PUMPKIN PANNA COTTA…Pumpkin Spice & All Things Nice!

I walked into the bazaar the other morning to come face to face with a very excited vegetable vendor. He knows my glee at any new veggie or fruit that shows up locally, & always picks a few good ones & saves them for me. He was waiting with something new which he called Chinese ‘kaddu’ or Chinese pumpkin. It’s strange, but most new veggies that appear seem to bear a generic China name. The large garlic we use is referred to as China garlic & now this pumpkin too. I think it’s a local way of increasing sales of something new…it works on me! I loved the idea of these little pumpkins, cute & pretty. With the West leaving fall way behind, the leaves are falling here in our part of the world, & spring is kind of here. Our seasons are different from other countries, & so is our fresh produce. We get the best of the seasons tomatoes, strawberries etc in the winter here, & it is indeed a season we in North India can’t wait for. So I hurried home with my pumpkin booty, googled, got to a Washington Times post on pumpkin puree. Easy-peasy & ready in about 30 minutes, scooped out & all. How cool is that? The other thing demanding my attention was a box of pumpkin pie spice that my sis sent for me from Houston. YAY…a chance to use that too, thanks to the precious pumpkin!! Pie wasn’t on my mind; strangely I was thinking pumpkin panna cotta. Was also wondering how the kids would take to pumpkin… Thought I’d check out the net, set out hesitatingly. Yes, something like a pumpkin panna cotta did exist! That decided, I set off to make the puree. Here’s the recipe for making puree from scratch, taken from this Washington Post feature here.

“Making puree has only one real hurdle: Ideally, the pumpkin must be cut in half. I don’t expect to accomplish that in a single stroke. Using a large, heavy knife, I make one cut into the pumpkin. If I’m lucky, that cut will gain me enough leverage to pry the squash in two. (Sometimes I have to make a second cut to get a longer opening. I then use the knife to begin to split the pumpkin in half, and I finish the break using my hands.) If the split of the pumpkin isn’t perfect, you can trim the halves so they will sit flat in the pan. If the pumpkin has broken into several pieces, that’s okay. Next, use a big spoon to remove the seeds from the pumpkin halves. Line a large roasting pan with aluminum foil. Place the halves or pieces, flat side down, in the pan; add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Transfer to a 350-degree oven and bake until the flesh is easily pierced with a fork. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, that can take anywhere from 45 to 75 minutes. Let the pumpkin cool, then flip the halves over and scrape the flesh away from the skin. Puree the flesh in a food processor until smooth.”

PUMPKIN PANNA COTTA
recipe adapted from The New York Times
Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 tbsp)
2 cups light 25% cream
1 cup pureed pumpkin, (you can use squash or sweet potato)
1/2 cup sugar (increase if required)
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon powder)
Method:

• Put 1/2 cup of the milk in a 6- or 8-cup saucepan, and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Let sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, blend together the cream, pumpkin, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. The mixture should be perfectly smooth, so it is best to use a blender.
• Turn the heat under the saucepan to low, and cook the milk, stirring occasionally, until the gelatin dissolves. Pour in the cream mixture, and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until steam rises. Turn off the heat, and ladle or pour the mixture into 8 4-ounce ramekins or other containers.
• Chill the panna cotta until firm, and serve, with creme fraiche or whipped cream if you like.
• I topped the chilled panna cotta with a thinned chocolate ganache & caramel mixture, a dusting of pumpkin pie spice & vanilla sugar.
• YIELD 8 servings

Pumpkin pairings Pumpkin is a good companion with many flavors including apples, bourbon and rum, caramel, cinnamon, cloves, raisins, coconut, honey, maple syrup, pecans and vanilla. Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce teams the winter gourd with several of those tastes.
Caramel sauce is sold in jars but making it from scratch requires just three ingredients and only a few more minutes to put together. Butter, dark brown sugar and cream mingle in a sauce pan until the sugar melts and a rich sauce develops. If you are thinking of cooking a fresh pumpkin for a dessert recipe, don’t. It takes quite a bit of time (chopping, seeding, boiling, scraping) and you’re likely to be unhappy with the results. The cooked pumpkin probably will be watery and less flavorful than its concentrated canned counterpart. Pumpkins, just like all nature’s bounty, are not created equal.