Something I "discovered": fried pumpkin

[wildflower]

Hi everyone, just wanted to share this discovery I made the other night.

So I was cutting up a pumpkin from Halloween (it hadn't been carved, was still whole), and I scraped out the seeds. I was lazy, so rather than cleaning the seeds of every last bit of clinging pumpkin, I just threw the whole mess in some water to boil before frying the seeds.

After frying the seeds, I discovered a little chunk of pumpkin that had been fried in oil and spices along with the seeds. I tasted it, and it was delicious!

Of course, I looked up "fried pumpkin" and, as is the case with most of my "discoveries," I didn't really discover it at all. It's been done before. But I thought you might be interested.

(On a side note, do you also boil your seeds before toasting them? I started doing this after finding time and time again that my toasted pumkin seeds were too tough, even after lots of broiling or frying.)

[Warpy]

1. I don't boil them, but I pour boiling water over them

and let them sit there until the water is cold. Then I spread them on cookie sheets and bake them (dry them, really, 250 oven), with or without tamari sprinkled on after.

I treat pecans the same way and they're wonderful, light as a feather and ultra crisp.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Boiling pumpkin seeds -- sounds like a good idea.

I roasted some and they had good flavor but were hard to hull. I'll try the hot water trick on the next round. I've never fried pumpkin but it's great sliced and roasted in the oven. Pumpkin has a rich flavor compared to many of the winter squashes. There's an Afghani dish called Kaddo Bourani that's really great for pumpkin lovers (use a sweet pumpkin like Sugar Pie, not the field pumpkins sold for decorative purpose.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/10/28/FD78824.DTL&type=printable

And if you're ever in San Francisco, Boston, or Baltimore eat at The Helmand restaurants. All three were started by members of the same family.