Receta Steamed Pumpkin Puree &Pressure Cooked Pumpkin Butter
Now, I know I have been silent here for a while. Diwali came & went, I made something, but could find time to post. In between thanks to deadline posted my shaped dinner rolls. Now Thanksgiving also came and went and am eagerly waiting for Christmas baking. But still experiments are going on, and so I thought since pumpkin is the flavour of fall, why not pumpkin puree and butter my way. Its very simple also.
Pumpkin puree is rather puree made of cooked -steamed,boiled,roasted or whatever method you prefer - pumpkin. I think steaming is the easiest way and usually prefer this over roasting. You need to have a steamer or atleast a pressure cooker for this. It leaves less water and is over in minutes as well.
Pumpkin butter on the other hand is concentrated and optionally flavoured pumpkin puree. Atleast this is the impression that I have got while visiting several sites and recipes. I have adapted mine from this site though I had made using a pressure cooker. I had 2-3 sugar pie pumpkins and I had used them up for making these two.
Pumpkin Puree:
Cut the pumpkin in chunky pieces, scoop out seeds, wash well and place in a suitable tray that goes well inside your steamer/pressure cooker. Add water inside the steamer or pressure cooker and place the tray or dish covered with a lid inside and steam away to glory :D for 10 minutes atleast or until the pumpkin turns glossy yellow and will easily fall apart from the skins.
Take out, cool till you can handle and peel off the flesh into a a vessel,mix in a pinch of salt (optional) and lo, pureed pumpkin is ready to be used in smoothies and bakes.
Pumpkin Butter:
For pumpkin butter, I peeled ,deseeded & chopped pumpkin to about 2 cup of pieces, added about 1/2 cup of peeled,cored & chopped apples, about 4+ tbsp of demerara sugar,1/2 tsp + of fresh orange zest and about 1/2 tsp+ of pumpkin pie spice. and another 4+tbsp of water.Mixed everything together and pressure cooked for 3-4 whistles until the pumkin and apples turn mushy. Take out cool till able to handle and blend to a thick brown butter in a mixer.
You can serve it as a bread spread or even use it in baking or as per choice.