Mission #pumpkinrescue: Thoughts on the comprehensive culinary flexibility of pumpkin, as well as links on juicing, sprouting, fermenting Harry Potter style and DIY skin treatments… Read the rest of this entry »
Archives for posts with tag: Oxford Pumpkin Festival
There are times when I find no inspiration for the daily grind of family cooking, and feel just as much a novice as anyone. Mostly however, and especially writing this blog, there are always more food ideas that I’d like to explore than time ever allows. So I woke up last Sunday with 20 projects on the go, and couldn’t conceive how to make progress AND make lunch. That’s when the Venn Diagram came to mind. Why not draw some up and decide that way what we would be eating.
Number One: I’m very interested in Peasemeal as an historic Scottish staple, a flour dating back to Roman times, made of ground roasted dried yellow peas. I wrote to the people at Golspie Mill, a restored Victorian mill way towards the top of Scotland, and asked if I might have a sample bag, and was generously obliged. The guiding thought was that peasemeal might be a good substitute for gram flour; it’s a relatively local (at least British) staple with culinary possibilities to span the globe. And it’s a Slow Food Forgotten Food included in their “Arc of Taste,”, and interesting for this heritage. When I asked friends what they made with gram flour, many responses looked to India– not surprisingly! — and flatbreads and pakora.
Spicy Pumpkin Vinegar, made from pulps I could have thrown out. A glorious enzymatic condiment for brightening, souring, finishing and … drinking! Pumpkin Scrap-cum-Vinegar plus Fermented Chilli Pepper Skins is a match made in heaven… or Upcycling Kitchen-Counter-Culture paradise, at least…
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Once upon a time we carved a pumpkin for Halloween, and instead of roasting the seeds, I fermented them for a scrap vinegar. This is such an easy thing to do. Cover your fruit scraps (in this case, the scooped-out pumpkin seeds embedded in the stringy stuff) in about triple the volume of water. Add a tablespoon or two of sugar, which will inspire an alcoholic fermentation; keep stirring, periodically exposing your mixture to air, and you will get acetic acid fermentation– that easy. (The link above will give more detail if you don’t believe me.)
A.K.A. Pumpkin Wild Vinegar, after lots of stirring and bottle-burping and exposure to air, and time:
Kitchen Counter Culture 