How to Make Pumpkin Puree

!±8± How to Make Pumpkin Puree

Each year, eighty percent of the pumpkins grown in the USA are harvested in October. Commercially canned puree is probably the most familiar edible form of this popular autumn produce, however the mild, slightly sweet flesh of fresh pumpkin makes an excellent dish when baked, boiled, sauteed, steamed or microwaved. The pumpkin seeds, as well, may be toasted to create a marvelously tasty and healthy snack.

This article will discuss the process of selecting the proper cooking pumpkin and the technique for preparing homemade pumpkin puree.

Selecting and Storing Fresh Pumpkins...

For cooking, select the small 'pie' types, often called sugar, cheese or milk pumpkins - the 'jack-'o-lantern' pumpkins are not as sweet and the flesh is tough and stringy. (If uncertain, ask your grocer to help select the proper variety.)
Always select firm, sound pumpkins that feel heavy for their size. The rind should not have any blemishes or soft spots and a 2- to 3-inch stem should be intact.
Fresh pumpkins may be stored in a cool, dry dark place for up to 2 months. Ideal temperature range for storage is 55 to 59F (12.5 to 15C). Do not store below 50F (10C) and do not store fresh pumpkin in a refrigerator or wrap in plastic.

How to Prepare Homemade Pumpkin Puree...

The following recipe will yield a minimum of 1-3/4 cups of puree -- equal to 1 (15-oz.) can of solid pack pumpkin puree. (Three pounds of fresh pumpkin will yield about 3 cups mashed cooked pumpkin.) Any leftover puree may be frozen - see freezing instructions below. Use this puree in recipes or substitute it in the same amount in any recipe calling for solid pack canned pumpkin.

1. Choose a 3 to 4 pound sugar ('pie') pumpkin for preparing puree. (Under no circumstances cook or eat a carved Halloween pumpkin as the cut surfaces breed bacteria.)

2. Preheat oven to 350F (175C).

3. Just prior to baking, rinse the pumpkin under cold water to remove any dirt or debris from the outside of the pumpkin; wipe dry with a cloth or paper towel.

4. Split the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and stringy fibers by scraping the insides with a metal spoon. Discard fibers and save seeds for toasting, if desired.

5. Rub the cut surfaces of the pumpkin with canola oil and place the 2 halves (cut-side-down) in a roasting pan. Add 1 cup of water.

6. Bake in preheated oven until pumpkin flesh is tender when pierced with a knife (approximately 90 minutes).

7. Remove the pumpkin halves from the oven and place them on a cutting board or other flat surface to cool.

8. When cool enough to handle, scoop the baked flesh out of each pumpkin half with a spoon.

9. Puree pumpkin in a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade or mash by hand.

10. Place the puree in a sieve lined with a paper-towel or coffee filter and set over a deep bowl. Let drain, stirring occasionally until the puree is as thick as canned solid pack pumpkin, approximately 1 to 2 hours. (Important: Do not allow cooked pumpkin to set at room temperature longer than two hours in the process of making puree.)

Note: Pumpkin may also be cut into chunks and steamed or cooked in boiling water until soft. Remove pulp from rind then mash or run through a food mill or food processor. Because this technique yields a more 'watery' puree, it is important to drain out moisture as mentioned above, or by gently warming in a heavy-bottomed saucepan to remove any excess water before use.

How To Preserve Pumpkin Puree...

Homemade pumpkin puree freezes beautifully for later use.
To freeze:

1. Allow prepared puree to cool completely.

2. Measure puree into 1-3/4 cup portions and place in clean ridged freezer containers (leaving 1/2-inch headspace).

3. Label, date, and freeze for up to one year.

Cooking With Pumpkin Puree...

Not only is pumpkin puree an excellent source of vitamin A, low in sodium and fat-free -- it is also very versatile. Whether using homemade or commercially canned puree, it is an ingredient that may be used in preparing an endless number of pie, cake, cookie, muffin, sweet bread, pancake, creamy soup and elegant bisque recipes.

Why not try swirling some into a steaming bowl of cream of wheat cereal along with some maple syrup? Maybe consider perking up ordinary mashed potatoes by mashing in some pumpkin puree and sour cream. Just be creative and use your imagination - also keep in mind that most recipes that call for winter squash or sweet potatoes may be successfully prepare by substituting pumpkin.

Copyright 2005 Janice Faulk Duplantis

How to Make Pumpkin Puree

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Recipe - REAL Samoan Panipopo!

!±8± Recipe - REAL Samoan Panipopo!

I heard something disturbing this morning. One of my girls told me that she was Googling recipes for Panipopo and came across some that called for store-bought, ready-made dough.. which you would then proceed to roll into dough balls...

NO!

