Saturday, October 10, 2009

Foods of Durham Past: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Each year when Halloween came around and it was pumpkin carving time, my mom made sure we kept all the seeds so she could roast them. These are very tasty, and kind of addicting. It's important that you keep some of the "goop" to roast with the seeds. It makes them better.

I actually roasted these for a pumpkin soup recipe I made for some friends last night. I've never used a fresh pumpkin for cooking before and I wasn't sure whether there are certain pumpkins that are better for cooking, or baking or whatever. One recipe specified small pumpkins. I began to wonder if small pumpkins have a better taste -- kind of like zucchini starts to taste bland and bitter if it gets too big. Anyone? I never found out. I just made soup with a big pumpkin. It tasted OK.

But the seeds...the seeds are awesome. These have olive oil, Worcestershire sauce and garlic salt and then I roasted them for about 40 minutes in a 300 degree oven. I can't believe this is the first time I've ever made them on my own.

Would I eat them again? I wish I had more. I'm eating them sparingly.
Would I make them again? Anytime I have a pumpkin I will.
Would I feed them to friends? I did last night and they seemed to like them too.

5 comments:

Lisa Marie Trent said...

yeah. those are good.

Chewy....but good.

Sue Sharp said...

YES!

Becky said...

what you didn't mention was that we also had a weird halloween culinary custom. Back in Orem I told dad I'd make latkes if he took you all out trick or treating. I hated making them and it seemed a good trade. So we did that almost every year since, except now that you all don't need a trick or treat escort, it doesn't seem like such a great deal. Latke's and pumpkins - a weird conjunction.

Laura Lee said...

latkes were going to be a future post. Maybe I'll still do it now that I know where they originated from. I thought it was just one of those weird things you started doing and it became a tradition.

I actually made them for a Halloween party last year.

Lisa Marie Trent said...

Apparently mom hated taking us trick or treating more than she did making latke's.