Pumpkin Mofongo

Pumpkin Mofongo

The book SuperFoods (Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, Harper, 2005) identifies pumpkin as one of the “fourteen foods that will change your life.” Having abandoned white potatoes and white rice because they contribute to weight gain and lack essential nutrients, we started looking for alternative side dishes. When we looked for pumpkin recipes we found that most were for some sort of desert (pie, cookies, etc.). We had success in adding half a can of pumpkin to spicy spaghetti sauce, but lacked a more stand-alone use. One of my favorite foods, after working in the Caribbean for more than 30 years, is the traditional Spanish Caribbean dish called “mofongo.” Mofongo is essentially fried and mashed green plantains. Because pumpkin has a similar texture and sweetness to plantains, and because this is pumpkin season, we decided to create pumpkin mofongo. This also produced the ingredients for a tasty and nutritious desert. Here is our recipe:

Ingredients:

· 1 medium (organic) pumpkin

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 4 cups water

· 4 garlic cloves

· 1 tablespoon olive oil

· Bacon bits or pieces (prepared bacon, available in various brands, is easiest)

Directions:

1. Peel the pumpkin and slice it in half. Remove the seeds and stringy interior and save.

2. Cut the pumpkin into eights. [At this point any remaining “strings” can easily be scraped away with a sharp knife.] Cut these eights into one-inch cubes. Soak the pumpkin cubes in the salt and water for about 15 minutes, and drain well.

3. While the pumpkin is soaking, crush the garlic cloves in a wooden mortar (called a “pilon” in Puerto Rico), sprinkle with salt, and then add a tbsp of olive oil after you have started crushing (the oil makes the garlic slippery and more difficult to crush). [You can crush the garlic in a press, but scrape the remainder from the inside of the press.] Transfer the crushed garlic and oil to a small bowl.

4. Fry the pumpkin cubes in oil until they are golden brown. [You can use a deep fryer if you have one, which takes about 3 minutes.] Drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

5. Crush a portion of the fried pumpkin in the mortar. Add about a teaspoon of the garlic and oil, and a teaspoon of bacon bits (optional), and continue crushing. We use a one-cup mortar that will accommodate about 1/8^th of the pumpkin at a time. [Note: you could use a potato masher, but you want to be gentle. The goal is to preserve the texture created by frying the pumpkin, and not the consistency of mashed potatoes.]

6. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and shape into mounds. After you have mashed all the pumpkin and formed it into mounds, keep it warm in the oven (300 degrees) until ready to serve. You can also pour a little chicken or vegetable broth on the mounds to keep them moist, but this is only necessary if they will be sitting in the oven for a while.

I have included lots of pointers, but the recipe is no more difficult than garlic mashed potatoes (and takes about the same amount of time).

Pumpkin Seed Desert

Pumpkin seeds are a very nutritious snack. In fact, Native American groups grew pumpkin and a variety of other gourds for their seeds, and not the flesh. I got the spice ingredients from a web page, but you can substitute spices according to your taste (this one is a bit sweet).

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Separate the seeds from the fibers and rinse. Spray a baking sheet with a cooking spray, and place the seeds in a single layer on the baking sheet. Spray the seeds with cooking spray and salt to taste. Bake the seeds in the preheated oven until lightly brown (about 20 to 25 minutes).

3. While the seeds are baking, mix 3 tbs brown sugar, ¼ tsp cumin, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground ginger, and ¼ tsp cayenne pepper in a bowl.

4. Heat 1 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs brown sugar in a skillet over medium heat. When the sugar has melted add the toasted pumpkin seeds and cook until they are coated. Add the carmelized seeds to the spice mixture and toss to coat. Cool and eat!