NO NO NO!

Oh, and NOOOOO!

It's not THAT difficult to make real Panipopo dough from scratch - the store-bought stuff is too generic and... just not right!

So don't be lazy. I'll walk you through it...

By the way,THANK YOU so much Auntie for entrusting me with your top secret recipe, but... um... you might wanna close your eyes now...because I'm sorry.. but if I don't share, I'm scared a whole generation of people will think it's okay to make Panipopos with store-bought dough balls... *sigh*...

Right. Let's start from the beginning.

For those less fortunate out there who don't know, panipopos are a Samoan dish usually eaten as a dessert or with a hot beverage, preferably Koko Samoa. Its name says it all:

Pani = bun (not 'bread')

Popo = Coconut, specifically mature coconuts that are ready to be 'milked' lol... Eh, you know what I mean.

So, coconut buns. Hot, steamy buns baked in a pool of sticky, sweet coconut cream sauce that you can use for further bun dipping... mmmm....

I've come across a few variations of the recipe. Some of them will call for eggs and milk, which results in a more 'bread' like consistency... I'm not a fan of that one because the bread then tends to soak up too much of the coconut cream sauce and get too mushy. But hey, if you like mushy, go for gold...

...and go to Google, cause this version (my Auntie's recipe) produces a more, "springy" type of bun that's still moist and spongy... and is way better.

Because I said so.

Okay, you'll need these ingredients:

The Bun

Standard Flour
Salt
Butter
Sugar
Dry Active Yeast
(VERY warm) Water

The Sauce

Coconut milk or cream (pe'epe'e)
Sugar
Flour (for thickening)

The Cook

Confidence
Good reading skills
Faith in me
A sense of adventure

Don't panic that I haven't put any measurements up there. This recipe is flexible. Just pay attention.

Four cups of flour (and I'm talking about coffee mugs, not the measurement cups) will fill about two-and-a-half to three 15-1/2" x 10-1/2 apas (pans). With around 24 buns a pan, that's like 60 buns all up, more than enough for 'cup teas' at home.

The rest of the measurements will follow the number of cups of flour you use. If you use 4 cups flour, you'll need 4 spoons of sugar and 4 spoons of yeast. If you want to feed the neighbours too and go for 8 cups of flour, then use 8 spoons of sugar and 8 spoons of yeast.

You with me so far?

Cool.

Here's how we do it. Watch:

The Flour Mixture

First, dump our flour (let's say its 4 coffee mugs full) into a bowl. Toss in a 'pinch' of salt - half a teaspoon is good if the word 'pinch' makes you nervous.

See that block of butter there? It's been sitting at room temperature for a while, so it should be 'softened' now. Since my hands are always clean, I'm gonna break off some of that butter (maybe start with about 50 grams which is like a quarter cup, but YOU Google the conversion)... and I'm just gonna rub that butter into the flour.

MILI Mili mili mili mili mili mili mili... ma koe MILI Mili mili mili mili mili....

What I want is a consistency that's crumbly but kinda 'silky' at the same time, so I might need to work more butter into the flour, but make sure it doesn't get too greasy.

When the mixture is just right, I make a well in the middle of the bowl and chuck in my 4 heaping spoons of sugar... don't get too fussy about the spoon measurement here. With practice, you'll figure out how sweet you like your buns to be, and the sugar is more for yeast development anyway.

The Yeast

Okay, now it's time to grab another (smaller) bowl for the yeast. Apparently, yeast works better in either a metal or glass / ceramic bowl, so try to avoid plastic. Plastic is never good.

Anyway, since we used four cups of flour, we're going to put 4 heaping teaspoons of active dry yeast into the second bowl. Get the tap to run REALLY warm, but not too hot, and pour maybe 2 cups of that warm water over the yeast. Use your hands or a spoon to break up the yeast and stir till its fully dissolved - add more warm water if necessary to do that.

This yeast water (which should be milky grey in color and smell like yummy bread now) goes into the flour mixture, in the well you made with the sugar.

Mix-Up Mix-Up

Grab that long wooden spoon your mum reserves for special hidings and 'fold' together all the ingredients now, scraping the flour from the sides of the bowl into the middle, then up and over again till everything is combined nicely. Keep that tap running, cause you'll need to mix in more warm water in order to get the perfect consistency...

When it's ready, your mixture will look like a really thick, sticky pancake batter. It should be fairly solid, but if you shake the bowl a little, the batter should 'jiggle'...

Okay, now cover that bowl with a damp dish towel and put it in a warm, dark place to rise for an hour.

The Dough

When you come back to it, the dough should be double its size with lots of little holes in it. Your whole house should be smelling like home baking by now.

