Now, most people will tell you that when you want to use fresh pumpkin for puree, you need to buy a small "pie pumpkin". Not so. Yes, these are a bit sweeter and the flavor more concentrated than the large jack-o-lanterns we have at Halloween, but I promise the large pumpkins work just as well and taste just as great.
Here's what I did to use our Halloween pumpkins (we bought 3 this year!). In the first picture you can see that just one pumpkin got me 2 containers worth of pureed pumpkin!! Probably about 5 cans worth if you were to buy it! I got our pumpkins at Walmart for $3.33 (3 pumpkins for $10) right before Halloween, so you can see it's also a VERY economical way to have pumpkin for all your yummy fall treats!
So, without further ado...
FRESH PUMPKIN PUREE:
First you will want to take your pumpkin and cut it in half. Clean out all the seeds and strings. If you like pumpkin seeds you can then clean the seeds and roast them for a great snack.
Once the pumpkin is cleaned out you will want to cut it up into equal size portions (I cut this one into 4 large pieces...there is also a small pie pumpkin in the pan that was cut in half).
Now, you have a choice...either roast, microwave or steam your pumpkin. I don't have a microwave (I know, I'm archaic) so I baked and steamed my pumpkin. To bake, just place the pumpkin upside down (flesh down, skin up) into a large baking dish (I used our turkey pan) and add about 1/2-1" of water on the bottom of the pan. Cover the pumpkin w/ aluminum foil and then place in the oven at 300 degrees for about 45min-1hr or until fork tender (you should be able to pierce the skin of the pumpkin w/ a fork).
To steam the pumpkin (I did this w/ the other 1/2 of the large pumpkin), use a LARGE pot (we used our Tamale Pot...I don't have a picture but it's very tall and has a rack in the bottom...if you do any home canning, this is the same pot that has a rack for the jars). Fill the bottom of the pot, just below the rack, with water. Place the pumpkin on the rack and put the lid on. Cook for about 15-25 min or until fork tender. Watch out that you don't cook too long! This cooks the pumpkin pretty quickly and it will actually fall off the skin into the water if you cook too long.
Here's the pumpkin! Now, this is the reason you can use the large jack-o-lanterns. Do NOT skip this step. Place the pumpkin in a strainer like the one pictured. The reason most people say not to use the large pumpkins is because they are very watery. It's true. You will notice that the water just starts pouring out of the pumpkin when you put it in the strainer. Once it's in there...start pressing. Squish the pumpkin to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Once it seems as though you have most of the liquid drained, you are ready to blend.
All the liquid that was squished out of the pumpkin!
Take the drained pumpkin and place it in the blender. You'll probably want to do this in batches so it blends well. The pumpkin you see in the previous pictures was only 1/3 of the pumpkin that the large jack-o-lantern made! Blend until the pumpkin is pureed well but not liquefied (you want it to be like the canned pumpkin). Do not add any liquid to the blender. There is enough in the pumpkin still to puree it...just scrape it down if needed.
And voila! Your very own fresh pumpkin puree!! Use as you would the canned pumpkin in any of your favorite pumpkin recipes!
The pumpkin puree can also be frozen. Just add a couple cups (I usually do 2 or 4 cups since most of my recipes call for 2 cups...it makes it easy to only thaw what I need) to a freezer bag and place in the freezer. It is not recommended that you can pumpkin puree or butters.
Now that we have lots of puree, you can expect to see some pumpkin recipes soon. I'm thinking pancakes, butter, muffins, pie, and my favorite...pumpkin spice lattes...all coming soon!
Enjoy your puree!
Happily Homemade
Sandra
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