Pumpkin December, Week 2: Pumpkin Fritters or Maybe Beignets

I've given up on savory pumpkin recipes for now. I made some applesauce donuts a couple years ago that were really good, and I haven't made any for a ridiculously long time, so I thought that pumpkin fritters might be worth a try.

I couldn't find my original recipe, so I found this one on Food.com and modified it. Here's how it went.

Pumpkin Drop Donuts/Fritters/Beignets

3 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin (a little more than half a can)
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 cup milk
oil for frying
powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs, beating after each addition.
3. Add pumpkin.
4. Mix remaining dry ingredients (except for powdered sugar).
5. Add dry ingredients in portions and alternate with a milk. Mix thoroughly.

The dough is pretty gloppy. I was going for the consistency of Indian fry bread, but honestly, I got tired of adding flour.
6. Heat oil for frying.
7. Drop bits of dough in oil.

The original recipe called for dropping teaspoonfuls, but the dough was so thick that it was nearly impossible to drop that little.
8. Turn using a slotted spoon. Cook 1-2 minutes on each side until lightly browned.
9. Top with powdered sugar.

These were pretty good, quite filling, and I'd make them again. I think next time around I'll increase the spices and see how the dough looks without milk.

Now the real question is: what do I call these things?

Pumpkin December, Week 1

I don't know what it is, but lately all I want to eat is carbs. Seriously, I tried making a grocery list and the only things I wanted to eat this week were corn casserole, pierogies, ravioli, and risotto. This is probably why on the great embarkation of this Food-of-the-Month project, I picked pumpkin pierogies.

Sounds strange, right? But if pumpkin ravioli are so divine, why not pumpkin pierogi? Besides, I've had acorn squash pierogi that were just dandy. Here's how it turned out:

If you've never had pierogi before (I had never even heard of them before I met my husband whose family is Polish), they are small bits of dough wrapped around a mixture of mashed potatoes and farmer's cheese (or cottage cheese if farmer's cheese is MIA). They are boiled until they rise to the surface of the water and then for three additional minutes. In our house, they're typically served with a smidge of butter or Greek seasoning if you're feeling festive. The only problem is that they are carbo-riffic, and some fuddy-dud part of my brain thinks that a starch within a starch is a bad idea.

My fabulous husband made an enormous batch of potato and cheese pierogies and a second enormous batch of pumpkin. For the potato pierogies, he followed the family recipe, and for the pumpkin, he made the dough the same way and then kind of ad-libbed the filling.

Here's what he did (as far as I know):

Pierogi Dough

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
a little salt
1/3 cup water (more if needed -- humidity is a big factor in this recipe)

Mix together flour and egg. Add enough water to make an elastic dough. Be careful not to over-knead the dough. Roll out dough to approximately 1/8 inch thick. Use a round biscuit cutter to cut out dough.

Pumpkin Filling

butter
1 can pumpkin
8 oz. farmer's cheese
spices to taste:
      nutmeg
      ginger
      cinnamon
      vanilla

Melt butter and mix with pumpkin. Add farmer's cheese and stir to incorporate. Filling should be the consistency of mashed potatoes. Add spices to taste.

Potato Filling 

3 large russet potatoes, boiled
8 oz. farmer's cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Mash potatoes and mix in farmer's cheese until the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. (Next time, I want to add chopped green onion to this mix.)

All Pierogi:

Cover a cookie sheet in wax paper. Spoon filling into circle of dough. Fold dough in half over filling and pinch edges together to seal in filling. Place pierogies on cookie sheet. Put cookie sheet in freezer. Make sure it's flat so the pierogies don't fall off. Leave the cookie sheet in the freezer for several hours, allowing them to dry out so they won't stick together. Store pierogies in freezer bags until ready to eat.

When you are ready to have some pierogies, place desired pierogies in gently boiling water. Boil them until they begin to float, and then boil them for three more minutes.

You can serve the pierogi with some kind of sauce (see link earlier), with butter, with sour cream, or with a little Greek seasoning.

Assessment: 

The cheese gave the pumpkin pierogies a very bitter aftertaste. I wouldn't make them with cheese again. I'd follow the recipe in the link above and use cream and some kind of thickener, or just do plain pumpkin and butter. I think the real mistake here was to try to turn pumpkin into something savory. I'm not sure if I like pumpkin as anything other than a sweet.

Still, it is a good feeling to be having a vegetable wrapped in starch instead of a starch in a starch. And once you get used to the bitter taste, it's pretty tasty.

Funny story with the potato pierogies (which tasted PHENOMENAL): we didn't let the potato pierogies dry out enough in the freezer and went ahead and threw them in a freezer bag. When we went to get pierogies out of the bag a few days later, all of the potato pierogies had congealed together, so we boiled the whole enormous lump (about the size of a pot roast) and feasted on starchy starch starches. Yum! (seriously, these were some perfect pierogies before they cemented together) Upside: neither one of us is craving carbs anywhere near as much. For now. :-)

P.S. The chicken in the picture above was AMAZING. We followed the recipe for Chicken Wings Pacifica on Allrecipes.com with some extra spices: red hot pepper, garlic, dried minced onion, and ginger.

Plans for a New Cooking Project

I never finished my last cooking project: to cook recipes from the Tales of series. I got sidetracked and went to graduate school and never got all that great at finishing projects that don't have a grade or paycheck attached. In any case, here's my latest hare-brained idea: in an effort to eat more fruits and veggies, I plan on picking a food of a month to try a new recipe or recipe variation each week.

Unfortunately, the only two foods I've come up with so far are pumpkin and peas. (Is it cheating if it's a category of foods like peas? Does that even matter, considering it's my blog?)

In any case, please feel free to post ideas for foods to try in the next year.