It's time to knead the dough, which means you just dump a lot of fresh flour on a counter-top (I like to spread it out like a thick white blanket) and turn the holy, sticky dough out onto it. Then, working from the edges of the flour 'blanket', I fold the new flour into the sticky stuff and flatten and squeeze and knead until you can form the dough into a smooth, round shape that's got a little bit of flour dust on the outside.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Do NOT knead the dough for too long. You need to stop working it while it's still relatively soft when we squeeze it. We want buns, not bagels... or teething rings...

Okay, cover the dough and let rise again for another half hour.

The Buns

When you come back, preheat the oven to about 200 degrees (on a NZ oven ), THEN...

...cut the dough into chunks (about half a fist size), roll into thick 'strings', and tie each into a knot. This shape helps the coconut cream sauce to flavour more parts of the bun, but if you have trouble with it, you can also just roll a boring dough ball. Up to you.

[If you find that the dough is still pretty sticky when you come back to it, go ahead and knead it again with a little more flour... just till it's dry enough to work with, but still soft and spongy.]

Fill each pan with the buns, leaving enough space between them to allow for more dough rising and to let coconut cream sauce in.

After you've done all the buns, let them sit for a bit cause we need to do the coconut cream sauce.

The Coconut Cream Sauce

Fresh is always best, right... So if you've got a coconut tree somewhere, get somebody to climb it. If not, then the best coconut cream you can buy is in a carton, made by these guys ==> KARA

Otherwise, you're going to have to settle for canned coconut cream. Ala's make a pretty okay canned pe'epe'e.

Okay, pour two cans or a 200ml carton of pe'epe'e into a container, work half a cup of flour and water into a runny paste and dump that in there as well, then top up with more water until we have enough sauce for all the pans. We should be able to fill the pans so that the coconut cream sauce covers at least half the height of the buns.

[EDIT: While the buns are cooking, check to make sure the sauce doesn't reduce too much. You may have to add more sauce so that there's plenty for dipping, but add it early enough so that it has a chance to come to the boil before the buns are ready. Let's just say raw coconut milk, if you drink enough of it, can make a great laxative.]

But before we start pouring though, we need to sweeten the coconut cream sauce. You do this according to your own tastes, but remember... for some reason the cooking process gets rid of some of the sweetness, so just make sure you add enough sugar into the sauce so that it's couple notches SWEETER than you think it should be.

Bake in the Oven

RIGHT! So the oven is hot now, the buns have risen just a little bit more in their pans, and you've got a container (jug? pitcher? large bowl?) full of sweetened, thickened coconut cream sauce. The only thing left to do is pour the sauce into the pans, chuck them in the oven, wait maybe 20 - 30 minutes for the sauce to come to a boil and the tops of the buns to become a golden brown, and take the pan out and mmmm...... But wait, there's a LITTLE bit more...

While the buns are cooling, you might want to brush sugar water over the tops to prevent them from getting dry.. but I think covering the apa with tin foil (only after they're out of the oven) or a damp cloth will do the same thing.

Eating Panipopo

Congratulations!! We've just made AUTHENTIC Samoan Panipopo. You can burn your mouth on them now, I know you want to... but I like panipopos best after they've been sitting... marinating... for maybe an hour after they came out of the oven.

Serve them in a shallow bowl, spooning more sauce over them for extra dipping, and with a hot cuppa something nice to drink on the side.

They're also GREAT the next day, even if you have to heat them up (for less than a minute) in the microwave.

Ia. Ua uma upu.

:)

Recipe - REAL Samoan Panipopo!

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Roti, Chapati (Flat Indian Bread) Recipe by Manjula

!±8± Roti, Chapati (Flat Indian Bread) Recipe by Manjula

View full recipe at www.manjulaskitchen.com INGREDIENTS: This recipe makes 4 Roti's: 1/2 Cup Whole wheat flour Pinch of Salt 1/4 Cup and 1 tablespoon of luke warm water 1/4 teaspoon of Oil 1 teaspoon of Ghee or clear butter

Roti, Chapati (Flat Indian Bread) Recipe by Manjula

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Healthy Biscuits - A Quick, Easy Way to Start the Day

!±8± Healthy Biscuits - A Quick, Easy Way to Start the Day

If biscuits and gravy are a favorite breakfast treat, then nobody has to sell you on the idea of baking biscuits in the morning.

We're not talking about those that originate in a refrigerated tube, of course, but the real thing, made from scratch. The smell of such delicacies baking in the morning can rouse a reluctant kid out of bed on school mornings.

But most people don't need another time sucker in their morning routine, nor in the dinner routine, when a quick side dish to go with a stew, chowder or soup is required.

