Battling Pumpkins to Make Dried Apricot and Pumpkin Jam

You have to really love all-things-pumpkin if you want to battle a fresh pumpkin in the kitchen. 

That's right--battle. While this unassuming fruit may leave your mind with nostalgic memories of grandma baking pumpkin pie in the kitchen for Thanksgiving, make no mistake--pumpkins are not to be trifled with. (and grandma was one tough lady) 

So how do you tame this wild beast fruit? 

The first challenge is cutting the pumpkin in half. If you can't do that, then you have no hope of making homemade pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread or homemade dried apricot and pumpkin jam (a-hem, my Sunday afternoon "project").  

Basically, you have to turn the pumpkin on its side and grab a small knife (don't bother using a chef's knife...too large for this job). Next, channel your inner Norman Bates--it is Halloween after all--and start stabbing the pumpkin. I initally cut the pumpkin in half with a chef's knife in a sawing motion---and, 15 sweaty minutes later I made little progress. You might want to saw here and there, but the small puncture "wounds" around the circumference of the pumpkin seemed to loosen it up for me the most successfully.

 

A portrait of evil...BOO!

Are you ready to give up yet? Just hold on--cutting the pumpkin in half is the hardest part. Once you cut the pumpkin in half and clean out the "guts," place the pumpkin in a roasting pan filled halfway with water in oven at 450 degrees F. Roast for about 45 minutes. The heat will loosen up the pumpkin's skin so that you can easily scoop out the flesh. For excellent, step-by-step instructions that offer more details on how to do this, click here.

I'm not sure if the recipe I used called for the pumpkin roasting, but I don't know how else I would have ever gotten the pumpkin "loose" enough to cut into cubes.

Now for the fun part, and today's Sunday project, dried apricot and pumpkin jam. You can't go wrong with recipes from Ginnette Mathoit--and this recipe was no exception. You can modify the amount of pumpkin and apricot used in the recipe--which is what I did. Regardless if you choose to use the proportions that Mathoit uses in the recipe or something of your own, you have to first slice the dried apricots and soak them in a generous amount of water overnight. The next day you'll drain the apricots and save the water for the jam.

Start the jam recipe by first adding the water reserved from the apricots to a heavy sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin and let simmer for around 30 minutes (less time if you're using a smaller proportion of pumpkin). Next, add sugar to the pumpkin mixture. (I also added a dash of pumpkin spice. And remember--use equal parts sugar and pumpkin if you modify the proportions of the recipe.) Let simmer for 30 minutes. Last, add the apricots to the pumpkin mixture and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.

After all of that work you'll get an apricot and pumpkin jam with a golden hue. Trust me, it's well worth the trouble.

 

 
 

Dried Apricot and Pumpkin Jam

Recipe by Ginnette Mathiot in I Know How to Cook, p. 853

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 pounds dried apricots
• 6 1/2 pounds pumpkin, peeled and chopped
• 6  1/2 pounds superfine sugar

Directions

Prepare the day before. Wash the apricots and cut into strips. Soak in 8 1/2 cups water for 24 hours. Drain, reserving the water. Place the reserved soaking water in a large pan and bring to a boil. Boil the pumpkin in the soaking water for 30 minutes. Strain to make a smooth paste, then return to the pan with the sugar and cook the pumpkin puree over low heat, stirring, for 30 minutes. Add the soaked apricots and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars.

Comments

[Christy]

Looks delicious. That is a useful tip about how to remove the skin from a pumpkin.
Mom