The good, the bad and the stinky!!!

A few months ago I procured this 20lb beauty from Neal's Berry Farm down the street from me.  I had decided that I would cook it up and it would be my first foray into canning. I noticed a small spot underneath that was starting to rot, so I quickly decided that this was Princess Pumpkin Cooking Weekend. 

First I cut it into sections and removed the seeds, which I"ll dry and use later for planting.  I was told that this was a local pumpkin and that they love the sandy soil around here.  Jackpot!  My new homestead is 2 acres of sandy soil.  We'll see how this goes in a few months... 

Isn't it beautiful???  I love this color.  The wall in the great room in my new house is this deep red color.  If I could, I would paint everything varying shades of this deep orange.  I would wear it constantly.  I love it.

After I cut it up, I put it into baking dishes and cooked it at 375 for about 1.5hrs.  I had two large baking dishes that I used simultaneously and it still took two batches to cook it all.  Once it cooled I scooped it out of the skin, threw the skin in the compost, and froze the rest.  I just didn't have time to can that day.  Still haven't had time to can, damnit. 

I DID take about 4 cups of it and puree it in my Vita Mix until absurdly smooth.  I then used it to replicate a recipe I had at Hubbel and Hudson Kitchen that I've been dreaming about for months.  Fairytale Pumpkin Soup.  Le sigh.  It's amazing. Luckily for me, they post all the ingredients on their "tags" for the soups.  I'm still tweaking, but here's what I did:
Sauteed about 5 finely sliced shallots in about 1/4c of butter (YUM!)
added about 4 cloves of garlic, diced/minced/otherwise made smaller
cooked for a few minutes until those items are wilty and slightly brown
added three or so cups of chicken stock
added about two cups of pureed pumpkin
about 1/4t of white pepper
sea salt to taste

I let this cook for a while, then cool down again, then pureed it again until absurdly smooth with no chunks.  Aside from the fact that I put about 8 times too much pepper in it, it was amazing!  Once I actually get this recipe down I'll put up a REAL recipe and not these "about this much" sorts of things. 

























In other news, I attempted my first fish stock, as I had really been craving seafood stew.  My father used to make seafood stew that was unbelievable.  I just remember looking into this bowl of white fish and other yummy bits floating in a delicious creamy stock.  The butter was floating on the top in little oil droplets and the parsley and lemon gave it another layer of freshness.  When you ate it was like eating the sea, only buttery.  Everything melted in your mouth.  It was incredible.  THIS is what I wanted to replicate.

I did not.

What I did do is go to the HEB, pick myself up the fleshless body of an allegedly fresh Red Snapper.  It smelled fresh, it looked fresh, it's eyes weren't cloudy or weird.  I put that baby in the crock pot, covered it with water and let it cook for hours and hours and hours.  Maybe 18?  It.  STUNK.  I spent most of those 18 hours convincing my husband that it would be worth it in the end, the fish smell that seeped into every corner of the house.  Trying to explain to my 2 and 4 year olds why the house was so "stinky", why their bedroom smells "disgusting".  I am at a complete loss as to why it turned out the way it did.  All the other blogs insisted that Red Snapper doesn't do that unless it's bad.  But I'm sure it was fresh!  I grew up in Maryland, damnit!  I know fresh seafood!  But this was gross.  I got some on my hands and it smelled like I had been playing with dead crabs in a salt marsh. It was just plain awful. 

Alas, I no longer have the faintest desire for fish of any sort.