“It’s our first batch from St Elizabeth since Hurricane Dean,” shares Jo Jo’s Paul Chin, “and we’re happy to see them.” That’s no idle boast. Each week shoppers at the popular farm market purchase up to a ton of this large vegetable fruit (in wedge form) that’s typically green and black on the outside and orange on the inside. Reacting perhaps to the look of incredulity on our faces, Chin is quick in his response – “Think about how many soup establishments there are and the fact that pumpkin is an essential ingredient.” He does have a point, and we’ve not yet factored in Island Grill with its popular pumpkin rice.

There’s even more of a demand this week, for although not widely acknowledged, Halloween theme parties have certainly increased in the years since this writer has been reporting from the kitchen, and the much-beloved fruit is naturally an essential party component, with one patron securing 500 pumpkins. We kid you not, and she plans to carve them all up too!

The pumpkin is for many as strange a vegetable fruit as it is easy to grow. The name is thought to derive from an old French word pompon, which in turn came from the classical Greek pepon, a name also applied to the melon. Fruits of the species C.pepo and its hybrids may have other common names such as squash (with various epithets) but it is within this species and its hybrids that we find the varieties known as Spirit, Trick or Treat (so now you know from whence the term came) and Connecticut Field, which are among the traditional Halloween pumpkins, and the others which have the distinctive shape and coloration which are particularly associated with the name pumpkin. The name ‘pumpkin’ is not a precisely defined one and it may be applied to certain varieties of related species, especially when they happen to resemble the true (Halloween-type) pumpkins. Fruits of Cucurbita maxima, Winter Squash, may be called pumpkins.

Pumpkin flesh is fibrous and is used for both savoury and sweet dishes. The Argentinian method of cooking a meat stew in a hollowed-out pumpkin uses the extracted flesh of the fruit to thicken the sauce. The French use pumpkin almost exclusively for making soups (soupe du poitron), in the Rhône-Alpes, especially in the south, a pumpkin-flavoured bread is made (pain du courge). In Cyprus kolokotes, pasties (about the size of Cornish pasties) stuffed with pumpkin and crushed wheat, are popular in the winter, and in Spain and Mexico pumpkin seeds (pepitas) are eaten roasted, fried or salted. Local pumpkin might very well be plentiful, but according to Chin, “Pumpkin needs escallion and Scotch bonnet peppers, and with peppers in scarce supply and escallion at a whopping $250 at Coronation market, the pumpkin might not be as appetising as before.”

Pumpkin at Jo Jo’s is on sale for $70 per lb.

More Pumpkin…

It’s neither Trick nor Treat – pumpkins are in better supply and pack 0.1mg saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 0.8mg of iron, 340 mg potassium, 1mg sodium and vitamins A and C. With so much rain around we understand the difficulty of thinking beyond a great cup of pumpkin soup, but how about roasting a pumpkin?

Roasting is one of the best ways to cook pumpkin. Cut into small wedges, peeled or not, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and, if you like, with fresh rosemary sprigs or chopped sage leaves. Roast in the oven (fan 200ºC)/ conventional/gas for about 20 minutes, or until browned and tender.

Coat pumpkin with your favourite jerk sauce and then roast in oven. No ‘Trick or Treat’, just absolutely delicious. If you’re a vegetarian, add a tin of broad beans for an earthy supper.

How about something a bit more exotic?

Enjoy these delicious Roquefort and pumpkin fritters with pear relish courtesy of Sainsbury.

What you need:

For the relish

Ingredients:

3 pears, cored and chopped into 1cm pieces

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped

200ml white wine vinegar

50g dark soft brown sugar

For the fritters:

400g fresh pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1cm cubes

2x100g Roquefort, crumbled into large pieces

65g plain flour

3 medium egg yolks

A dash of freshly ground black pepper

2 medium egg whites

15ml spoon vegetable oil

To serve:

100g organic lettuce or wild rocket

Method:

. For the relish, place all the ingredients in a pan until reduced over a moderate heat for 15 minutes.

. For the fritters, boil the pumpkin in a pan of water for 2-3 minutes until tender.

. Drain and refresh in cold water.

. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin,

Roquefort, flour and yolks, and season well with black pepper.

. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and gently fold into the Roquefort and pumpkin mixture.

. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add spoonfuls of the mixture to make 10 fritters in total, turn each one after 2-3 minutes until golden.

Acknowledgement:

The Oxford Companion

To Food by Alan Davidson