Pumpkins — Danielle Gallegos

I love pumpkins! They come in so many different sizes and varieties. Unlike in the US though where pumpkins seem to be mainly ornamental and come out at Halloween and Thanksgiving, in Australia they are eaten all year round.

So the variety shown here is a Jap pumpkin. The vine you see has grown from the compost - it took over the front steps and after a little bit of hand fertilising produced three good sized pumpkins. Jap stands for “Just Another Pumpkin”. The other two varieties that I see a lot of in the greengrocer are the Queensland Blue Pumpkin and the Butternut. The Queensland Blue was predominantly grown as cattle food and became famous by Senator Flo Bjelke-Petersen as the main ingredient in pumpkin scones. If you want to make these just google “Flo’s pumpkin scones”.

My favourite way to cook pumpkin is roasted. Cut into chunks and then toss in a bit of olive oil and a bit of maple syrup. Cook low and slow so you get yummy caramelisation which you need to scrape off the bottom of the pan. The other way is as pumpkin soup - its not rocket science but I prefer to roast the pumpkin pieces rather than steam them. You then whizz them up in blender with a bit of vegetable stock, you can add some cream for a smoother flavour (or if you want to go a bit low fat some evaporated milk) and my mother-in-law adds a tablespoon of peanut paste.

Now for a little aside. Peanut butter or peanut paste. Well go along to the fascinating Australian Food Timeline by Jan Connell, she gives the low down on butter or paste. Apparently in Queensland in 1930 the dairy farmers agitated to get a law passed that said anything other than dairy products could not be called a butter - Western Australia and South Australia followed. Hence peanut paste.

Pumpkin salad

Here is one of those easy salads you can throw together. Remember the pumpkin is soft so offsetting it with a little crunch adds texture.

Ingredients

Pumpkin - roasted; garlic cloves (roast these with the skin on with the pumpkin); English spinach (wash well to get all the grit out); pepitas or pumpkin seeds (you can use pine nuts but they are a bit expensive) lightly toasted; if you want to make it a bit more substantial add some pearl couscous; if you want a bit of bite add some feta. Dress with a mix of balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar), a teaspoon of honey and squeeze ist the gooey garlic gloves (shake these together before adding to the salad).