The seasonal seed takes center stage.
By Whitney Pipkin
Reach inside
innards and all
It’s not the jack-o’-lantern that matters so much as what’s inside: seeds worth snacking on or adding to nearly every dish of the season—so says Calvin Riggleman, owner of BiggRiggs Farm in West Virginia, who reminds his customers to consider the whole pumpkin, innards and all. “Roast them seeds,” Riggleman says in his best West Virginia accent. He sells the prized pumpkins at Northern Virginia farmers markets and from the farm (for those who make it through the corn maze this time of year). And he chides buyers who don’t take advantage of all the pumpkin has to offer.
harvest
ladle and roast
Before you can roast, dry or otherwise savor the seeds, you’ve got to fish them out of the pumpkin and rescue them from that stringy stuff. Larry Blevins, sous chef and head pumpkin seed scooper at Alexandria’s Society Fair, suggests adding water and working the seeds away from the slime while they’re submerged. Others prefer letting the scooped-out innards dry on a baking sheet for a day or two until they are easier to handle. Then the fun begins. Before roasting, consider blanching the seeds for consistency or soaking them in saltwater. Simply Recipes blogger Elise Bauer suggests the latter to get the saltiness inside the seed, not just scattered on the shell. Seeds from smaller pumpkins can be eaten without shelling while larger ones might need the chewier outer layer removed.
Sprinkle
gourd crazy
Salt isn’t the only option for these seeds. Blevins suggests adding egg whites, cayenne and sugar before roasting for a candied version. Trummer’s on Main in Clifton has a fall menu bolstered by pumpkin seeds and their derivatives, and they star as bar snacks, salad toppers and the foundation for desserts. “We use a lot of pumpkin seed oil, too, because our owners are Austrian, and it’s one of the No. 1 exports from Austria,” says sous chef Jonathan Heeter. What pumpkin soup wouldn’t benefit from a little drizzle—and a sprinkling—of its seed?
(October 2015)
