Yummy Stuff - Calabaza and Sofrito

This is one of the huge calabazas growing on one vine from one seed! It kept growing and growing and I kept asking my neighbor if it was ready to pick. Things here aren't what they seem - you pick oranges (chinas) green, limes turn yellow when ready, so how is one supposed to know? Anyway, I had to wait until it started to get little streaks of orange and the skin looked a certain way and then I picked it.


The rind is very very thin and the pumpkin is rock solid. I don't think it is latex, but something odd is emitted when you cut into it and it beads up almost like wax or silicone or something. These things are difficult to cut because of the size and hardness! They are not pithy like the pumpkins I know. My neighbor made sure I saved the seeds. She said something about the bottom of the pumpkin - if it is large and round the seeds will germinate and make pumpkins but if it is a small circle it is male and you won't get fruit. I'd never heard of that before but since this is a supposed "good one" I saved a load of seeds. The rind is almost like plastic or the heavy wax you find on some cheeses. Odd indeed!


So one day a while back my neighbor comes over with a bowl of stuff. I guess it is sofrito making day! I had watched her make the stewed red beans before and discovered the secret of sofrito. It is a lot of basic ingredients that are simple and not spicy...and a little bit of magic since it makes everything taste more rich and complex (when it doesn't seem like it should).


We've got aji dulce (I have a small tree of these peppers), garlic, culantro, cilantro, oregano, cebolla, green cooking peppers, a red pepper (for color) and that is it. Maybe salt. No aceite! Hooray! We whirl it all together in the blender and it turns into a frothy green soup.

This mixture is then put into ice cube trays so it is in nice portions for cooking! Ice cube trays are great for orange juice, sofrito, purees of all kinds. You can dump the cubes into baggies and pull out what you need easily. Great for making marinades, smoothies (a chunk of pureed mango, a cube of guineo, a cube of china) or main meals.

Tonight I was trying to process some of the calabaza (doesn't freeze real well). I made habicuelas with sofrito (2 cubes), red beans (canned since I was feeling lazy), olives, capers, tomato sauce, chicken broth, and calabaza! The pumpkin gave a nice sweetness and thickness to the mix and it was very yummy. I think I could eat that every day. So two good things. I really like the pumpkin - it doesn't have fibers and purees really well. The color is very orange which is nice since most everything else is white. The meat is really firm and surprisingly sweet and good!