Pumpkin Caramel Bars with Bacon

This recipe from the blog the Noble Pig is a fun idea, but the recipe itself is not without some issues. A little doctoring on my part made this unique recipe fabulous. As for the bars, past experience has made me know that one teaspoon of baking soda is not enough power to lift 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree. That's just 1/4 cup short of a full can and I added two extra teaspoons and another 1/2 teaspoon salt. My bars turned out decidedly more cake-like than the Pig's, but were still plenty moist.

As for the frosting, I just couldn't get it to fluff up no matter how long I left the mixer on. So I added two cups of powdered sugar to give it some density and one teaspoon maple flavoring to give it more taste. The results tasted great. The bacon is wonderful  and crisp the first day, but after that it gets kinda chewy and flavorless. Not that it stopped the Hub, Andrew, Karen and I from eating them.

Pumpkin Lumpia (Philippines)

According to Wikipedia, lumpia, both fried and fresh versions, was brought by Chinese immigrants from China to Southeast Asia and became popular where they settled in Indonesia and the Philippines. This recipe is apparently no longer available online, but that's OK, it had some translation issues anyway. Here's what I used for the filling.

1 leek, thinly sliced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp salt

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

100 gms (about a cup) grated pumpkin

1/2 can sliced mushrooms, diced

75 gms (about a cup) bean sprouts

Grating the pumpkin was my idea and worked perfectly. I sauteed everything except the bean sprouts until all the vegetables were soft. Then added the bean sprouts and cooked just until they were wilted. I used about two tablespoons to fill each spring roll wrapper (they sell lumpia wrappers, but my store was out) and then rolled them up. There are several online videos showing the proper way to roll up lumpia, and when we lived on Guam, they even had classes in it. But since I wasn't going to deep fry them, which is the traditional way to cook lumpia, I didn't have to be so proper. The directions on the wrappers said they could be baked in the oven and that's what I did. I was the taster on these and, since lumpia is one of my favorite foods, deemed them great. I do think they would have probably been better deep fried, but then what isn't?

Pumpkin Madeleines (France)

The madeleine is a traditional small cake from the Lorraine region in northeastern France -  a very small sponge cake with a distinctive shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Aside from the moulded pan, no special tools are required to make madeleines. This recipe is for a pumpkin version. River and I thought these were perfect on a fall morning with a cup of tea. They don't contain a lot of sugar so the Hub thought they needed some frosting or something - guys!

Colorful Chicken and Pumpkin Stew (Cambodia)

Making this recipe took a trip to the international market. First on the list, fresh galangal - my helpful produce guy and I were having trouble communicating and I was probably mangling the pronunciation, but he assured me that the malanga that he was selling me was really galangal. I was a believer, but then I found the real galangal on my own while he was off cutting a piece of malanga for me. Malanga is the Spanish word for taro root. Moving on to kaffir lime leaves - there was a lot of discussion among the produce people about this one. From what I could understand he was saying, it is illegal to sell fresh kaffir lime leaves in the state of Virginia, but and he waved off in the distance, maybe I could find some somewhere else. Next up green pawpaw, which is actually green papaya and got me a look that said "now you're just making stuff up and you're probably smoking those lime leaves to boot." But I could have turned the tables on him when I asked for snake beans and he handed me a package of snow peas. I found the rest of my ingredients on my own, and was too embarrassed to put the taro root back right in front of him, so I bought it.

But was the recipe worth all this aggravation? Not in the opinion of my sister Jeanne and I, who were the tasters on this. We both found it kinda bland, except for the green papaya, which was an interesting tasty addition. Maybe the contraband leaves would have spruced up the flavor.

Dulces De Calabasas (Mexico)

This is the second time I've made this recipe and really wanted to like it. It seems like the perfect candy - a little chunk of sweet pumpkin. A candy that Mexicans have been making and eating for centuries. But this recipe calls for boiling chunks of pumpkin 30 to 35 minutes and they can't take that and still hold up. Then you dry them for 12 hours at room temperature, I dried mine for two days and this picture is the only time they looked like this. They're just soggy little lumps. There just has to be more to making these candies than this. Also apparently these traditionally don't have the spices and the cloves are overpowering. 

Sausage and Pumpkin Roast (England)

This recipe came from the BBC's Good Food website. It is easy, quick and both the Hub and I were amazed that 1. the food was cooked thoroughly and 2. tasted great. While we were making it, both of us (without saying it out loud) felt this recipe had "big loser" written all over it. To begin with we had to convert 220 degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, which turns out to be 428 degrees F. Most of the ingredients had to be converted from grams to ounces and we had to replace the tub of fresh beef gravy from the chiller cabinet with jarred gravy. My biggest concern was that it wouldn't be done in the 20 minutes cook time, that the sausages would not be browned on the outside and would still be pink on the inside. But it was and, not only that, it tasted good, too. It would make a quick weeknight dinner if, like us, you had the pumpkin cut and peeled in advance.

Indian Pumpkin Pudding (United States)

Indian pudding is an old-fashioned American dessert made with cornmeal, milk and molasses. The addition of pumpkin to this recipe from The New York Times makes a pudding that tastes like pumpkin pie without the crust. I really like this. I'm not a big fan of raisins especially in a pudding, but they add something to the dish. It can be eaten warm or cold and for any meal. I cooked mine in two dishes, but it still took the entire cook time.