Pumpkin – the head of the autumn fairs

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The end of autumn is the time for summing up the gardening work. No wonder vegetable growers’ fairs are held everywhere now. And, of course, not a single such holiday is complete without a colorful beauty – a pumpkin. Why is it good, what is useful, what can be prepared from it in season, we’ll talk about this.

Probably there is not a single garden in our lane, where by the autumn there would not be a golden couch potato, a pumpkin. But her homeland is South America. But she came to us a very long time ago and fell in love with her unpretentiousness, productivity and great benefits. Botanists consider pumpkin a berry, not a vegetable at all, because it has juicy pulp and many seeds. This berry sometimes reaches such gigantic sizes that there is information about specimens weighing more than eight hundred kilos. Yes, and varieties, shapes and varieties of pumpkins have now been invented a lot. They are black, green, white, striped, oval, pear-shaped, pimply and smooth.

If we use pumpkin mainly as food for people and animals (there are fodder varieties), then in some Asian countries they make dishes, bottles, scoops, flasks and rattles for children from it.

Pumpkin is a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. It is rich in fiber, and carotene in it is five times more than in carrots. The high content of vitamins A and E helps to slow down the aging process. Pumpkin reduces the risk of cancer, improves immunity, improves the condition of the skin, liver, pancreas, it is used for constipation and motion sickness, and the content of vitamin T promotes weight loss. Pumpkin has a lot of iron, so it should be eaten with anemia. As for pumpkin seeds, they deserve special praise, because they occupy a leading position in terms of zinc and magnesium content.

Moreover, the bright colors of the fruits of this plant and the content of tryptophan in the pulp improve mood and sleep. This is especially necessary in gloomy autumn weather.

Pumpkin is an excellent product for dietary and baby food. But you need to cook the pumpkin correctly: bake, stew, boil, make juices. And if you decide to fry the pumpkin, then let the oil drain. And even the water in which you boiled the pumpkin, it is better not to pour it out, but to use it for soup – because there are also a lot of vitamins.

You can cook a lot of dishes from pumpkin. After all, it is combined with various vegetables, fruits, cream, cheese, mushrooms, berries, dried fruits, herbs and spices, eggs, meat, fish, seafood, various cereals. And if you don’t really like this vegetable, you can find recipes in which the taste of pumpkin is not felt at all. Given the huge benefits of a bright fruit, you should try to include it in your menu. In this variety, you can find such recipes for dishes that are right for you and your family. Pumpkin can be frozen for the winter, but it is especially useful to include pumpkin in your diet during the season when all vitamins are biologically active.

If we talk about the storage of pumpkins, then the fruits of this plant have another remarkable property – it can be stored for months without cellars and refrigerators. To do this, experts recommend harvesting mature, waiting for the peel to harden. Muscat pumpkins are stored the longest, and they do not require any special conditions. A dry room with a temperature of 18-20 degrees is quite suitable.

Breeders who know a lot about melons recommend not chasing beauty and size, it is not at all necessary to buy large and bright fruits – they are often inferior in taste to small and unsightly ones. And they say that gray pumpkins are tastier than pink ones, and pink ones are tastier than red ones.

Pumpkin is good in different dishes, many countries use it in their cuisines. I especially liked it in Greece, where it is often used for mashed soups, but pumpkin with milk cream sauce with pieces is more to my liking and more traditional for our cuisine.

For this dish you will need:

– 600 g of peeled pumpkin;

– 3 glasses of milk;

– 1 cup cream (at least 33% fat);

– 6 teaspoons of flour;

– 1 tbsp. a spoonful of oil.

Peel and cut the pumpkin into slices, pour over boiling salted milk and cover, cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Strain the boiled pumpkin, put it in a hot dish, close the lid, put it on the stove over a pot of boiling water so that it does not cool down.

Measure the milk in which the pumpkin was boiled in glasses, if less than three glasses are left, add milk. Boil, pour in a thin stream, stirring, cream diluted with flour. Boil again, and when it thickens, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of butter, now you can find pumpkin, salt. Pour pumpkin with this sauce, boil. Sprinkle with herbs before serving. Serve with crackers.

And, of course, pumpkin can be used as a festive dish in various confectionery, desserts and pies. A delicious and fragrant pumpkin dessert will appeal not only to adults, but also to children. Pumpkin can be baked with berries and oranges.

To prepare this dish, we need a puff pastry cake: you can make it yourself, or you can buy a ready-made frozen one. The sweetest pumpkin is nutmeg, so this one is most suitable for confectionery purposes. You can take any berries: currants, strawberries, lingonberries. For flavor, you can use a few mint leaves and vanilla. But cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise and their mixes go well with both pumpkin and orange.

For this dish, we need a cake of puff pastry the size of a baking sheet, 400 g of boiled pumpkin, 2 oranges, 200 g of berries, spices to taste, 3 tbsp. spoons of honey.

We cut the pumpkin washed and peeled from seeds and partitions into slices 1 cm thick. We shift the pumpkin into a saucepan with lightly salted water and cook for 15 minutes from boiling. Then we discard in a colander and let the water drain.

Put the dough, pumpkin, berries, oranges on a baking sheet with foil, coat with honey, sprinkle with spices and put in the oven for 40 minutes at a temperature of 180 C.

The dish is served warm.

Alina Fedorova.

Author’s photo

Message Pumpkin – the head of the autumn fairs first appeared on Moscow truth.

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