squash/pumpkin atole

[macmex]

Atole is a Central American drink or food. Here in the U.S.A. we really don't have a food which fits this same nitch. Atole is a fairly thick drink. But rather than quench thirst it satisfies ones hunger. It's a drink, but more so, it's a food.  Atole is most often served hot. But it can be served cold. It's made out of any number of base ingredients. I've had atole made from corn starch, fermented corn, colostrum and squash (pumpkin is the same as squash). When we lived in central Mexico I got to partake of pumpkin atole every year around Christmas, at a church potluck we would attend. When we returned to the U.S.A., to live, I decided I was just going to have to figure out how to make it for myself. I really missed it!

The real, authentic squash atole I used to get was only flavored with brown sugar. But when I made my own, I quickly settled on making it with pumpkin pie spices. It is wonderful! Whenever it's cool or cold my family looks forward to an evening meal of squash atole. We use it as a light meal. To add a bit more substance we often serve it with hot sourdough bread, fresh from the oven... yum!

Perhaps you or a friend have had a good squash harvest this year. Squash atole is a wonderful way to consume winter squash! Here's a recipe!

Americanized Pumpkin Atole
*To a blender add:
1 egg
a few glugs of molasses
some sugar (brown or white)
2 cups of cooked squash
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
optional – 2 or 3 tablespoons of peanut butter
*Milk (at least a pint)
*Blend this all up and taste to see if it needs more sweetening.
*Pour the mix into a pot and heat until just boiling. I normally pour this mix into a two quart pot and add some additional milk before heating it.
*Serve and enjoy!

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

My Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkins went absolutely nuts after that rain last Thursday!

They are blooming like crazy, and have started new runners going in every direction.

Thanks for the seeds you gave me a few years back. That's one of my favorite things to grow. It's always a success, no matter how much other things fail.

We'll definitely have material for pumpkin Atole this Autumn!

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

Josh and I butchered several varieties of pumpkin last night to build our seed stock for 2017. The Buckskin pumpkin I traded for at the Murrel Home was very stringy (nearly as stringy as spaghetti squash), though it had a deep orange flesh that made it a very good candidate for carving. The bright orange flesh was quite a contrast to the buff skin color.

We made quite a bit of Atole last night as well, using different varieties of pumpkin as an eperiment. The Old Timey Confield pumpkin presented the best results. (Yet another reason to grow that variety).

Thanks for passing along those seeds.

[macmex]

I've noticed that some squash have stringy flesh which looks unappealing, but just melts in your mouth when cooked and eaten. Some are just plain stringy, however you look at it. I'll be interested to know how Buckskin Pumpkin works as a cooked squash vegetable. I've hit my limit on varieties, at least for this present living situation. So I'm going to focus on what I have. But I do hope we see various members adopt different locally adapted squash. Buckskin is a c. moschata, just like Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. So it's most likely a very dependable producer in Oklahoma.

I need to post more on hand pollination of squash. This is a topic which comes up  at many of our local meetings. Hand pollination is not at all difficult. Yet it is very important to do it correctly when trying to maintain pure seed stock. My problem is, that in order to hand pollinate squash, one needs to be in the garden sometime between 2:00 PM and dark and between sunrise and say, 11 AM. Five days a week I work, clocking in at 6 AM. This is on top of farm chores and Sunday Bible teaching. So it's hard to get the time to hand pollinate. Without hand pollination, if one wants to assure the production of pure seed, it's necessary to give your squash about a mile isolation, from other varieties of the same species.

[heavyhitterokra]

In years past, I've sold squash blossoms to gourmet chefs for .99c each. This past season I might as well have, as most of them were males and didn't produce fruit. They would have been better off stuffed with goat cheese and fried in a batter.

[heavyhitterokra]

Today is December 18th, 2016

Church was canceled this morning due to ice, snow, high winds, and 3 degree temperatures.

When I lived North of the Adirondacks in New York State, they would have laughed themselves to death at us staying home because of a little dusting of snow. By this time of year, they would have already seen 25 below zero and two or three feet of snow, but us Southerners aren't used to all that.

I have a ham out in the oven that was headed to our Church Christmas dinner today, but I guess now, I'll have it for lunch instead.

The real reason I'm writing this morning is because of the incredible keeping power of the Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin...

Josh and I butchered several varieties of pumpkin and squash for seed saving on December 6th. We made quite a bit of Atole from the different varieties and liked the OTC variety's texture the best, so we put the OTC pumpkin halves in a paper grocery bag and stored them in our Summer kitchen's refrigerator.

Now, 2 weeks later, I went out to get an OTC pumpkin half to make more Atole, expecting it to be in very poor shape by now. To my great surprise, it was still bright, crisp, and very rigid.

I peeled out about 4 cups of pumpkin meat this morning and will be enjoying a good hot cup of Atole to compliment this snowy, cold weather.

Thanks, George, for sharing your recipe!

[heavyhitterokra]

August 12, 2017

Time to start thinking about the Pumpkin Atole again. My pumpkins are putting on color! Thanks, George, for the great recipe.

[heavyhitterokra]

What a crazy gardening year! My pumpkins are putting on runners that stretch about 18" inches per day. Usually, by late August the vines are already dead or at least dying. This year, they are still blooming like it's mid June.

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

I just used my last pumpkin. I'm wondering if sweet potato would make a decent substitute in a pumpkin Atole recipe? I've got plenty of sweet potatoes still. That might be a good way to use them? I'll have to experiment and see what happens.

[macmex]

Sweet potato makes great atole! Just cook some up and proceed as if it were pumpkin. The flavor and texture as slightly different. Yet it is very good!

[glen]

Great thread. We don't have anything called atole down this far south. However, they grow a lot of Cuban pumpkin down there and they make pureed Zappallo. The other name is calabaza. Its a recipe that looks suspiciously similar to Georges recipe for atole. I get it served to me in a bowl on the plate along with the meal. I had one surviving vine this year out of 3 I planted. The harvest was big. I still have a giant pile of pumpkins in the kitchen from the one vine and many have been eaten and also given away.

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

Thanks again, for posting the pumpkin Atole recipe. What a nice, brisk, snowy day, to be drinking a hot cup of Atole. This is our 7th year to be making this from your recipe.

[macmex]

Yes indeed. Atole is the perfect drink on a cold, icy day. Dip some homemade bread in it, and you've got yourself a healthy, warming meal!