Making use of our booty

Having spent the last week or so trying out different recipes for pumpkin I've come to a conclusion - it tastes of nothing.  I tried roasting it, mashing it, souping it and despite my best efforts it still tasted of very little.  The only recipe I used it in that actually tasted of anything was pumpkin curry when the spices and coconut cream helped to mask the fact that pumpkin doesn't actually taste of anything.  This was a bit disappointing to find out, especially seeing as we have another one lurking in a cupboard waiting to be turned into a lantern for a Live Action Role Play event that we're going to over the Halloween weekend.

I did however find out that home roasted pumpkin seeds are lovely.  I'll definitely be doing these again.


Roasted Pumpkin seeds

After chopping the pumpkin scoop out the seeds and place in a colander.  Wash to get rid of all the gunk then dry with kitchen towels.

Place in a high sided baking dish and coat with oil and whatever spices take your fancy, I used salt and paprika.  Roast at 200 for 15-20 minutes.

With the berries and pears that we gathered I made a lovely autumn jam which I'm hoping will go down well as a little extra Christmas present this year.

Autumn Jam

500g Pears, peeled and chopped
400g soft berries, I used a mixture of blackberries, strawberries and raspberry's
1kg Jam sugar

Place a saucer in the freezer; this will be used to check the readiness of the jam later on.  Put jars in the over to sterilize. See here for more details.

Place the pears in a large pan with a bit of water.  Cook under a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until soft then add the berries.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes until all the berry juices are released.

Add the Jam sugar and bring to the boil.  After 10 minutes take the saucer out of the freezer and place a blob of the jam on it.  Leave it to cool for a few seconds and if it's ready a skin will form on the surface that will wrinkle when pushed with your finger.  If this doesn't happen let it bubble away for another few minutes until it passes the saucer test.

Once the jam is ready put it in the sterilized jars and store in a cool place.