In the autumn I was worried about my giant feral pumpkin - see here. On Saturday I strolled up to the greenhouse to check on it and the new locks for the greenhouse door. The latter work a treat. The former was starting to show signs of needing to be eaten.
Once I got it into the house, the monster had to be weighed. It came in at 36 pounds or just over 16 kilos for the metric among us. I have to point out that it must have lost some of the weight it had when harvested, as I could carry it this time, which I couldn't before.
We cut it open and tackled the bits that on the surface looked like they were going off. This was very much spot damage and doesn't go more than 1 cm into the flesh, which is good news I think when you remember that I have 36 pounds of the stuff.
In my earlier post, I wondered if it would be OK to eat, as it ripened so late and the skin never got to the lovely rich red colour I usually associate with Vif d'Etampes pumpkins. So far we have had a soup, which was a little insipid if I am honest, but was also a lot thinner than I usually make soups. We also had pumpkin puree done with lots of garlic and butter and baked - the first time for one hour, the second time for two hours. The second was better as more of the water had been driven off (36 lbs of pumpkin of which I estimate 25lbs of water). We also had it in a savoury rice where it added colour and a certain sweetness.
More recipes to follow as we work our way through it all - if you have any ideas, please add a comment. Here is the pumpkin again in all its glory!
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