Pumpkin primer

A few of my younger friends have been whining about bemoaning the shortage (again) of canned pumpkin.  They seem to forget that before pumpkin is in a can, it is in, well, a pumpkin.  The following is a primer on how to make your own fresh, delicious and nutritious pumpkin puree from an actual pumpkin.  Radical, I know.

First, buy a pumpkin (duh). Those sold as "pie pumpkins" are smaller (about 6" in diameter) and slightly sweeter than a regular pumpkin, yielding anywhere from three to six cups of puree.  Pie pumpkins are also snootier than regular pumpkins; mine insisted on the formality of "John" rather than "Jack" (dignity in the face of death and all that).

Now, grab your sharpest, longest serrated knife.  Alternatively, grab any old knife, bat your eyes at the nearest male, and have him perform the following step for you.

Cut the pumpkin in half, or in my case, hack it into several not-half pieces, exposing the guts.

Next, using an ice cream scoop, a sharp-edged spoon or your bare hands, scoop/scrape/yank out the stringy insides and seeds.  Throw them into a bowl; we'll play with those later.

Note the ice cream scoop.  I started with the scoop, but Jack's John's innards were stubborn, necessitating a bit of manual man-handling.  Given my distaste for anything slimy/sticky/icky on my hands, this operation was accompanied by a series of grimaces (no picture available).

Be sure to scrape away as much of the stringy stuff as possible, as it doesn't improve with cooking.  We only want to have the sweet, tender flesh in our puree.

Put the cleaned pieces cut side down in a microwave safe dish with a lid; add an inch or so of water.  Cut the pumpkin into as many pieces as needed to allow the lid to fit tightly.  Bonus -  smaller pieces will cook more quickly (if you use a man to make the initial cut into the pumpkin, you may want to bring him back for this-those things are remarkably hard).

Place the dish in the microwave and cook on high for fifteen minutes.  Then CAREFULLY remove the cover and check the squash.  It should be soft; you may even be able to just lift the skin off (but don't try, it is HOT HOT HOT).  Use a spoon to check all pieces; my microwave didn't cook evenly, and while the pieces I checked were more than done, a few of the others could have been cooked longer.  Cook an additional five minutes if needed, check, then repeat as needed until all the squash is tender.

Let it cool enough to be able to handle it, then scoop the pulp out and dump in a blender, food processor or big bowl (if you have an immersion blender).  Puree until creamy.  Use immediately, or refrigerate or freeze.

Oh - and about those seeds?  Run water into the bowl containing the seeds and guts.  Moosh your hands around, squeezing the pulp to release the seeds.  Remove the guts strings from the bowl as you release the seeds; drop the seeds into a colander.  In the end, you should have a relatively clean bunch of seeds.  Dry them well, season and roast at 275 degrees until golden brown.  Personally, while fresh salted pumpkin seeds (especially still warm) are awesome, I often get my fix this way:

It takes a bit more effort, but each pie pumpkin will give you several recipes' worth of puree which freezes well.  I made pumpkin soup once the puree was done, which also freezes.