Fried Pumpkin with Honey and Walnuts – Easy Dessert Recipe
Once, on holiday, I stumbled upon a honey festival. Quite a sight — a whole town of honey! I remember one beekeeper selling delicious honey in little vessels made from pumpkins. The engraving read: “Pumpkin honey in a pumpkin.” The idea was that his hard-working bees gathered their honey mostly from flowering pumpkin fields — and then the honey was poured into a pumpkin vessel.
Pumpkin is a vegetable everyone knows, right from childhood. Remember pumpkin porridge with milk? The common pumpkin is a large, smooth, fleshy fruit with a very hard rind and tasty seeds. Surprisingly, its flesh (which is actually as hard as a rock) contains up to 10% sugars and more carotene than carrots. Pumpkin keeps beautifully all winter, but only whole and undamaged — apparently the armor it is clad in lets nothing through at all.
A ripe pumpkin is a wonderful vegetable to cook with. Pumpkin porridge is, of course, sacred! But pumpkin is also boiled, made into soup and fritters, and fried. It goes into jams, preserves and desserts. Fried pumpkin is delicious, pumpkin with honey too, and it pairs perfectly with vanilla and cinnamon. Also try the pumpkin dessert with berries and cinnamon.
Around the world, pumpkins are traditionally weighed in pounds. I once read that the record pumpkin weighed more than 1,800 pounds (800 kg). I was lucky enough to see a big pumpkin in person. Not quite that big, but no small fry either. At the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, NV, USA, they had a 722-pound (327 kg) pumpkin on display. Not a record, but respectable.
I have to admit I have disliked pumpkin porridge since childhood, even though my mom and grandma, believing it was good for me, fed it to me all the time. But I love pumpkin fritters, especially with nuts and honey. Pumpkin with honey is always tasty, boiled or fried — it makes no difference. Whatever the cooking method, pumpkin cooks fast, usually in 15–20 minutes. Most often the flesh is peeled, boiled until soft and then turned into a dish. Cream of pumpkin soup is also made from boiled flesh puréed until smooth.
In my opinion, however you cook pumpkin, it is best served as a dessert — pumpkin with honey, for example.
Pumpkin with honey is a very simple dish. All you need is a very ripe dessert pumpkin with sweet flesh and natural light honey — linden, acacia or wildflower. Pumpkin makes tasty pancakes, but fried pumpkin is something special.
Ingredients
1 serving
- Ripe pumpkin 2 slices
- Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
- Flour 1 tbsp
- Natural honey, walnuts to taste
- Sugar, vanillin, cinnamon to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- When I was a kid, sweet little pumpkins rarely grew in my grandma's vegetable garden. Usually just one variety was grown. The pumpkins were quite tasty and made excellent porridge (for those who liked it). Sometimes they were baked in the oven, and pumpkin with honey baked in a wood-fired oven is really delicious. These days supermarkets usually sell smallish elongated pumpkins, up to 3 kg, with the seeds clustered near one end. A very tasty, sweet pumpkin — I like it.
- Pumpkins like these make excellent fried pumpkin. What's more, it's very convenient to cook this dish in portions: for one serving, just cut two round, puck-like slices. The slices shouldn't be too thick — 2–2.5 cm at most, otherwise the pumpkin won't cook through and won't be soft.
- Peel the rind off the slices with a sharp steel knife. Pumpkin is so hard that it's better not to use ceramic knives — they will almost certainly break. Place the slices on a plate.
- Sprinkle the peeled pumpkin with a little sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of vanillin. Natural, fragrant vanilla is best. Sprinkle the pumpkin with water or run a wet hand over its surface — this helps the sugar dissolve.
- Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Refined sunflower oil with no smell is best. When the oil is hot and starts to crackle, dredge the pumpkin slices in flour and place them in the pan.
- Fry the pumpkin until a golden crust forms — this is important. Careful: turn the slices very gently. They are fairly heavy and, if one slips while you turn it, it will send up a cloud of hot oil spatter.
- As soon as the crust is golden, turn the heat down to the minimum, cover the pan with a lid and fry the pumpkin, turning it occasionally, until done. Check doneness with the tip of a thin knife: just pierce a slice, and if the knife goes in without much resistance, the fried pumpkin is ready. On average, it takes 15–20 mins under the lid over low heat.
- While the pumpkin fries, prepare the honey and nuts. Pick any bits of shell and membrane out of the walnut kernels. Toast the nuts lightly in a dry frying pan until they smell nice. Alternatively, microwave them for 30–60 seconds.
- The light honey served with the pumpkin needs no preparation. If it has crystallized or is very thick, put it in a cup, add a few drops of boiled water and stir.
- Place the fried pumpkin on a plate and drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with the toasted walnuts.
- This pumpkin dessert with walnuts and vanilla is served hot — that's when it tastes best.
- Actually, pumpkin with honey isn't just a dessert. For me, it made a delicious breakfast. You can also drizzle it with sweet cherry jam.
- I'm sure kids will love fried pumpkin with honey, especially if they don't like pumpkin porridge.
| Yield: | 1 serving |
| Calories: | 160 |
| Prep: | 10 mins |
| Cooking: | 20 mins |
| Ready in: | 30 mins |
| Category: | Desserts and Drinks |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.3
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