Pumpkin Seeds

Ah yes the humble Pumpkin seed, as far as my history with pumpkin seeds go, I really didn't like them. They were kind of bland tasting and it was like eating little twigs that splintered and got stuck in my teeth. I could only eat one or two before giving up hopelessly as to what other people found to be so great about them. Sunflower seeds on the other hand were more my thing, but even then they had to be shelled before eaten, the pumpkin seed has no easy way of easily shedding its splintery exterior to reveal its flavourful insides to the eagerly awaiting tongue for its delightful flavour. Instead, it sits there, the entirety of its beautiful essence locked away by a barbaric exterior, one that has set up its woody palisade to protect its hidden wonders. Never letting its walls fall for even a second to let me a poor humble petitioner to enjoy the secrets locked within.

Well, I am sad to say, so to have I failed to bring the Pumpkin seed  into a realm into which I may enjoy it. The ones I made are still, just as the ones on the market, not enjoyable. However, I was given a complement on them by someone who does enjoy pumpkin seeds, so maybe it is just me who can't enjoy them.

As you all remember, in my last post, I made a Pumpkin Puree out of a whole Pumpkin. I had promised to make a pumpkin bread using both cooked and uncooked puree, that is still in the planning. But at the same time I mentioned that I was soaking the pumpkin seeds in a salt water solution overnight.

 I drained them and spread them out on my custom made non-stick baking sheet (more on that at another time). At this point I still had not cleaned them of the stringy bits that they were webbed in, inside the pumpkin. The soaking had remove most of what had still clung to them. After toasting them at a low oven temperature, the rest fell off. Because they were still wet when I put them on the baking tray, it took a little longer for them to start toasting, but once all the water was gone, they proceeded to toast fairly quickly.

The final product, a bowlful of lightly salted pumpkin seeds, delicious in every way except for eating. Ok that's a lie, but it is hard work to shell them, so it is slow going but still enjoyable once the shell is gone.