All Things Pumpkin .... Part 1

Pak Imam gave us 2 plump pumpkin and mama dear requested me to whip up Kuih Bakar Labu. And I was like, err ... I've never seen one, what more haven't tasted them all my life, so how do I make one? And thanks to Mat Gebu for this recipe, I managed to make these beauties and made both my parents happy. I modified the preparation so it became even faster :) (as below). We even gave a piece of Kuih Bakar to Pak Imam, and he was surprised as he didn't know that we can make kuih with pumpkin (he thought pumpkin can only be used in masak lemak labu).

To tell you the truth, I am a pumpkin hater. But, seeing my parents smiling from ear to ear after biting into these, made me curious, so I had one. Then, another one. Oh my, it does taste good, mind you!

So try this one out if you have pumpkin in your pantry :

Bingka Labu

Ingredients:

• 5 Grade A
• 200 ml water
• 300 ml thick coconut milk (i used powdered coconut milk)
• 200 g all purpose flour
• 180 g castor sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 450 g pumpkin, steamed and mashed finely

Method:

1. Preheat oven. Combine all except mashed pumpkin flesh and whizz in a blender.
2. Fold in mashed pumpkin flesh into the batter. Then I sieved the batter+mashed pumpkin flesh through a colander and whisk briskly so as to break up the lumps.
3. Pre-heat the greased pan and pour in the batter, then sprinkled some sesame seeds on top.
4. Bake for 40 minutes and once baked, let cool before transfer.

We have extra pumpkin (about 1.5 biji extra, banyak woo) so I made steamed pumpkin muffin, taken from wendyinkk. Of late, I often use recipes that ask me to mix using blender rather than using mixer, and that saves my time. and I mean, A LOT.

Steamed Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Aunty Yochana

Yields12 steamed muffins (I used egg tart pans)

125gm steamed pumpkin flesh

1 egg

120gm sugar

100gm evaporated milk or coconut milk

30gm corn oil

180gm cake flour

20gm rice flour

1.5tsp baking powder

1. Prepare your steamer and bring the water to a boil

2. Put steamed pumpkin flesh, egg, sugar, milk and oil in blender and whizz for 30 seconds.

3. Sift cake flour, rice flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the blended ingredients into the well. Mix until well combined.

5. Spoon into lined steaming cups and steam on high heat for 15 minutes. It will bloom by itself, no need to make a cross with oil.

Verdict? well, my niece ate a lot but didn't comment much. my parents said there wasn't any pumpkin taste, mr hubs said very tasty and I, the pumpkin hater, well....you wouldn't want to hear the pumpkin hater's verdict, would you? haha ... juzt joking. I do agree with my parents' comment, though.

Ah, we have another 1 1/4 extra pumpkin. what next, ya?