Dear All,

Hope this is the right place to be with this. Just learned that Americans as opposed to Ozzies use pumpkin as a sweet. Does anyone have a good recipe for this Ozzie to try out?

I have the pumpkin, the stove and a little bit of 'know how to cook'.

Thanking you in anticipation of a taste sensation.

Carole

I don't have a pumpkin pie recipe, but I make delicious pumpkin bread - want the recipe?

Hi Colleen,

That's a yes please for the pumpkin bread (never had any of that either).

Thankyou,
Carole

Here's a web page with several good pumpkin pie recipes. I use the 1st Maple Pumpkin Pie recipe. Also, here's the yummy pumpkin cake I make several times in the Fall.

OK Carole- now we need an Aussie recipe!

Pumpkin Cake

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups veg oil

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree(canned)

4 eggs

3 cups flour

2 tsp. each -baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 cups each- golden and dark raisins

1 cup chopped walnuts



Peheat oven to 350o. Place sugar, oil and pumpkin in large mixer bowl and beat well on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt and fold into the cake batter. Stir in raisins and nuts.



Pour into greased 10 inch tube pan. Bake one and one-quarter hours or until done. Do not open oven door under one hour. Let cool slightly in pan before turning onto a rack.

Wow Amy,

Thank you so much for the recipe's.......you guys are probably just waking up now and I have just arrived home after dinner out etc........and looking for bed and sleep now. However, I just had to check and see what was going on before popping off and lo and behold......

It would be a pleasure for me to send you an Ozzie recipe or six .......... maybe you could make a suggestion as I don't think we are terribly original over here being that approx half the populations' forefathers rowed here from England ......... just joking ....... I think that lamingtons are ours, but I am not really sure, the shrimp on the barbie definitely was........I will investigate and let you know.

Thanks once again,
Carole

PS. I will let you know how the bake up goes.

Hello,

Well, here goes........once I started searching I then remembered the anzac biscuits my Mother and Grandmother used to make plus the dumplings in golden syrup. Some friends reminded me of the damper....which I have also eaten but not cooked in the traditional way i.e. out in the open in the outback. Of course the Ozzie meat pie, while made commercially now within just about every bakery you would walk into..........but then who could beat Mum's steak and kidney pie.......I would take the kidney out. Our aboriginal people have some wonderful foods too (when I find a site I will post it). I was fortunate enough to share a camp some years ago (as part of my work) with some 16 year old people and a group of elders. I was dragged to the camp fire and just about held down because I wouldn't taste perriwinkles ala the young folk's cooking......but enjoyed the experience anyway. Yes I did eat the perriwinkels however they cooked them.

Here are a few sites for your enjoyment.

http://www.toptown.com/theedge/yaleman/foodaust.htm

http://allrecipes.com/directory/744.asp

http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/australian/

Hope they work, if not let me know.

Thanks again,

Carole

Carole,
Thanks for the links to Ozzie food websites. I'm in the throes of moving, and have no idea where my recipe cards are right now - when I find them I'll post my pumpkin bread recipe.

In the meantime, how do you cook pumpkin? I think the only other way I've had it - here or in Italy - is as a filling for ravioli. (Maybe I've just led a sheltered life. )

Hi Colleen,

Thanks. Gee I know what moving is like ......it's the pits. I have moved twice in the last three years and interspersed that with a six months trip to Italy, so my furniture and belongings have moved more than me......there are things that I have given up trying to locate.

Pumpkin cooking in Australia......well at least at my place. I enjoy pumpkin baked, with a roast, boiled and mashed with potato or in a soup. Pumpkin scones are made here too but I wouldn't say that they are my favourite because I like devonshire teas or scones with jam and cream.

Now comes the decision, which of the recipes that I have received will I donate the pumpkin to. I will let you know.

Carole

This is going to sound really stupid - but I forgot that you are in a different season than us!!! I was thinking, why is she asking about pumpkin - we are not at pumpkin time yet - but it must be fall heading into winter for you? Do you get much of a winter where you are?

So, Gavin and Brian are traveling during their fall!! They get two springs this year - how nice.

