Coming canned pumpkin shortage

[urbanfarmer]

I always use powdered ginger with squash, pumpkin, or carrots - sometimes sweets or yams.

What I am talking about is sugared ginger - ginger preserved with sugar - like candy.  You use it as I described, and then when you take a bite of the pie and crunch down on that little morsel of sweet heat, it is a special treat!

Crystallised ginger is also good to nibble with your afternoon tea!  My nanny used to give it to us when I was a tot.

There is a local bakery that makes ginger scones with big chunks of sugared ginger. Soooo yummy!

[Grower]

I like butternut squash soup with curry. Definitely not like liquid pumpkin soup, which would indeed be gross.

[urbanfarmer]

I just made butternut squash with curry last week. I also added coconut milk, roasted onions, and black beans. Marvelous.

[MEA]

You are my hero--I have to this now.

[urbanfarmer]

Thanks!  I only made it because I wanted to take a meal to a new mother. Oh, forgot another main ingredient, pureed golden plum tomatoes from the garden. Served it over rice. I do a lot of hybridized cooking that mixes Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern.

Last night I cooked a huge soup pot for a group of young men that helps me out. I hate to cook for myself, but I love to cook so this way I can scoop out a couple of containers for myself to freeze before I deliver it.

[MEA]

That what I do -- I hate to cook, so I make ton of something, inflict some of it on the neighbors, eat it and then leftovers, and freeze the rest. Actually, I'm sure I really know how to cook -- I can churn out about 12 or so dishes and variations, but then I watch something like chopped and realize I have no idea how to prepare sea urchin or that fennel and orange are a classic flavor profile.

[Xenopus]

Anyone here make pumpkin soup --it's a big winter stapble for us b/c I make it for almost free. (I wasn't kidding about trash picking them.)

I season it with onions (or other allia) and beer or apples -- I don't like the ones that are made to taste like liquid pumpkin pie.

Yes, I've got gallons of pumpkin soup in the freezer. It's come out a bit bland this year. Think I'll go with zenobia's ginger trick to pep it up.

[urbanfarmer]

Speaking of filling the freezer, this year I bought an Excalibur dehydrator thanks to a tip from Pamela, and have been dehydrating the pumpkin pulp. It is amazing that a whole pumpkin ends up filling half a canning jar when dried! Then I throw it back into anything I am cooking to add thickness and a richer flavor.

http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,48462.0.html
Thanks Pamela!

[zenobia]

Curry powder is really tasty in fish chowder!  Old New England trick...

[skepticus]

And yams are and African crop that aren't anything like sweet potatoes.....

Yeah, I discovered that also.  If I remember correctly, "yam" is the Anglicization of the native African name "iamo" or some such.  Sweet potatoes are native to South America.  What is confusing is that often times in the US sweet potatoes are labeled as yams, vice versa, or both.  I have cans in my cupboard at home that say "sweet potatoes", but on the ingredient declaration it says "yams". 

[Broil]

Red garnet yams may be sweet potatoes, but they're fucking delicious and taste better than any other sweet potato.

I just put them into a 425 oven for maybe a bit over an hour, and take them out when the black caramelized blobs become visible.  It's the simplest recipe in the world, you don't need to add any sugar or honey or anything whatsoever, though a little butter at the table can make it even more sublime. 

It's perfect comfort food. Baked red garnet yams make every nerve and fiber of your body relax and be happy.  They soothe the soul.

[zenobia]

My husband was lamenting during our morning phone call that there was no canned pumpkin to be found at the FT Myer commissary.

Sadly, he does not have the skilz to make squash pie, so I am emailing him a sweet potato pie recipe.

[lodo_bear]

Shoot! I guess I'll have to stock up on my pumpkin! I can't get enough of the stuff.

Peak Pumpkin: the next great catastrophe.

I'll look up that sweet potato stuff, though. Those are going cheap right now.