I nearly leapt for joy at the sight of these wonderful REAL pumpkins at the Shoemart grocery yesterday. Right at the entry way of the Makati branch, near the fruit section, was a table or display set up with about 5 pumpkins. One was an impressively large size 
but mottled green and orange (bizarre looking in a way and I would have also purchased that one if I could carry it to the car!), two more traditional orange pumpkins and a couple of ghostly white pumpkins. Who to thank??? The DOLE Company, which has been bringing great produce to the groceries in the past couple of years, first with lettuces, asparagus, and then humongous onions (I bought some but didn’t feature them since at PHP100+ per onion I thought I would draw flak from some readers) and fruit as well. They have been branding these great finds that they either grow themselves or contract farmers to grow for the company. I was truly thrilled to find these fresh pumpkins and at a reasonable price…
At PHP90 for the white pumpkin to the PHP195 I paid for the largest orange pumpkin, I thought they were a very good deal for what I am presuming are locally raised pumpkins. I spent a lot of time in New England during the fall months and I truly miss the weather, the fall leaves, the pumpkins that grew to giant proportions and could be purchased farmside for almost nothing… We even once attended a halloween event at Central Park in New York with a pumpkin that was almost bigger than me, and it weighed in at several hundred pounds! At any rate, one of my pet peeves is Halloween decor such as pumpkins that local village residents HANG from their trees! Hello, they are supposed to be near the ground… I used to scour the local markets and buy the largest kalabasa I could find so that I could make carved kalabasa but now I have the perfect original pumpkin to play with… I will post a picture of the finished product in a couple of days… The run-up to Halloween is in full gear!!!
14 Responses
hi MM, got a fool proof recipe for pumpkin pie? i’d love to try it with fresh pumpkins. or how about pumpkin soup? gotta go to SM tomorrow to see this!
My husband was convincing me to get at least 2 pumpkins to put at our doorstep for the halloween, I am hesitant as I have no idea what to make of the pumpkins after the halloween. I dont know any single recipe that uses pumpkin.
Wow, how timely! I was just in search of a good pumpkin locally available a week ago. I wanted to do some carvings as a table centerpiece for kid’s trick-or-treat party. I was so envious of how good was my friend’s carving turned out that I will going to feature it at my blog soon.
Thanks for the info MM, if I have enough time tomorrow I might get one of those pumpkins and carve one centerpiece to wow the kids!
It must the spookiest jack-o-lantern! Keep the tradition of Halloween going. Halloween is one of my favorite day since I can dress up whatever my hear desires. I will be a skeleton in our office Halloween party.
I hand carried some baby pumpkins from the US a few years ago, and they were pretty difficult to carve. But thanks for the tip, I’d love to try my hand at pumpkin carving again … these would be ideal for Halloween party decor. =)
wysgal, the bigger the pumpkin, the easier to carve I think…You need a sharp sturdy knife and others use actual wood carving implements. As for recipes, you can make pumpkin pie or roasted pumpkin soup…but I find a carved pumpkin isn’t really re-usable foodwise unless you only carve it and put it out in the cold (assuming you are in the Northern States) for a few hours without a candle in it… then you might be able to re-use it in a recipe… In previous years, I used to buy the largest kalabasas I could find and they worked as well…
MRJP, check out the food network site, Alton Brown has a pumpkin bread recipe that looks fairly easy to do. Also, you can toast the seeds in the oven, they make the whole house smell really good! We’ve been too lazy to carve our pumpkins this year so they’re just sitting at our doorstep :)
Yeah, my husband doesnt plan on carving the pumpkins at all… well, I guess he finds it hard to do, hehehehe… he just wants to put them at our doorstep so to have that halloween kind of feel to it. I also noticed the same thing with our neighbors in the subdivision, they lined up un-carved pumpkins on their porches or at their doorsteps, and even if they are not carved, still, it really looks like halloween is around the corner :)
ykmd, thanks for the tip, I’ll check foodnetwork.com because my husband is really serious about putting the uncarved pumpkins at our doorstep. I dont want them to go to waste after the halloween.
I’m impressed, real pumkins in Manila. What next, cranberries from Taal? For Traci: I use a roasted and sieved Cheese or Sugar pumpkin, not one used as a jack o’ lantern.
Here’s a recipe for pumpkin pie filling: Mix 3/4 c. sugar, 1 tsp. each powdered cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and 1/2 tsp.cloves and 2 tbsp. cornstarch. Add 6 eggyolks, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 3/4 c. heavy cream, 2 c. mashed and strained cooked pumkin. Canned is okay. Mix well and pour into a 9 x 1 1/2 inch pie pan lined with uncooked pie crust. On lowest shelf of oven bake at 425F for 30 min, lower temp. to 350F and bake another 20 min. Cool and chill before serving.
Pumpkin Soup:
1/4 c. butter, 1 large chopped onion, 1 diced leek, 1 tbsp. curry powder 4c. roasted and sieved pumpkin pulp, 4 c. good chicken stock. 1/4c. heavy cream or coconut cream
Cook onions and leek in butter for a few minutes, add curry powder, stir for a minute and add stock and pumpkin pulp. Simmer for 5 min. Puree carefully (immersion blender works well). Add cream if desired and cook another 2 min. Sprinkle with chopped chives or scallions or parsley before serving.
4 generous portions
Guys, thanks for the tips and the recipes! Gotta try them after the halloween. Pwede pala sa bulilit ko tong pumpkin. I have a 9-month old bundle of joy :)
thank you for the recipes – now i have fool-proof recipes for re-creating several Thanksgivings that I spent in Los Angeles.. i really love pumpkin soup and try to get it where i can (although who knows if they’re really pumpkin or just squash?)
hey this makes the 13th post – hope no one’s got triskadekaphobia! although it’s kind of apt, given that it’s All Hallow’s Eve. Happy Halloween!
real pumpkins in manila?! now its really starting to feel like halloween. trick or treat?!
hi.. been looking for a source of pumpkin pie here in Manila and I found one in a Greenbelt 3 Italian restaurant. Not as good as what i have tasted abroad but it will do.. Kinda pricey at P175 per slice with way too much whip cream topping ..