Carole, here is a place to find far more recipes than you could use, even if you have a field of pumpkins to use up! Good luck, and bon appetit.

http://www.recipesource.com/

Hi Pauline,

Well, you are right about the season business but to tell you the truth it doesn't dictate to my diet ...... yes, I am a little different.

Fall, that we call autumn is upon us but you would hardly know. Where I am is a little different to Sydney and Gavin's territory ........ we tend to not have much cold weather where I am (mid north coast N.S.W), although I can wear a jacket or thick jumper at times. Aukland, well that's northern N.Z. and while I am not sure about its latitude compared to where I am, it's far more thermal so I guess even further north than myself. Even Rotarua (cant spell) which is south of Aukland and where Bri comes from, to walk around there it smells of sulphur and the earth is spongy......pretty eirie actually......mind you the last time I went there was over twenty years ago........it may have changed. But just the most beautiful place you can imagine. I imagined it to be a little English countryside looking and it might be. Compared to Australia though, New Zealand doesn't have any scrub that I ever saw i.e. picture postcard around every corner........In Australia it can be very scrubby......as my Dad used to say rocks and trees.......quite rugged by comparison......... There again Tasmania seems to be a different kettle of fish. Its sort of midway N.S.W. and Aukland in the beauty stakes. I have heaps of slides from those trips and I am thinking to see about a scanner of 35ml slides to include them on my site.....doesn't that sound impressive..........when I get it all happening.

Gee I've gone off the track a bit.

So, pumpkin we can get and eat all year around here, just couldn't imagine eating it as a sweet (dessert to you,
I guess).

Carole

PS. Just love that scroll bar at the bottom........thanks. And I was successful on altering one letter today using the edit and post message.....I was just clicking back and losing everything before.
CAR.

Hello, me again,

Just reread what I had written to discover that my mail sounded as if Bri came from Rotorua......not so ......well he might but as you know his address is listed as Aukland. Blow this ambiguousness.

I also meant to mention that I am feeling the weather a bit at the moment because I have virtually had three summers in a row having spent 6 months in Italy and returning to Oz in October '01.

Bye,
Carole

Hello Mezzaluna,

Your cooking site is terrific and thank you so much for posting it.

I have decided to use the Pumpkin pecan crumble pie out of yours and Amy's pumpkin cake to start..........I can just tell that my family will be giving me more pumpkins after these delicious sounding treats.

Thank you again,
Carole

Carole:

Good luck with your pumpkin recipes.

Just a word, though...... I didn't thoroughly read this entire thread, but you did know, didn't you, that pumpkin pie -- basic pumpkin pie, is the most traditional American recipe of those mentioned? Just so that you know -- if making something traditional -- as opposed to more creative -- might be of greater or lesser interest or concern to you. Traditionally, we eat pumpkin pies for our Thanksgiving in November -- or other celebrations in the autumn.

Cheers,

Oh David,

Thank you for this......yes, I do like to have the facts straight. Where my interest came from was via a friend who has spent some time in America and we were talking about pumpkins because one son and daughter in law handed this one to me to make soup for them (yeh right) while we attended their housewarming......... Anyway I made the comment 'are you as American as pumpkin pie' don't know where that came from........and so the conversation went. I had never realised that we use pumpkins differently.

So now the picture is getting clearer......American as pumpkin pie means something now, because it is a traditional dish........

Thank you so much David..... I like to learn something new every day and between you guys and BT I manage quite nicely.

Carole
Ps. The traditional pie will have to be for the next pumpkin I guess........there is bound to be a recipe in amongst what I have been sent. CAR.

Some different Italian savory recipes...
Pumpkin gnocchi, ravioli filled with pureed pumpkin and crushed amaretto cookies and parmesan cheese,
grilled marinated pumkin with garlic and chili flakes....
Pumpkin risotto with red wine...

