October is here and with it the start of fall, cooler temperatures, breath taking colors, the start of holiday season, but most of all fall means great food. Its the time of year when you can start enjoying all those hardy stews, soups, hot cider, mulled wine and seasonal brews. It's also the time when supermarkets and your local farmers market become filled with pumpkins.
Pumpkins come in a number varieties and they are nearly all edible. Sugar or Pie pumpkins are hands down the best for cooking, but the Jack-O-Lantern can be used with great success. Canned pumpkin is available year round and lets be honest easy to use, but it lacks versatility. Only the real thing can be roasted with a medley of wonderful vegetables to be served along side a shoulder of lamb or loin of pork. For your favorite pumpkin bread recipe fresh pumpkins can easily be used. Split them remove the seeds and steam till tender. The skin should peel away easily and the flesh can be mashed like they were potatoes.
This year with all the buzz about Universal Studios World of Magic and Harry Potter pumpkin is finding new popularity. With amazingly enough ..kids. The beverage of choice in the world of Harry Potter is of course Pumpkin Juice. Interestingly Pumpkin Juice appears in literature much before J.K. Rowlings series in a short story by R.L. Stine. In Stine's story the pumpkin juice, a combination of pumpkin, milk, molasses, butter, garlic and chicken broth leads to some frightful results on Halloween night. With my curiosity up I looked into various recipes for Pumpkin Juice on line and there are many. Not willing to just copy someone else I of course tweaked a few version into my own brew. All fall Chappy's Deli Peppertree will be serving our Pumpkin Juice under the name Harvest Cider, so come in and give it a try.
