Rhubarb & Pumpkin Crumble

Tigger and I spent some time at the allotment this weekend.  It was mainly an exercise in turning compost heaps and clearing some drainage ditches, but we did notice that many of the rhubarb plants (and we have MANY) have multiple stems on them. 

It must be time to clear last season's rhubarb from the freezer. Fresh will be available a week or two from now.

I haven't sugared rhubarb for years now, prefering instead to cook it in pies and crumbles with a sliced banana, or some sweet cicely stems. 

Years ago I can remember someone who had worked in a jam factory telling me that cheap jams were often made using pumpkin pulp to bulk out the more expensive berry fruits.  So instead of sugar (and because the 'no shop' means I can't go out and buy bananas), I decided to cut the rhubarb pulp with mashed pumpkin. There are still plenty of last year's pumpkins stored on the dining room windowsill, and one or two had started to develop rot round the flower end so time to use them up - fast.

So there you have it - 50/50 stewed rhubarb and mashed cooked pumpkin, spiced up with some grated fresh (or frozen from fresh) ginger, and topped with a rolled oats crumble topping (see earlier post on crumble topping).
 
It works just fine, colour not as deep red as rhubarb on its own, but tastes excellent.

No 14 - Pumpkin Loaf with Honey Glaze

Honey Glazed Pumpkin Loaf

This one came off a calendar from approximately 35 years ago in New Zealand.  Maybe it was WI or something.  We eat a lot of pumpkin in NZ – roasted, steamed and mashed, as soup, grated in salad – and of course in cakes.  They are easy to grow and we always had them in the garden and crawling over the sprawled compost heap (where they had grown from the seeds of last year’s produce, cross-pollinated aliens of the cucurbit world.)  They keep well through the winter and featured regularly at our table.

Perhaps I should digress here to say that the things I call pumpkin include a wide range of types not seen in supermarkets here and probably only recognized by people who grow their own (check out this seed merchant under squash and pumpkin: www.organiccatalogue.com).  They are all sweeter and more palatable than the orange ones that appear for lantern carving just before Halloween. 

So I suggest for this you use for this recipe a butternut squash – those pear shaped ones with the pale golden skin.  You can peel them with a potato peeler.







Honey Glazed Pumpkin Loaf

Prepare enough mashed cooked pumpkin to make 3/4 cup

 

 

In a basin cream until fluffy 125 g butter & 1 cup sugar
One at a time, add 2 eggs beating each addition well
Sift together
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

and mix into creamed mixture alternately with mashed pumpkin.
Lastly stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Turn into greased and lined loaff tin and bake at 160C for approx. 1 hour

When cooked holes in the loaf with a skewer while still hot and pour over glaze made as follows: 1/4 cup honey warmed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Leave in the tin until cold.