Doce de abóbor is a sweet pumpkin compote popular in Brazil & Portugal. It is available either as a firm, chewy sweet (much like the
fruit cheese I've posted about), or more commonly as a thick, cinnamon scented preserve. It is usually served with fresh cheese as a dessert (it goes beautifully with quark or ricotta), but can also be added to cornbread or muffin batter or warmed and dolloped over ice cream. My favourite use for it is to spread it on toast - yum! You can also find Doce de abóbor com coco, which is pumpkin & coconut preserve. Whatever version you try, it's a great way to use up a cheap Halloween pumpkin and will give you a sweet, buttery jam that will be a happy companion to pancakes, waffles & toasted muffins. Using a well flavoured, dense textured winter squash like Crown Prince or Hubbard will give you deeply complex, rich flavour (not that I'm biased!). This is a fairly simple recipe, but don't be tempted to omit the water, it's there to keep everything from catching on the pan & burning.
Doce de Abóbor1.6kg pumpkin or squash, peeled & cut into 2cm chunks (if you want to make Doce de abóbor com coco you'll need 800g pumpkin & 115g dessicated unsweetened coconut)
450g sugar (I use demerara)
200ml (just shy of 1 cup) water
1 cinnamon quill
Tip the water, pumpkin, sugar & cinnamon into a large pan & slowly bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft. If it needs a little assistance breaking down to a puree, mash with a fork, back of a spoon or potato masher (if using coconut, stir that in now). Simmer for 15 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened, but not stiff (think porridge consistency. As ususal). Spoon into clean, sterlised jars & store in the fridge once opened. Not that it'll last long.
The next post will be about something other than pumpkins, promise!
The next post will be about something other than pumpkins, promise!
2 comments:
A friend at work is Portuguese and she made some of this for everyone to try this week. It's YUMMY!
I made some Rum and pumpkin jam last year. still have to try it, but its been transported to my parents house in Wales for when we eventually move down. I'd love to try this: both versions, of course.
Thanks for the e mail too, it was most appreciated. I had to travel down to my parents for my mothers operation which was typically postponed. Now I am trying to catch up with my blog reads.
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