Tuesday, October 3, 2017

It’s The Great Pumpkin Seed Spread, Charlie Brown

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” was definitely my favorite animated holiday special, and I suspect that goes for most people my age. I found the Christmas special a little heavy, and was bothered by the menu in the Thanksgiving episode, but the Halloween offering struck all the right notes.

Back then, I probably wouldn’t have had much interest in this pumpkin seed spread, since I needed to save room for all those miniature Mr. Goodbars, but now, I can’t think of anything I’d rather eat. This straddles the fence between sweet and savory, and would be very easy to adapt to your tastes.

I need to credit Cortney Burns and Nick Balla, from a restaurant here in San Francisco called Duna. They do a similar, albeit more savory version, which inspired this spread. If you don’t like the term “spread,” you could call it a pumpkin seed hummus, or pumpkin seed butter, but no matter what you call it, I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for about 3 cups of Pumpkin Seed Spread:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
8 peeled garlic cloves, quartered
2 cups green pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted in dry pan
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tablespoons diced green Serrano or jalapeño chilies
3/4 cup apple juice, to reduce with onions and peppers
juice from 2 limes
1 cup freshly picked cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
additional 1/2 cup apple juice or water, if you want less sweetness to adjust texture
- you can also adjust texture and acidity with a splash of apple cider vinegar

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi chef John. I wanted to make a request and wasn't sure where else to do it. I think you should do a grape pie video because you're probably one of the only youtubers who actually knows what it is, being from Upstate NY. Also, you are amazing.

arwiv said...

1 Rudolph
2 A Charlie Brown Christmas


"Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is certainly top 10 holiday favorite, but I dont know exactly where in the top 10.

Scott Do said...

Hi Chef John. I love this recipe but were you in a hurry? There was a typo in the ingredients: 1/2 vegetable oil (?) Was it "1/2 cup?"
By the way, the link in your YouTube video description does not go to this specific recipe. Was that intentional?

Balambér said...

Hi Chef John!
It looks promising although I don't really like the taste of cilantro. What whould you use instead of cilantro, if you had to pick something else?
Greetings from Hungary!
Tom

Foomf said...

What's the unit of measure for the oil? You say 1/2 but seem to have left out whether it's cups, pounds, liters, jars, etc.

Shinnam said...

Yumm.. I will have to try it, but hubby has an allegy to apples. What do you suggest as a substitute?

Nobrand said...

Hi,
First let me thank you. Your simple and easy style makes it fun and a lot less intimidating to trying out new recipes.

This is another version of your recipe:
Firstly, because I wanted to cut the oil, I packed the garlic cloves in aluminum foil and softened them in the oven(only half way through though, since i did not have the extra fragrance from the oil, I wanted to preserve the garlic essence by not completely cooking them through).
Second difference is I used duck fond to douse the onions and peppers but any kind of fond would work. I use the term "duck fond" quite generously here. Here is what it is. I made grilled duck for Christmas. I carved the bird before I took it to table. So I took the bones, the neck and the tip of the wings, put 2 organic oranges and 2 sour apples, and with a bunch of condiments and brought it to a boil and simmered then for approximately 2 hours. That's what I used.
I added a cup of sour cream, and 2 Tablespoons Pumpkin seed oil in to the mixture when processing it. The consistency a lot softer and as a result the spread also became more creamier. (I should also say, I increased the lime juice a little more, because it is more to our taste but even without it, it would have been fine)
I just wanted to share it with you and your followers as a savorier alternative with less oil.