A quest for the Pumpkin Taste

Here in Nepal we cannot find these--


Or this



Here in Nepal we have a lot of farsi. That is what they call everything that is part of the squash family.

I have a theory that a pumpkin is used for texture and that in pumpkin pie, bread, rolls etc., you are just tasting the spices. If that is true, then I should be able to use farsi with pumpkin pie spices and it will taste like pumpkin pie.

Test 1--This kind of resembles zucchini, but it's not exactly zucchini. I found this one first so this is our first experiment.



This is the inside.

The inside of this definitely has more squash qualities than pumpkin. The inside is soft, not stringy, and the seeds can be eaten easily with no crunch. It reminds me of a cucumber too. The outside has a soft texture you can puncture with a finger nail and can be peeled with a potato peeler. As far as texture goes, I don't think I'll try pumpkin pie here, but a pumpkin bread.

I skinned this, chopped it, cooked it in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles, and then pureed it.


I found a pumpkin bread recipe and made this bread.



The bread, although a little heavy (which I think is more the fault of the recipe, than the farsi), is very tasty and has a hint of pumpkin because of spices. But I think this "farsi" will not be used again for finding the perfect Nepal pumpkin substitute!

Here is the recipe I used. Instead of all white flour I used half white and half whole wheat and left out the chocolate chips. I didn't want to waste them in case the bread was a big flop!

Every Saturday we meet with our church people and I bring a snack for tea time, so no time wasted. I think everyone will like it--even though it's not "pumpkin bread".