Pork-with-pumpkin-salsa-254x300

Slow-Cooked Pork with Chipotle Pumpkin Salsa

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

This recipe features Chipotle Pumpkin Salsa with Roasted Tomatillo, produced by Chef Rick Bayless’ Frontera Foods company. Serving the pulled pork over cooked spaghetti squash instead of on a bun makes this a low-carb meal. Read the entire article by Lois Manno on the Burn! Blog  here.

Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin, 1.5-2 pounds
1 jar Frontera Chipotle Pumpkin Salsa with Roasted Tomatillo
1/3 cup water
cooked spaghetti squash

Instructions

Wash the tenderloin and pat dry. Season lightly with salt and pepper. If you’re using a small crock pot like I did, cut the tenderloin into two halves and place it in the crock pot. Pour the entire jar of salsa over the meat, along with the water. Make sure the salsa gets around and under the meat. Set the crock pot on low and cook for the amount of time recommended for your slow cooker. Because tenderloin is lean and a fairly small volume of meat, mine was done pretty quickly (in 4 hours). It’s done when you can pull it apart easily with a fork. Remove the tenderloin onto a plate and shred it.

Take the cooking juice out of the crock pot and place it into a saucepan. Simmer until it has reduced by about half.

Serve the cooked spaghetti squash with the pulled pork on top, and cover with the pumpkin sauce reduction. I enjoyed some sliced dill pickle with mine. Of course, if you want to make a traditional pulled pork sandwich, forget the squash and use bread.

maple-smoked-pumpkin-pie

Maple Smoked Pumpkin Pie

Dave DeWitt Leave a Comment

Most pumpkin pies use canned solid-packed pumpkin, which gives the end product that nice smoothness we’ve all come to appreciate. The flesh you scrape out of a large pumpkin is more akin to wet pasta than what you find in a can. No one likes runny pumpkin pie. Luckily, my friend Sam had some experience dealing with scavenged pumpkin meat. On his advice, I strained the pumpkin through some cheese cloth and let it dry until it was damp but not wet, then pureed it until I had the 2 cups called for in the recipe.

You can read the entire article by Mark Masker on the Burn! Blog here.

Ingredients

2 cups strained and pureed smoked pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
pastry for a 9-inch pie crust

Instructions

Start by straining the smoked pumpkin to get rid of excess liquid and let it dry a little bit. Puree it in small batches, then combine it with everything but the pie crust and blend it all until smooth. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until you can insert a knife into the pie one in from the edge and pull the knife out clean. Let it cool for an hour, then chill it in the refrigerator before serving.

Chipotle-Pumpkin Seed Butter

Dave DeWitt Recipes Leave a Comment

A Recipe From:

Soaked, Slathered, & Seasoned

A Simple Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill

 


by Elizabeth Karmel

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 small chipotle in adobo, drained and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)*

3 tablespoons lightly toasted green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder

Pinch ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt or fleur de sel

 

Chipotle-Pumpkin Seed Butter

 

Instructions

In a medium bowl, mash or stir the butter with a fork until it is smooth and slightly fluffy. Add the chipotle, pumpkin seeds, ancho chile powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix together, mashing with the back of the fork to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated. Mix well. Taste for seasoning and adjust if desired.


On a piece of plastic wrap or parchment, drop the butter in spoonfuls to form a log. Roll the butter in plastic wrap and smooth out to form a round log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Refrigerate until hard and easy to cut into pieces. The butter will keep, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week and in the freezer for up to 1 month.


Super Spicy Pumpkin Muffins

Dave DeWitt Leave a Comment

Here’s an even spicier version of the Spicy Pumpkin Muffin published in The Habanero Cookbook using the elusive but delicious jolokia chile!

Ingredients

MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground dried jolokia “ghost” chile. (Note: if you must grind your own, do so only in a well vented room!  Jolokia is tasty but you really do not want to breathe it.)

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup pepitas (dried pumpkin seeds)

SUGAR TOPPING

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.  Oil 12 muffin tin cups or muffin pan.

Sift together the dry ingredients. 

Cream the shortening and sugar together until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the pumpkin and milk and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients in thirds mixing well after each addition.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.

Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them two-thirds full.  Sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon mixture over the top.  Bake until a a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Let cool in muffin tin before turning out.