So Sunday I went on a bit of a cooking spree. I had a few recipes I wanted to try out that I knew would take most of the day. Most days with the construction going on I don’t have four or more solid hours to spend in the kitchen. So these things have been piling up in my To Do list. Sunday seemed an ideal day to play in the kitchen since everyone here takes the day off. So I spent the day baking bread, making jam (it’s still not quite right) and roasting coffee.
But after the day of baking I still needed to make dinner. I’ve been seeing so many posts lately on facebook about pumpkin picking and pumpkin recipes on Pintrest I was feeling a bit jealous. So the other day, I had bought what is here called an ayote, and is a pumpkin. I had been hesitant to buy one before because they are large and I cook only for the two of us. But Pinterest has inspired me to be creative. So last night I decided to cut into it and roast it up. For dinner we had Sesame Encrusted Sea Bass with a Ginger Mango sauce and Roasted Ayote over brown rice.
I cut the Ayote in half and then into quarters. I coated the wedges with coconut oil (it’s warm enough here that it is liquid). Then I seasoned all four wedges with a little salt. I decided two would be enough for dinner and the other two I would puree. The two for puree, I only oiled and salted but the other two I added some cinnamon and some sugar. I put all for on a baking sheet and through them a 425 F over for about an hour until fork tender.
After dinner I shredded the cooled wedges with a fork. Then all I did was throw the shredded pumpkin into a mason jar and use my immersion blender to blend it until smooth. In the end it was super easy and the flavor is amazing. Now I just need to decide what to make with the puree.
Roasted Ayote
1/4 Ayote (green pumpkin) cut into wedges
Coconut Oil
Cinnamon
Salt
Sugar
Pre-heat oven to 425 F
Place pumpkin wedges on baking sheet and coat with oil
Sprinkle salt, sugar, and cinnamon on wedges.
Cook for 45 mins- 1 hour untill fork tender
Pumpkin Puree
Roasted pumpkin wedges oiled and salted
Scrape the roasted pumpkin from the skin from a pan
Put in blender or food processor (I used an immersion blender) and blend until smooth
You can add water to thin out the puree
Cage Free Cooking 