Colleen, I think it is because the English settlers knew apples, but not pumpkin, and apples are not so seasonal, since they could be dried.
The main thing Italians ask me to make them is apple pie. It is peach season now, so I made peach pie and they liked it, but were disappointed.
I have never been a real pie maker, but it is the single thing most Italians like from the panoply of US foods. Most of the rest go down with a thud. Potato salad -- OK. Cole slaw -- highly suspicious. They like US biscuits, but as dessert with butter and jam.
4th of July dessert will be peach shortcake for a birthday, thus satisfying at last the Italian sense that US biscuits are per dolce. I have no doubt that the extreme leanness of Italian ground beef will make even me sorry that's the main course. I can't wait to insist they eat the burgers with their hands. That's going to be a real cultural challenge.

Hello Again,

Judy, thank you for these recipes. The ravioli with amoretto biscuits? Are these those sweet biscuits made with almonds? Hmmm. Pretty interesting combinations of ingredients...... It looks like I will be cooking pumpkins for a long time to come. Thankyou.

I am a little embarrassed to admit that the original pumpkin is still not cooked, nor has it been attacked in any way despite all good intentions. I have not been able to give cooking my full attention of late due to numerous attacks of life but I am determined to get my act together and do it soon........well at least before it detiorates. How long do pumpkins last off the vine?

Colleen, come to think of it I too have heard of the saying 'American as apple pie' so I don't know where the pumpkin bit came from.......just my odd turn of mind perhaps.

Judith, I am glad that you have come up with the idea of why apples not pumpkins. Do you know where bar-b-q's started? Well, I don't, but when you mentioned Italians not wanting to eat hamburgers with their hands I also noticed that the bar-b-q ing that is done is not on such a grand scale. I saw this type of cooking done over a small fire with rocks supporting a clamp (turnable)grid. Most rest areas in Oz boast large bar-b-q pits.......some electrical. What happens in the US?

Carole

Colleen, I think it is because the English settlers knew apples, but not pumpkin, and apples are not so seasonal, since they could be dried.

Okay, I can buy into the familiarity with apple theory, but... this leads me to wonder about the lack of pumpkins in England. I guess I show lack of knowledge of English foodstuffs when I have to ask: Don't they grow pumpkins in England? Or rather, weren't there pumpkins in England before the settlers arrived in America? (And presumably sent back seeds...)

....Potato salad -- OK. Cole slaw -- highly suspicious.

Funny! I never knew cole slaw was such an eyebrow raiser in Italy ...

amaretti are the hard little italian almond cookies that have a nice bitter almond flavor to them and are a nice contrast to the sweetness of the pumpkin.

I also had a fabulous pumpkin sauce on fresh pasta with shaved white truffles on top at Dorando in San Gimignano!!!
WOW

Judy Divina Cucina
Florence
Everyone should try being Italian at least once a day!!

quote:

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amaretti are the hard little italian almond cookies that have a nice bitter almond flavor to them and are a nice contrast to the sweetness of the pumpkin.

---

And do you know about the trick that you can do with the wrappers to these cookies?

First of all, make sure you're in a room with a high ceiling or better yet, outside when there's no or minimal breeze. Take an amaretto cookie wrapper (eat the cookie) and form it into a funnel shape. Set it down (perhaps on a plate or something) with one of the open sides down and the other open side straight up. Light the top of the funnel with a match. Let it burn down and see what happens........ The whole thing takes off and flies! Ah the things you learn in college from your Italian-American roommate's brothers!

David, usually in NYC

I still can't enjoy ANY pumpkin pie that doesn't have my mom's secret ingredient...100 proof bourbon! Somehow every other pie seems flat without it!

Hi Everyone into pumpkin pie,

Well I have done the deed ..... yes, I have made pumpkin pie.......and with the original pumpkin too........ I quite like it, its a bit unusual (but then I didn't add the bourbon).......am now quite ready to experiment further. Thanks everyone so much, when I go to America I will cook it up for any interested persons......and definitely cook it in Italy and see what happens.

Kindest Regards,
Carole

It might pay to keep an open mind.

Hi again,

Forgot to say that my family of two sons, their wives, and five children, have reserved judgement, while my daughter who lives in Sydney said that she cant wait to try it.....I have a sneaking suspicion that she said that with tongue in cheek. Hence my signature to-day.

Carole

It might pay to keep an open mind.