One of the things I did over the weekend is turn my organic pumpkin into Apple Pumpkin Crumble.
Look ~ there are always people carving pumpkins. So, it’s not like people are going to really care if you decide to use a permanent marker instead, right?
RIGHT CHEF!
And it’s really sad… but did you know that all of the pumpkins you buy? (except of course the organic one’s) They’re genetically modified?
NO CHEF! YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!
No joke. Monsanto got into the pumpkin business last year when it purchased Seminis up in Oxnard. And that’s what Seminis does…. genetically breeds pumpkins. My pumpkin’s bigger than your pumpkin? It’s a big business!
So if people are carving and not eating their pumpkins? I’m all for that!
But I bought an organic one, because I know I love to make pumpkin pie. (And skip the gelatin… “it’s derived from collagen obtained from various animal by-products” according to wiki….). No horse hoofs, please!
What did I do with that wonderful organic pumpkin? We’ll get to that in a minute. Let me paint the story for ya!
Over the weekend several things happened. First, I’ve been trying to eat as ‘vegan’ as possible, so when I stopped into my girlfriends restaurant in Little Italy, La Villa, in addition to wood fired pizza, I ordered a pumpkin side dish. Of course, I asked the waiter what was in the mix… and snagged a few of their secret ingredients. They created little pieces of ‘crumble’ with cardamom.
Fast forward to the next day and brunch at my daughters. My daughter and her boyfriend are vegan. “Ah Ha” I thought. Let me bring my ‘Miss Face’ Pumpkin over (she had big thick eyelashes drawn in and a mole above her crooked teeth, so ‘Miss Face’ was about right for a name)….. carve it up, add some apples cooked down with cinnamon and nutmeg, a sprinkle of salt, and then proceed to make my version of ‘crumble’.
You know what ‘crumble is, yes?
NO CHEF! WHAT’S CRUMBLE?
Crumble is….. White flour, White sugar, and a ton of butter.
SOUNDS GOOD TO ME CHEF!
Sounds good to you? White (processed) and white (processed) and animal fat? Urgh! Well ok. Just have ‘tastes’ and I think you’ll be ok.
Now, my daughter and her boyfriend love sugar. And I don’t think you can even make crumble without sugar (unless you have a better idea). So, I grabbed the little bit of brown sugar (and on the back end sprinkled some vegan molasses to add more sweetening) tossed it into a multi-grain flour, and used ‘new balance’ and ‘coconut spread’ as the butter.
In case you haven’t ‘crumbled’ before? Dry ingredients that include a cup of flour, a half cup of brown sugar, a tspn of baking powder, 1/2 tspn cardamom, and 1/4 tspn of salt …. combine, then taking your soft butter, or in my case butter substitute, get the pieces incorporated into the dry ingredients. You end up with little crumbly pieces, if you do it right.
Roast your pumpkin pieces skin on, in the oven 375 degrees for about 20 minutes (you can sprinkle with cinnamon, add drops of water and encase in some tin foil to steam).
When you take the pumpkin out you can do one of two things: Grab a knife and cut the skin off and lose a good part of your pumpkin, or ‘fork’ the skin off.
I suggest forking. lol You keep all your good pumpkin by slipping your fork under the skin and gently lifting it off. And sprinkled with cinnamon? It fills the house with holiday!
Back to the recipe… So we’ve got our apples, we’ve got our pumpkin cut into the same size chunks our apples are ~ and if you notice in the picture, I did a layer of the cooked apples, a layer of the pumpkin and then another layer of the raw apples again… just to give it different levels of texture. But you can play with it any way you want.
I was even wishing I had some cider. That would have been great to steam the apples in. What I did get was some lemon concentrate. That was so good, parts of it actually tasted close to lemon pie. Lots of flavor!
Then I added my crumble on top and baked at 375 degrees for a half hour.
So that’s my secret to this wonderful Apple Pumpkin Crumble.
And if you want the ‘real deal’ as a side dish not a dessert? The place I took the concept from was La Villa in Little Italy. With so many choices in Little Italy… can you believe that this is the one I recommend? Well, you can’t blame me. When they have such creative ideas… and such beautiful ambiance? There is no other choice!
Ok. Ok. I do like Prep Kitchen too. Just not the big loud crowds. lol
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian