Pumpkin! I did some reading and found out that the plant on which pumpkins grow is the same species that gives us a wide variety of squash including the summer squash! The heck?!? Anyway, once I found out that that includes butternut, and the contest specifically calls that out as an option, and many parts of the world call it a butternut pumpkin instead of butternut squash, I decided to take the challenge in that direction. I prefer the cleaner flavor of this variety.
This picture is a sort of "fork" off the main branch of my preparation. But I wanted to show it off because it's pretty and also, because I made toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish and forgot to put them on the main dish that I was creating...D'oh! So this is a scallion, a yam medalion, and a butternut arch sprinkled with toasted pumpkin seeds in olive oil, salt, and pepper:
Now on to the main story!
I made a tempura batter out of: about 1 C of cake flour, 1/2 C all purpose flour, 90% of the seeds from the butternut (boiled for ten mins, roasted at 300F for 25 mins, cooled, and crushed up), 1 T cornstarch, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/4 t salt, and a 12 oz can of pumpkin ale. Crushing the seeds was a pain but they did texture up the batter and they gave off the most amazing aroma as I was rolling over them.
I also made a dipping sauce that started with a sort of dashi-like broth (kombu, dried mushrooms, green onion, and a slice of squash -- gently warmed for an hour and strained).
Once that was done, I had about a cup of it, to which I added: 3 T soy sauce, juice from half a lime, juice from half a lemon, some lime zest, a grated fermented radish, 2 t white miso, and the chunk of pumpkin that had been in the broth mixture, mashed and whisked in.
Of this tempura, the pumpkin was supposed to be the main star, but I didn't want it to be alone. So in addition to slicing half of it up into semicircles and archways, I sliced up a yam, two bunches of scallions, and half a purple onion. I dredged the pumpkin and yam in flour before battering and frying.
I brought a whole lot of coconut oil up to around 350F (though I had some trouble keeping it stable -- this is my first time deep-frying without a frying appliance and I was turning the heat up and down and up and down :-) ).
And eventually, I turned up with some good plates!
Each one had a small dome of rice and a bowl of dipping sauce.
It was a good learning experience though I feel like maybe I've had enough oil for the week already. Here are some closeups where I was trying to catch the interesting textures in the batter:
I hope talking about things I could have improved isn't dumb since this is a contest, but learning and improving is pretty important. My pumpkin should have been sliced thinner and also fried in smaller pieces. It was pretty good when I didn't under/over-cook it, but I think it would have been more uniformly delicious if they'd all been 1/4" slices. I mostly included the fat purple onion rings so that I'd have a stacking element for presentation, but they were so good that I wish I'd cut up a couple of those onions and fewer of the scallions. The scallions were delicious but hard to eat because biting through them is tough -- they'd be easier to eat as smaller pieces, but maybe not as pretty. I also wish the sauce I just whipped together had been more compelling. It was OK, but not really delicious. Half way through my meal, I added a bunch of soy to mine, and it was better. So I think I did good, and the family liked dinner, but I have room for improvement!
Thanks for reading, everyone! If you have any questions or comments, that would be keen.
My first thought seeing this was: hmmmm! Yummy!
My last thought, after reading and watching everything is still: hmmmm! Yummy!
Thank you for trying this out and sharing your experiences, so we can make it perfectly first place! I think, I will cut the pumpkin 1/4" thick, leave the scallions (though they locked decorative!) and make more onion rings instead! 😜
Note to self: buying soy sauce tomorrow!) 😁
Great contribution! I am always on the search for satisfying dinner ideas! The look is important, but it has to be hearty!
I love that you used the pumpkin seeds in your tempura batter..I had cleaned mine out and left them draining by the sink, intending to roast them later on..sadly, my father-in-law threw it away LOL...
I enjoy tempura, and would have liked to taste yours =))
I am definitely going to give this a try
Great post. I love that you learned about frying during this week's competition. It is great to talk about the things that can be improved because other people will have the same problems. I like your closeup photos. I feel like I can experience how crunchy or crispy the tempura was. Were you able to taste the pumpkin in the tempura batter? That part of your post really intrigued me. Thanks, I really enjoyed reading your post tonight.
The batter wasn't pumpkiny, but was kind of nutty. The pumpkin ale I used instead of seltzer made it dark and may also have contributed to that, but also didn't lend any pumpkin flavor that I could detect.
Thanks for the info.
I am always so impressed by your way of doing things... as you always prepare your entry and the whole family enjoy your creations. Bravo for that mate!
Adding the crushed butternut seeds to the batter is very original, great idea shared here!
And your tempura batter looks really amazing, looking soooo crispy!
I'm so happy to see your entry getting noticed this week by @curie and @hendrikdegrote!
Keep Steeming hot mate!
Tempura the best food look wery crispy
almost all "canned pumpkin" that you find in stores for pie making is actually butternut squash. Pumpkins and squash (and zucchini for that matter) can all cross-pollinate, which we found out at my house when we grew both pumpkins and zucchini and the seeds yielded strange inbetween hybrids that sort of resembled acorn squash. Beautiful pictures of your food, I always have a tough time finding the right lighting to make food look as delicious as it does in person and the close ups of the fried batter in particular turned out amazing! Great post :)
Great tempura and wonderful photos! You have to teach me how not to burn the pumpkin seeds =D! Actually, I didn't quite burn mine but it was so close...
I did some reading because I've never really been happy with my roasted seeds in the past -- it's been more of a fun thing to do than something that produces an actually tasty treat. And having tried it, I think it's the boiling. I boiled for ten then roasted for ten. I started letting them cool, but found that they were still soaked from the boil. So I put them back in the oven for another ten, checked them for doneness and gave them another five. I'm no expert yet, but they turned out pretty great.
looks lovely ... I love tempura !
A bit monochromatic in looks, but still looks tasty! And the colour can be fixed in one second by dropping some chives or green onions on top :D
I really do want to think more about that sort of thing. It's easy while watching Chopped or whatever to see that the contestant should have tossed in some sprigs of cilantro or mint or some chive-tips. But when I'm putting the plate together, I get dumb. :-)
THIS LOOKS SO GOOD @clweeks!!
i'm hungry now! this looks so good!