One of the side pleasures of doing what we do is the friends we make along the way. We had some Sunshine Kabocha (a Japanese winter squash similar to pumpkin) at the market this past Saturday, and quite a few folks asked what you do with them. I was going to say retaining walls, but to our good fortune friends of ours, Monica Griffin and her husband Bill, arrived and said they thought the Kabocha would make a nice pumpkin style pie, and then offered to cook them side by side and do a taste test. How sweet is that?
Monica and Bill are long time supporters of the Ok Food Coop, and they visit the Cherry Street Market on occasion. A native of Ohio, Monica is now firmly rooted south of Bixby (not too far from us) and Bill is known as quite the pie maker and I see why now. Monica was kind enough to send me their recipe, so I'm just going to re-paste it here:
Here's Bill's recipe which he as literally been tweaking for years and has finally settled on, altho the final product ends up with a wee but more cloves and allspice because we like it a little more on the spicy side.
Bill's Pumpkin Pie
Preheat oven to 425
2 cups cooked pumpkin (preferably cooked in a solar oven)
3/4 cups yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup eggnog
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
heaping 1/2 tsp ginger
heaping 1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
2 medium eggs
Mix all ingredients in a food processor, pour
into two pie shells (whole wheat heart healthy pie shell)
Bake 15 minutes at 425, lower temp to 350, bake another
hour and a half.
I made the crusts which were going to be lard but my lard too old and had gone bad, so I made a butter crust slightly adapted from the homemade pop-tart crust over at Smitten Kitchen. It was delicious, flaky and held up very well for this pie. The only thing is that I did crimp the crust edges very nicely but the crimps did not hold up in baking. It was still really, really good.
Butter Pie Crust
(makes two single or one double crust)
1 1/2 cup unbleached AP flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
2 t. kosher salt
1 heaping T. organic sugar
1 cup (two sticks) cold butter cut into pats
1 lg. egg
2-3 T. milk, as needed (I used almond milk because it was what I had)
Blend the dry ingredients in a large glass bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a
pastry blender until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible. In a small bowl, blend the milk
and eggs well and add to a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix well with a wooden
spoon and then quickly blend well with hands to avoid over handlinguntil it forms a butter-studded
ball. Divide the dough, wrap and chill at least a couple of hours.
Because this is a slightly wetter dough than normal, make sure the kitchen is as cool as you
can make it in order to roll out the dough. Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap and allow
to sit for about 3-4 minutes on a clean, floured surface until it slightly softens and you are able
to work with it. Use as much flour as you need to and be careful not to overwork or allow to
become too warm. Have your pie dish ready. Roll into a round larger than your pie dish.
Once the dough is rolled out, starting from the edge farthest from you, roll it slightly around the
rolling pin. Move the pie dish to a position north of the dough and lift the dough, on the pin, and
settle over the dish and adjust. (This is a very maleable dough so any small tears are easily
repairable and it's receptive to being rolled out again immediately if you tear it beyond repair.)
Poke with fork tines around the entire surface if baking for a cold fill, or fill and bake according
to the temp and time instructions in your pie recipe.
Here's a photo they took of the finished pies. The Kabocha is on the left:
Monica and Bill actually preferred the Kabocha over the pumpkin pie, but they both sound awesome. We haven't gotten a chance to whip one up yet, but that's definitely on the agenda for the weekend.
So if you ever wonder what to do with Kabocha, at least you know recipe you can follow.
A very, very special thanks to Monica and Bill for not only taking time to bake two different pies, but also for all the time it takes to just write it up. It is greatly appreciated on our end!
Pork & Greens