It's pumpkin season! That's good news for scholar and editor Darra Goldstein, who says pumpkin is one of her favorite vegetables. Most of us, however, don't think of pumpkins as being edible.
"I think that's probably because most pumpkins that are grown in the United States aren't really," Goldstein says. "They're edible but they don't taste very good. They're very fibrous and they have kind of a flat, often watery flavor to them. But if you get eating pumpkins, it's just a spectacular vegetable, whether you roast it or turn it into a soup, which you can bake in the pumpkin for a really nice presentation."
If you like "Preserved: Vegetables," you might enjoy other books in the series, which focus on preserving condiments, fruit, and drinks. Photo by David Malosh.
In Preserved: Vegetables, the latest in a series of four books devoted to preservation, she presents a few ways to preserve October's most iconic vegetable. On the salty side, you can brine pickles inside a raw pumpkin. On the sweet side, Goldstein explains how to turn pumpkins into candy.
"After the Arabs introduced sugar to Sicily, candying with sugar as opposed to honey really came into vogue. Particularly the nuns in Sicily created these amazing confections," Goldstein says.
Darra Goldstein wrote "Preserved: Vegetables" as part of a four-book series. Photo by Ashley Weeks.
To succeed, you need to start with what are often called sugar pumpkins or cinderella pumpkins. Then, you boil the diced vegetable in a sugar syrup several times so it absorbs the sugar syrup. Eventually, you do a long, slow boil. The pumpkin turns a deep golden brown color, and it looks like crystalline cubes, which are dusted with confectioners' sugar and cornstarch.
To make candied pumpkin that tastes good, you need to start with sugar or cinderella pumpkins. Photo courtesy by David Malosh.
Pumpkin Candy
Makes 1 ¼ pounds or 560 grams
The Romans often preserved fruits and nuts by candying them in honey. But it as only after the tenth century, when the Arabs introduced sugar to Sicily, that candying evolved into a confectionary art. Even so, the word “candy” hardly brings vegetables to mind. And yet vegetables offer a delightful vehicle for preserving the harvest in a form other than jam.
Pumpkin lends itself especially well to the candying technique. Peeled and cut into chunks, it is parboiled before being immersed in sugar syrup, where it undergoes several sessions of steady boiling, punctuated by periods of rest to enable the sugar to permeate the flesh. If you like candied fruits, you’ll love this chewy, slightly sticky treat, which can be nibbled on its own for a quick boost of energy or served alongside a dark chocolate or spice cake.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds / 680 g pumpkin, preferably sugar or Cinderella, peeled and scraped free of fibers and seeds
- 3 tablespoons / 21 g calcium hydroxide powder (see Notes on Ingredients, page 99)
- 2 quarts / 2 L water
- 5 ¼ cups / 1 kg granulated sugar
- 3 ½ cups / 840 ml water
- 3/4 cup / 180 ml orange juice without pulp
- 1 ½ cup / 120 ml freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons / 23 g confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons / 24 g cornstarch
Instructions
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Cut the pumpkin into ¾ inch- / 2 cm-thick squares, rectangles, or triangles, making sure
not to slice the pieces too thin, as they need sufficient mass to absorb the syrup and achieve a slightly chewy texture. -
In a large container, dissolve the calcium hydroxide in the 2 quarts / 2 L of water. Add the pumpkin and leave it to soak overnight at room temperature. The next day, thoroughly rinse the pumpkin. Bring plenty of clean water to a boil in a large pot and par-cook the pumpkin over medium heat for 20 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse the pieces with cold water.
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TO MAKE THE SYRUP: In a high-walled medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water, orange juice, lime juice, and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Carefully add the pumpkin and return the syrup to a boil, stirring frequently. Boil the pumpkin for 15 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover the pan, and leave the pumpkin to cool to room temperature. Repeat this step two more times.
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Once the syrup has cooled for the third time, bring it to a boil once more and cook the pumpkin at a medium boil until the pieces are completely saturated with the syrup but not falling apart. Depending on the moisture content of the pumpkin, this step can take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes. Check frequently to make sure there is still plenty of syrup in the pan so that it doesn’t burn. Add a bit of boiling water as needed to prevent burning. Once the pumpkin is done, and while the syrup is still hot, drain the syrup into a jar to use in cocktails or as a topping for ice cream or yogurt. The syrup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
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Preheat the oven to 195°F / 90°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and distribute the pumpkin pieces in a single layer, leaving a little space between each one. Bake for 2 hours, then flip the pieces and bake for another 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface no longer feels tacky. Leave the pumpkin to cool on the pan.
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TO FINISH: Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Once the
pumpkin is cool, toss the pieces in this mixture. Store the candied pumpkin in an airtight container, where it will last for 3 to 6 months. It’s a good idea to put a couple of desiccant packets in with the candy to keep it from hydrating as it sits in the container.