Tikvenik (Bulgaria)

This recipe came from last year's Food Blog Challenge. Challenge number two was to learn to do something new with pumpkin. The Kohler's made this old Bulgarian recipe, Tikvenik (TEEK-vih-NEEK) a rolled phyllo or “banitsa” with a slightly sweetened pumpkin filling. Everyone liked the taste of this pumpkin baklava type recipe, and the phyllo was not particularly difficult to work with, but (and this is a pretty big but) it is truly unattractive as food goes. I'm sorry to say this, but this plate was the best of the best, mostly the ends where the phyllo stayed crispy. I would be embarrassed to serve this to guests. Also, if you are adding the nuts, they need to be chopped really fine.

Kaddo Bowrani (Afghanistan)

This recipe came from many people trying to duplicate the kaddo bowrani served at The Helmand, a famous Afghan restaurant with many locations. It must be really special because a lot of people are trying to make it themselves. It has a yogurt base topped with slow cooked pumpkin topped with a meat sauce. The Hub and I were the testers on this and both felt it was OK, but not something I would probably make again. I think a road trip to The Helmand in Baltimore might be necessary for a comparison to the real thing.

Big Cats Love Pumpkins too

Apparently humans aren't the only ones who enjoy pumpkins. Watch this video of rescued lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes, bobcats and more at the Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit educational sanctuary in Tampa, Florida.

Pumpkin Pie-Croissant Pudding (Canada)

This recipe came from the October issue of Food and Wine magazine. Chefs at Montreal's Joe Beef restaurant use leftover croissants to make their signature fall dessert. The recipe calls for pumpkin pie filling, two cups of heavy cream, one cup of sugar and seven eggs, not to mention all those croissants. Wow, that's a lot of calories. I lightened the caloric load by using egg substitute. But still it would have to be a once-in-a-while treat. For instance, whenever I'm in Quebec.

The recipe calls for soaking the raisins in rye whiskey, but we only had Irish whiskey in the house. I don't think anyone could tell. Andrew, the Hub, work pal Chris Morrison of Discovery Creative Chili Cookoff fame and I were the testers on this. A quote from Chris:  Best served warm, with either vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream, the pudding was very enjoyable. Its mix of croissants, pumpkin and overall sweetness held together nicely while accompanied by a sprinkling of raisins. The texture was unique (especially given time to set) in that it was more firm than expected. This created more of a cake-like consistency. Personally, I found that to be very appealing. Overall, a very satisfying and delectable dessert good enough to cause small feuds/brawls within the family for that sacred last piece.

Baby Dampers (Australia)

I have more readers from Australia than any other country except the States. Go Aussies!

According to Wikipedia, damper is a traditional Australian soda bread prepared by swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travelers. It consists of a wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire. Damper is an iconic Australian dish. It is also made in camping situations in New Zealand, and has been for decades. This recipe from taste.com.au is for baby dampers, smaller loaves that contain pumpkin. The herbed mascarpone spread was forgettable, but the rolls were delicious. I made them with fresh pumpkin, but canned would work just as well if you could figure out the amount. I bought self raising flour (for the first time) instead of trying to convert the metric weight. It rose nicely even with the weight of the pumpkin. I do have issues with recipes that call for 500 gms of cooked pumpkin. Now is that 500 gms before cooking and mashing through a ricer twice or after? Before and after are pretty different. I started out with the weight (a little over a pound) in pumpkin cubes and ended up with about a cup of mashed pumpkin. But the rolls turned out lovely, so I'd go with that again.

Italian Pumpkin Strata (Italy)

This recipe for a brunch type casserole did not come from Italy, it came from Libby's. Sorry, but it is really good, and I've already done several pumpkin pasta dishes. My only issue with this recipe is the prep time - 20 minutes. The Hub, my very experienced sous chef, and I could not put this together in any time close to 20 minutes. There are four vegetables to be chopped, bread to be cubed, cheese to be shredded, not to mention ten plus minutes of cook time browning the sausage, breaking it up as you cook so someone has to be there the whole time. I could imagine someone trying to get this out it an hour for a brunch and it taking one person twice that long. By then it's lunch time.

In the back of the picture are baby dampers, a delicious roll with an odd name from Australia - tomorrow's post.

International Pumpkin Month

An interesting thing has happened while I've been writing about cooking with pumpkin for the last year: I have picked up readers from all over the planet. Apparently everyone likes pumpkin. Fifty-two countries and counting. It never fails to amaze me.

Here's the list of countries: United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina,Trinidad/Tobago, Bermuda, Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Japan, Bahrain, Nepal, China, Denmark, Latvia, Switzerland, Russia, St Helena, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, Hungry, Ukraine, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Slavia, Lithuania, Sweden, Romania, Malta, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Palau

For this reason I've decided to call October International Pumpkin Month, and am going to highlight recipes from around the world. Here's my neighbor, Ann, with a Mexican pumpkin she picked up for me at the farmers market. I used this pumpkin in several of the recipes.