EDF Cooking Contest--Pumpkin Challenge

[SamIAm]

Main: <font color="orange">Pumpkin Gnocchi &amp; Side Salad w/ Pumpkin Seed Oil Dressing</font>

I wish I remembered what was in the salad dressing. I used pumpkin seed oil, garlic, and mustard. Sorry. For the gnocchi:

1/2 large Pumpkin
4 Russet Potatoes
2 Eggs
Salt
Nutmeg
Flour
Sage
Butter

Roast the pumpkin and the potatoes. Mash together with the egg, salt, and nutmeg.



Add flour till it becomes a loose dough. It took like 4 or 5 cups before I got there.



Flour a huge counterspace (Note: I don't HAVE a huge counterspace. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]) and cut off about a cup of flour and roll it into a long snake, about 1" thick. Cut into 1" dumplings and freeze on cookie sheets.



After a few hours, you can bag them and save till later. (I ended-up making 300 gnocchi. The picture below might be half. Good thing they keep for months. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])



Boil in water till they float to the surface. Remove and toss with oil.



Brown butter and sautee sage and gnocchi.



Serve with standard side salad.

[SamIAm]

Dessert: <font color="orange">Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pumpkin Seed Brittle</font>

I'd never made brittle before. It took me two tries, and I still wasn't so happy with the final product. I'll keep trying. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

3 C Sugar
1.5 C Water
1.5 C raw Pumpkin Seeds
.5 t Cinnamon
.5 t Cayenne

Boil the sugar and water. Clamp the lid on for 3 minutes to let steam build and roll down the sides, catching any crystals on the sides.



Meanwhile toss the seeds and spices. Don't worry about the raw seeds; they'll cook in the hot syrup. (Pictured below are roasted adult seeds. On my second try I used raw young seeds instead.)



When the syrup turns light amber, add the seeds. Note that this picture is NOT THERE YET. If you add the seeds now, you'll get really nasty brittle, and have to try a second time. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



Pour onto a silicon mat and let cool.



Break into bitty pieces.



The cheesecake is more standard, but turned out really well.

.5 box Graham Crackers
3 T Sugar
.5 t ground Ginger
.5 t Cinnamon
.25 t Cloves
6 T Butter

Cut a piece of parchement paper longer than your springform pan is around.



Cut a long strip taller than the pan is tall and cut a square bigger than the pan. Fold the square into 16ths, as shown.



Cut the paper at the radius of your pan. Unfold and you get a circle. (Hexadecagon = Circle.) Brush melted butter in the pan and line the bottom with your circle and the sides with your strip.



Crush the graham crackers and stir in the dry goods. Melt the butter and stir in. Pour into the bottom of a springform pan and tap down.

1.5 lb Cream Cheese
1.5 C sugar
1 t Cinnamon
.5 ground Ginger
pinch Nutmeg
pinch Cloves
pinch Allspice
pinch Salt
1 lb roast Pumpkin
1 T Vanilla Extract
1 T Lemon Juice
5 Eggs
1 C Cream

Mix cream cheese for a minute and then slowly add dry goods, scraping down a lot.



Add pumpkin, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat another minute. Add eggs slowly, scraping down even more. Pour into pan.



Bake in a hot water bath in a 325 oven for an hour and a half. Then turn off the oven and let cool for an hour. Then move to the fridge for 6 hours. Then despringform.



Cut and serve with brittle.

[Ron Burgundy]

VERY nice stuff all!

[Mermade]

El Sapo and SamIAm--I'm seriously surprised you haven't received more props. These are outstanding entries, some of the best in the history of the 2+2 Iron Chef contests, and they show amazing creativity. Very cool.

There's still a couple of weeks in the pumpkin challenge. I hope others will chime in with comments and more entries.

All--Don't find pumpkin intimidating. Remember, it's just a big squash. It's fun to cook with and it's ubiquitous right now. Pick up a small cheap pumpkin and see what you can do with it!

[ElSapo]

Awww, thanks Mermade. I think all the entries look great so far also...

[opteek]

Wow. These are some really nice entries. I just stumbled upon this EDF Cooking Contest series and I think this is a fantastic idea. I'm definitely going to try making some of these. Who knows, maybe a lightbulb will go off and I'll try to make something original and submit it. I'd also like to give props for the pictures which are professional quality.

[anisotropy]

I just wanted to post and say that this thread has been truly inspiring for me in the kitchen. I do not have anywhere near the skills of some of the people here in the forum, but I was inspired tonight to make braised short ribs with pumpkin polenta. I tried to take pictures but they came out horribly so I won't be posting them.

Thanks for the inspiration! (btw, the meal was tremendous)

[milliondollaz]

After getting one vote during the last contest (it wasn’t myself) I decided to get serious and try to scoop the competition on what is probably going to be a thin field. I mean seriously, who cooks with Pumpkin?

I want the “most improved” style vote here too, so please reference my previous attempts at cooking before you cast your ballet.
grilling challenge
OOT style sandwich

I realize that I’m hurting my chances by posting so early, and allowing the competition time to retort, but I’m flying to Brazil in a few days and won’t have time to post before I return. The good news is that I finally bought a digital camera for my trip, so no more phone pics!

Here is the culmination of my life’s work. Enjoy EDF. Enjoy.

Appetizer: Pumpkin Soup served in a Pumpkin half.


Dinner: Grilled Chicken Breasts on a bed of fresh Spinach with Baked Pumpkin Seeds.


Dessert: Butter Roasted Pumpkin with Clover Honey.


Details to follow in a MEGA-POST, including MULTIMEDIA!!![img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[milliondollaz]

First the culprits. Two innocent pumpkins from Whole Foods.


Soup is first.

Chopped the top of one, ripped out the guts, poured some water and butter in…


Then stuck it in the oven.


Got on the computer and forgot about it for an hour (??) or so, came back and it was tender.


Put pulp in blender


Along with 3 cups of milk.


Chopped up some onion and blended the pulp/milk mixture, and got ready to add to pot.


Here comes the show-winner, TIME STOP ACTION VIDEO OF THE PUMPKIN SOUP!

It shows me adding the onion to a combo of butter/olive oil, adding the blended pumpkin/milk combo, and reducing it. I also heat up some store-bought butternut squash soup, as a comparison to what I did. It was overpowered by nutmeg and ginger, and was slightly spicy. So I liked my soup better!
Fits like a glove!


Now the Main Course, Chicken with Pumpkin Seeds! Took slimey pumpkin seeds


Added real expensive olive oil and salt


Dumped onto a pan


EXTREME CLOSE UP


Roasted until done


Grilled some chicken that had been masterfully marinating in something


Boom!


Next, the eliminator dish, Grilled Pumpkin with Honey! Sliced the pumpkins up like a punk on tha streetz,


Thought to myself, now what would make a pumpkin taste good. The only thing I could come up with was FAT, so I decided to add some, in butter form.


Not sure how much to add, so I decided to swing for the fences.


Stuck her on the grill


Sprinkled a little Ginger on her for that je ne sais quoi


And let her roast!


She was looking pretty done here, so I decided to have a taste


No kidding, it tasted JUST LIKE crab legs. Crab legs dipped in butter that is. But it was tender, so I knew it was done. The skin held up well.


I had the FAT ingredient for dessert, but was missing the sugar. And I don’t own any sugar (or the preferable brown sugar). Closest thing was honey. So on it went!


The result was very pleasing; it’s hard to go wrong with butter and honey.

[Mermade]

DAMN! I LOVE that video. My favorite part is watching the wine glass in the background empty and fill up. I'll say more about the cooking tomorrow. But Wow. Multimedia. I love it..I LOVE IT!