Preserving Pumpkin

The best way to preserve pumpkin is to puree and freeze it.  I got this huge pumpkin from my daughter Jessica when I was there for Christmas, and am finally getting to doing something with it...I was told the other squash was a sweet potato squash, but it doesn't look like any of the pictures I've come across (anyone out there know what it is?) more about it tomorrow...I tried to weigh them, but they were too heavy for the kitchen scale I have, my guess is the pumpkin was at least 12 pounds.

When I opened it up, I was impressed by the intricate design the innards made...

 ...it was drying out a little (not a surprise since it's a little old), but everything still looked and smelled good. 

The first step is to wash the pumpkin and then clean out the guts.

Save the seeds for future planting (or roast them, yum), washing and culling out the remaining fibers and bad seeds...

 ...the top seed is good, still plump and round, while the bottom seed has dried out...discard seeds like those...

 ...place the washed seeds on a paper towel to dry.

You will end up with a lovely pile of pumpkin innards that are perfect for composting!

Cut the pumpkin into similar sized chunks onto a lightly greased pan and put it into a 350 degree oven until they are fork tender, about 45 minutes.  Don't put any seasoning or oil on the pumpkin.

It will look like this when it is done...always makes me wonder if it is actually cooked enough, but the fork test is key.

After it's cooled a bit, remove the flesh from the skin, it should come off easily with a spoon...scrape the skin with the spoon to get as much as you can...

 ...and place the pulp into a food processor or blender...

 ...whizzing away until you have a smooth consistency.

The puree will be a beautiful orange and taste of pure pumpkin...this is exactly what you want because you will season the puree based on whatever you are using it for.

Measure the puree in 1 cup increments...I put a little extra because I use a zip lock baggie to freeze it and there always seems to be a little left stuck to the sides of the bag...

 ...place into a labeled baggie and freeze.  I do put 2 cups of puree into some baggies, as some recipes ask for more than 1 cup (though that is most common).

I ended up with 16 cups of pure, delicious puree from that huge pumpkin...that will make lots of pies, cakes, cookies...who knows what else, but we'll be enjoying fresh pumpkin for quite a long while!  While this is easy to do, it is a little time consuming (especially with a large pumpkin) so I didn't get to working with my mystery squash.  More about it in tomorrow's post!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise