In my last blog, I resolved the question, "what is a North Georgia Candy Roaster?" Today, I will go one step further and attempt to answer, "what do I do with it?"
In most winter squash recipes, the winter squash is normally cooked before it goes into other recipes, as was the case with the fine 8.25 pound specimen of North Georgia Candy Roaster seen in my last blog. The simplest and oft-cited way to do this is to cut the squash in half, put it in a roasting pan with cut-side down, fill with 1/2 inch of water, cover with foil, and cook in the oven at 400 F until the flesh is able to be poked with a fork (typically 30-50 minutes).
After the flesh is cooked, it still needs scooped from the skin and mashed. I also like to use a colander to remove excess water. The 8.25 pounder resulted in 5.25 pounds of pumpkin meat, which is a 64% efficiency rate. From there, you can cook all sorts of stuff with it, as you will see in the 8 Ways in 3 Days Pictorial found below. Days 1 and 2 were consecutive, but Day 3 happened two weeks later.
After partaking in this absurdist exercise, I learned pumpkin is frequently paired with two holy trinities of flavor melanges. These include the cinnamon-ginger-allspice/nutmeg trinity, and the sage-butter-parmesan trinity. The cin-gin-all/nut is demonstrated in the creme brulee, flapjacks, donut, and loaf; whereas, the sage-butt-parm is found in both pasta dishes: the ravioli and gnocchi. There seems to be quite a few curry/chili recipes out there as well.
Recipes came from a variety of sources, including my mom, who's been making those raviolis for over 15 years now, the Compleat Squash book, Heirloom Gardener magazine, and this ka-razy interweb tool, called Google. However, the Vegan Pumpkin Donut with Ginger Glaze came from the recesses of my own donut-damaged mind.
It should be noted that the single 8.25 pound North Georgia Candy Roaster provided all the flesh for these eight meals perfectly to the point of being serendipitous. Enjoy the pictorial.
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| North Georgia Candy Roaster Post Steam-Roasted |
DAY ONE
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| Smoothie |
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| Ravioli Innards |
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| Ravioli with Sage Butter, Fresh Parm, Pepitas |
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| Creme Brulee 25% Torched |
DAY TWO
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| Flapjacks stacked |
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| Flapjacks in Action with Ohio Maple and Hickory Syrup |
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| Vegan Donuts with Ginger Glaze |
DAY THREE
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| Pumpkin Loaf with Lemon Icing |
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| Sarah Gnocchi-ing the Gnocchi |
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| Gnocchi with Walnut Sage Parsley Pesto |
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| Curried Pumpkin Soup with Pepitas |
Hi Justin, my wife sent me an article on you because I just happen to be doing a much smaller scale in my small backyard! I have a whoppibg 4 paw paw trees one of which just began bearing delicious fruit. I've also had success with some interesting plants I thought might also pique your interest: American Hazelnut- i have 3 trubs and just got a very nice harvest. The nuts are smaller than the store kind which are Eurpean bur American are much milder and I think much better flavor. I also successfully raise nectarines fron 1 tree and ALMONDS all right here near you in University Hts!!! Reliable Almond is the variety comes from Rainttee Nursery in washington state. Very delicious almonds and really tough tree that laughs at our weather!!!
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