper Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite parts of carving a pumpkin is getting to snack on roasted pumpkin seeds. These past few weeks I haven't had hardly the capsicum endorphin rush I usually indulge in, so thought I'd appease my spicy desires with pumpkin seeds. And really, I'm glad the tide of pumpkin madness has subsided, and left in its wake omega 3 packages of peppery love.

Chili Pepper Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups of pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon chipotle chilie powder
1/2 teaspoon new mexico chilie powder
1 teaspoon Italian aleppo chilie pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Clean off the seeds; don't get anal about it, a little stringy stuff's okay. Dry them on paper towels or napkins. Preheat your oven to 350F. In a large bowl, mix together the spices, and add the extra virgin olive oil. Throw in the seeds, toss to coat, then roast them in a single, thin layer on a cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes.

Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

For the first time I took a ride today down to Eastern Market and vow to go back to pick up my leg of lamb for Thanksgiving roasting. I feel like I've discovered a new gem in the city, even though it's no secret that Eastern Market is a trendy spot. Since I moved to DC about a year ago I've mostly stuck around NW, what with the Dupont and Mount Pleasant Farmers' Markets so close; but one that's open daily? I'm sold.

On my bike ride home I joyously giggled in my toe straps at the changing leaves and warm sun on my cheeks. Knowing this is one of the last of the warm days, and prepared for the chill ahead, I thought of the contents of my fridge...

Stuck with a leftover zucchini and more pumpkin than I can wrap my head around, I needed something tasty, that would make the rest of the house smell good. Between my recent squash fetish, the changing of the leaves, my influx of tea consumption, and the newly-bought bag of whole wheat flour, how could I resist an afternoon with floury hands?

In pulling out my mixing bowl and bread pan, I realized, "ah crap, I don't have a cheese grater." But why would I have one? When was the last time I bought cheese? Man, depressing chain of thoughts there... To make this recipe I diced some zucchini and pumpkin and julienned a bit to add a different texture component. Turned out grate! Ouch.

This is a recipe adapted from epicurious but is pretty heavily toyed with. The bread turned out crusty on top, deliciously moist in the center, and an overall delight. Not bad for a graterless neo-baker.



Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

1 cup zucchini, minced (1/8")
1/2 cup zucchini, julienned
7/8 cup raw sweet pumpkin, minced (1/8")
1/8 cup raw sweet pumpkin, julienned


Dry
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Wet
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup pumpkin butter (applesauce works too)
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup light silken tofu, blended into yogurt-like consistency
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Grease a bread pan.

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. (Now's a good time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees F) Beat together the wet ingredients and sugar in a large bowl. Add the zucchini and pumpkin to the wet ingredients and mix. Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Pour everything into the greased bread pan, and bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until your tester comes out mostly clean. It took 1:10 in my oven, which is notoriously inconsistent. Careful not to over bake.

Nutrition Estimate Per Serving (12 slices): Calories 245.5. Total fat 6.6g. Saturated fat 3.8g. Total Carbohydrates 44.3g. Dietary Fiber 3.5g. Sugars 2.7g. Protein 4.9g.

Pumpkin Apple Breakfast Muffins

Santa Cruz is a pretty friendly place for dietary restrictions- vegan, vegetarian, raw, gluten-free, no nuts... you can find it all. However, locating a tasty dairy-free muffin was pretty much impossible; oh how I tried. DC has undeniably less options, and I haven't really located a vegan bakery that I love. That said, I got to meet one of the owners from Free For All Cupcakes, but haven't sampled yet. I've resorted instead of continuing the search to making my own, and while I'm sure these are delectable smeared with a pat of butter, they're also moist, crumbly, and complex all on their own. Grab one with an autumn comice pear for a quick breakfast.



Like my other pumpkin recipes, I peeled, chopped, and steamed the flesh before mashing it for these muffins.

Pumpkin Apple Breakfast Muffins Recipe

I made 12 minimuffins from this recipe, but if you're looking for heady, voluptuous muffins, go for making 9 instead.

1 large apple (I used a New York Macintosh), peeled, and finely chopped
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup whipped light silken tofu
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon soy milk


After dicing the apple, add the sugar and let the juices accumulate while you get the rest of the recipe together.

In a large bowl mix the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda.

Add the pumpkin, tofu, canola oil, egg, vanilla, and soymilk to the apples and sugar.

Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl of dry ingredients and mix just to combine. Don't over stir, lumps are good.

Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray, distribute your batter, and bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes. If you make 9 muffins, you'll probably need to cook them closer to 20, but be careful not to overcook.

Enjoy your muffins! These keep well sealed in the fridge, or you can freeze them and warm them up in the microwave.

Nutrition Estimate for 12 muffins: Calories 85.2. Total Fat 1.5g. Carbohydrates 16.7. Fiber 1.8g. Sugars .1g. Protein 2.5g.

Rustic Pumpkin Hummus

Since my adventures with the jarrahdale from the Mt. Pleasant Farmers' Market has left me with a few extra cups of fleshy orange tastiness, I decided to engage the mounting autumn with some savory pumpkin hummus. Most people throw their garbanzos into a food processor to get a smooth, creamy hummus, but I like some lumps in my mashed potatoes and some texture to my bean dips. Instead of blending everything into a consistent paste, I used a potato masher to pulverize my beans and let the pumpkin puree play the 'creamy' role. Leaving a few semi-whole beans brings out the chickpeas' nuttiness, thus the "rustic" component of this recipe. If you like smooth hummus, by all means puree away.

To prep the pumpkin for this recipe, I peeled it, skinned it, and steamed for about 8 minutes (until it was fork tender), then dropped the chunks into a food processor until smooth. I haven't tried any of my pumpkin recipes with canned pumpkin puree, but I imagine they'd be equally tasty.

I use dried garbanzo beans, cooked on the stove rather than canned. If you're using canned, go ahead and double the recipe to use your whole can of chickpeas.

Rustic Pumpkin Hummus Recipe

1 cup garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon tahini
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of ginger powder
salt to taste

Using a potato masher, or in the bowl of a food processor, mash the garbanzo beans to desired consistency. Add the pumpkin puree, tahini, and extra virgin olive oil, and mix well. Add seasoning and let stand a few hours to let the flavors blend. I topped mine with a bit of chopped parsley that I had on hand.

Makes about 6 servings (1/4 cup each).

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 76.6. Total fat 3g. Saturated fat .4g. Total carbohydrates 10.6g. Dietary fiber 2.2g. Protein 2.6g.

Pedantic Pumpkin

Aside from opening a can, scooping out some pumpkin, and dropping it into a pie crust, or carving a misshapen face into a pumpkin-patch-pumpkin, I haven't had much interaction with the fruit.

There seems to be controversy over pumpkins, much like tomatoes, as to whether or not they are a fruit or vegetable. My mother told me that fruits have reproductive seeds inside, and since she's a published horticulturist I'll take her word for it.

Whatever the orange globe is, it's tasty. I've always been a fan of pumpkin pie, but was excited to see pumpkins I'd never laid eyes on before at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers' Market here in DC. These weren't orange, or yellow, or even green like the acorn squash I'd seen. No surrreeh, I found the most bizarre grey, lopsided pumpkin I'd ever seen and asked, "is this one really only 1$ per pound?"



I'll admit, shoving the pumpkin into my messenger bag to bike was a challenge, but the online journey to discover which pumpkin I'd actually purchased was half the joy. Jarrahdale pumpkins, or Cucurbita maxima, originally from New Zealand is very firm, not too stringy, and has beautiful grey skin. Check out this great pumpkin identification site if you too have a mystery squash.

Over the next few days I'll post a few rewarding pumpkin experiments. The first thing I learned is that baking pumpkin to prep it for recipes is a total waste of time and energy. Instead of roasting your pumpkin in the oven, peel it, chop it, and steam it until fork-tender in 8 minutes rather than the hour long gas investment of running the oven. The second thing I learned is that pumpkin is darn versatile...