What you do need is a quick, easy way to make biscuits, pancakes, waffles and more. While there are numerous mixes on the market, they may be little more than flour, salt, baking powder and water. It's easy to make your own biscuit and pancake mix out of ingredients you know will provide healthy, solid nutrition.

In the U.S., a biscuit is a small form of bread made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast. Biscuits, soda breads and corn bread are sometimes referred to as quick breads to indicate they don't need time to rise before baking. Sweet variations of the biscuit are sometimes called scones.

Add more liquid and maybe an egg and some oil to a standard biscuit recipe, and it becomes a pancake batter. A little more egg, and you have the makings of a waffle.

Since they're all quick breads, the main difference between most biscuits, pancakes, waffles and even dumplings is the amount of liquid added and the method of cooking. A good biscuit mix should be able to accommodate most of these recipes.

For best results, use a double-acting leavening agent in your biscuit mix.

Single-acting baking powders are activated by moisture, so recipes with this product must be baked immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to the dough or batter, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven or on the griddle.

For biscuits, add just enough water to milk to create a soft dough, knead lightly, roll or pat flat and cut out rounds. If a touch of extra liquid is added, the doughs texture changes to resemble very stiff pancake batter, so that small spoonfuls can be dropped onto the baking sheet to produce drop biscuits, which are more creative in texture and shape.

For pancakes or waffles, mix the wet ingredients first, then add the mix to the liquid and stir briefly. Overmixing will result in tougher cakes, so its OK to leave lumps. Let the batter sit for a few minutes before pouring by 1/4 - to 13-cupfuls onto a hot griddle or waffle iron.

Few items in your baking pantry will be as versatile as a good biscuit mix.

Dumplings

2 C basic biscuit mix

2/3 C milk

Mix together until a soft dough forms, then drop by spoonfuls onto a boiling stew. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, then cover and cook another 10 minutes. Makes about 10 dumplings.

Healthy Biscuit Mix

5 lbs all-purpose flour, minus 4 C

3 C whole wheat flour

1 C flax meal

1 C soy flour

2½ C dry milk

¾ C double-acting baking powder

3 TBS salt

5 TBS wheat germ

½ C sugar

2 TBS cream of tartar

4 C shortening

Combine first six ingredients in a large bowl, and stir well. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Biscuits

1 heaping C healthy biscuit mix

About 3 TBS water

Combine mix and enough water to form a soft dough in a mixing bowl. Shape into a ball, knead about 10 times on a lightly floured surface. (Don't overknead or the biscuits will be tough.) Flatten out and roll or pat to ½-inch thickness. Cut dough into biscuits, put on a greased cookie sheet or in a greased cast iron skillet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until browned. Yields 5 biscuits.

Pancakes

½ C milk

1 egg

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 C healthy biscuit mix

Combine first three ingredients, blend well. Add biscuit mix, stir until smooth. (If thicker batter is desired, add more flour.) Drop batter on lightly greased hot griddle, and cook until pancakes are browned on both sides. Yields about five 4-inch pancakes.

Basic Biscuit mix

10 C all-purpose or bread flour

1/3 C baking powder

1 TBS salt

2 C shortening

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. With two knives or a pastry blender, add the shortening in spoonfuls and cut it in until the mixture is the texture of coarse cornmeal. Keep mix stored in a labeled, tightly closed container. It will keep on the pantry shelf for up to six months in dry weather. In hot or humid weather, it is a good idea to refrigerate the mix.

Yields about 10 cups of mix.

Healthy Biscuits - A Quick, Easy Way to Start the Day

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Pancake Ingredients

!±8± Pancake Ingredients

It's becoming very popular for people to start making pancakes from scratch at home. The first step to this is making sure to have the correct pancake ingredients. There really aren't that many things you need, but if you make sure to have everything you need on hand then you can make homemade pancakes anytime you want. An even easier thing you can do is to make a large quantity of your mix to store in the cupboard. The next time you make pancakes it will be just as easy as using a store bought mix.

Pancake Ingredients:

All-purpose flour

Instant nonfat dry milk

Sugar

Baking power

Salt

These are the ingredients you will need to make your dry mixture. This is the mixture you can store in your cupboard just like you would store bought mix. Mix all of these ingredients together in a large bowl. Put the mixture in a sealed container and store for the next time you want to make homemade pancakes.

Ingredients you need to prepare your pancakes:

Your newly made pancake mix

Water

Eggs

Vegetable Oil

To make your pancakes:
In order to make your pancakes you will mix the above ingredients in a bowl. Apply oil to a pan or griddle over medium heat. Scoop about one quarter cup of batter onto the pan for each pancake. Cook until each side of the pancake is a golden brown.
Pancakes have a very simple list of ingredients. Making them at home ensures that you know what exactly is going into them.

Pancake Ingredients

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