Despite the fact that its not Thanksgiving in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m still American, and we’re still going to celebrate Thanksgiving. We’re taking time to remember what we’re thankful for, and to thank God that He gives us life. So I attempted to make a pumpkin pie today. I say attempted because I still haven’t tasted it and am not sure if it tastes normal!
I couldn’t find a real pumpkin here, so I used a substitute. Its a Japanese pumpkin, or a Kabocha. Its warty and green on the outside, but orange inside. I’m hoping it tastes the same as normal pumpkins, and apparently you can use it for pumpkin pies. I followed a recipe I found online that has some alternatives for ingredients and even names of certain ingredients in other languages. So helpful!
My parents usually puree pumpkin in a food processor, which I don’t have, but I found out that you can put it in the blender to puree it. So I steamed the pumpkin on the stovetop and pureed it in the blender, to make the stuff you see above.
My pie is completely improvised. I used powdered milk, mixed with water and I doubled the amount of milk used, instead of evaporated milk. We looked all over the grocery store for evaporated milk, especially since I found out that Itambe, a Brazilian milk manufacturer, actually produces it. However, we couldn’t find it.
As I was making the crust, I realized I had no rolling pin. My mom had convinced me not to put one on my wedding registry, and it probably would’ve weighed too much to take anyhow. So I used the can of dried milk, covered in flour, as a rolling pin. Then I also realized I don’t have a pie pan. So I asked my husband to get one on his way home from work for lunch, but he decided not to come home for lunch today. So I’m using my little heart shaped cake pan. Cute, isn’t it? I hope it comes out ok in it!
Adding the spices was quite the project. I did find allspice (above) and nutmeg and cloves. I didn’t think I would find nutmeg, but I did. But the allspice and cloves only came in whole pieces, not already ground up. We bought a pepper mill, which wouldn’t open up, to grind them. So I broke the pepper mill and took the pepper out, and poured in the cloves and allspice into the top (after covering the sharp edges with tape) to grind myself. Now I know why they come pre-ground in the US. Much easier.
I thought it was slightly amusing how nutmeg is packed. One nutmeg comes in a little bag. Or you can get a little bag with 2 nutmegs in it. Different. But at least I found it!
The recipe made WAY more pie filling than I needed. I could’ve made 2 pies with it. So I filled a muffin tin and a bread pan with the filling too. That will be our “trial” dessert tonight to see how it really came out before we serve it to our guests.
I’m still waiting on the big pie to come out of the oven. The recipe said to reduce the temperature, but I think my oven already has a fairly low temperature, and reducing it made it not cook as quick as it should’ve!! Its been in the oven for almost 2 hours now… I turned the temperature back up now, so that should be fine.
And tonight I’m making homemade stuffing, and prepping the glazed carrots, so tomorrow I can concentrate on making the chicken! Mmm!! Happy Thanksgiving!
