Frying Up Some Pumpkin

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Right before Halloween, my neighbors Pasquale and Liz had their pumpkin stolen.  I can’t repeat how I was told my Pasquale, but I am sure that you can figure out some of the adjectives and descriptions.  He was so mad and he went all around the neighborhood looking for the stolen pumpkin.  I am sure it was some of the kids from the international exchange school up the road.  I asked him why was he so upset and was told that after Halloween they take the pumpkin and fry up the “meat”.  I had never heard of this and was very interested to learn how to do this and to taste it, so I told him that I would not carve my pumpkins and save them for him.  This week I had my lesson on preparing and frying up pumpkin meat.

Fried Pumpkin

1. Cut the top off the pumpkin and then cut the pumpkin in half.  Take out the stringy inside and then peel the skin off.  Peeling the skin off the larger pumpkin was a chore and I got a couple of nicks on my fingers.

2. Slice the pumpkin and place on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  I let mine sit in the fridge for about 5 hours.

3. I then took my tray of pumpkin over to Pasquale and Liz’s house to watch and learn.  Now the pumpkin needed to be sliced.  As Liz and I struggled to do this, Pasquale had his words to say to us and then we put him to work.  Pasquale is a butcher so he made easy work of slicing the pumpkin.

4. Lay the slices in a colander and sprinkle some more salt on them.

5. Pour about 2″ of oil into a pan – we had 2 going, one for me and one for Liz.  Once the oil is good and hot, place as many slices as you can in the oil.  The color of the pumpkin will change slightly.  Turn the slices until both sides are lightly brown.  Place on a lined plate, either paper towel or paper bag.  I think we fried pumpkin for a good hour, if not longer!

I could not believe how good these were, none of us could stop eating them.  They are good right out the oil, ok, let them cool a little bit, sprinkled with a little bit of salt or really delicious with some vinegar.  Stella loved them.  There was no way that I could eat all the ones that they sent home with me.  I kept them covered and then the next night, lined a cookie sheet with some tin foil and placed them in the oven at 350 degrees, watch them because they cook fast – again they were delicious.  I don’t think I will ever carve another pumpkin, but keep them to do this after each Halloween.  I am not a huge fan of fried food, unless of course I am at Jazz Fest in New Orleans and then how could I not eat some fried food!, but every once in awhile it is great to indulge in some oil!

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