Giant Mystery Squash - possibly a pumpkin
The garden is overrun by these three massive squash plants. I thought I was planting Japanese squash seeds, but obviously not. They are orange and pumpkin shape... but unlike a pumpkin, they turn yellow at a very young size, about two inches across, then deepen to orange once they reach about two feet across. I tried some when they were tiny thinking they were weird round summer squash, but tastes terrible, not even the chickens will eat it at that stage.
Questions:
Can I eat it - more to the point, should I?
How do I know when it's ready? They sound hollow when tapped at any size.
What do I do with it?
If it is a pumpkin, how do I preserve it - I'm the only one in the house with even a mild like for pumpkins.
I'm going to try and attach a photo for you to see what you can tell me what culinary magic these three plants can perform. I put the wine bottle in there so you can get an idea of size - not the largest ones in the garden, but the most orange looking.
7 Comments
Afghanis have some interesting pumpkin preparations. Here is one: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/322446
As for mashing pumpkin, not all pumpkins are created equal. You need a sugar pumpkin--I'd try mashing a small pumpkin to see if it tastes good and has the proper consistency--no point in going through a lot of work if it isn't the right pumpkin.
Now that I know I can eat it, I'm going to give a try of this bread: https://food52.com/recipes/4003-savory-pumpkin-rosemary-bread later today. I'm glad it includes a recipe for biga as my sourdough starter(s) both died this month. Something in our water this time of year always gets my poor starters.
Apples are just coming ready too, so I'm on the look out for something savory that transports well that has both squash/pumpkin and apple. I'll probably make pumpkin pie later this fall, just don't feel like sweet things right now.
Just wondering, for recipes that call for canned pumpkin - but I want to start from a real pumpkin, what's the best way to convert whole squashed into canned like substance without actually doing any canning? Canned pumpkin is just pumpkin mush, right?
You usually can tell if a big pumpkin is ripe when the stem hardens and starts to crack.
I think Japanese pumpkins are suppose to be like buttercup squash - at least I know they are green when ripe.