When I was a little girl back in Brazil, there was no canned pumpkin ( as a matter of fact, I still don't think there is) so my mom used to peel the pumpkin, cut it in cubes and boil it on the stove forever, which was messy and time-consuming.
Last night I was watching Chow on my Roku and came across a much easier way to get the pulp. Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I decided to give it a try, after all fresh ingredients are always better than canned ones. So I went to my local grocer and got a Cinderella pumpkin, the recommended variety. . I came home and wrapped it really well in aluminum foil, put it on a baking sheet and stuck it a 200F, pre-heated oven. I then turned the timer for 9 hours ( because the pumpkin was so huge) and went to bed. I woke up this morning and it smelled so good! When the timer went off I turned the oven off but left the pumpkin in there for another hour or so while I cooked something else.
When I removed the pumpkin from the foil it was super easy to peel it, it pretty much cracked open by itself. Dear Husband and I proceeded to scoop out the seeds and strings, and after that it was a breeze to get to the pulp. The whole ordeal only took about 20 minutes and it was a very neat job, because of the foil. The baking pan was so clean it did not even need to be rinsed, it went straight back into the drawer.
As for the pulp, I blended it with an immersion blender for about two minutes, they were so soft already. It kinda looked like baby food at the end.
And for 99c I now have 12 cups of pumpkin puree! I froze ten in batches of 2 cups each, and left 2 cups out to use this week...I guess I will be spending a lot of time googling " pumpkin recipes" :-) Please let me know if you have a good one!
The whole uncooked pumpkin ready to be wrapped into foil.
Removing the strings and seeds from the cooked pumpkin.
Scooping out the pulp.
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