I very rarely deep fry anything, dear neighbors. The heavy feeling in my stomach, the lingering smell in my kitchen, the splattering oil at cooking time, none of this appeals to me. So if I share this recipe with you, it is because it won’t give you any of these inconveniences: the fried pumpkin cakes in the photo cook very quickly, and so do not taste greasy, and will not get your stove top dirty!
Truth be told, they almost taste like sweet cakes. As a matter of fact, while this recipe calls for paprika, fresh sage and hot pepper (optional), it could easily get a sweet makeover: a touch of sugar (or honey, or nothing even), tiny bits of apples, and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo 🧚♀️, the pumkpin turns into a coach, and the vegetable becomes a finger food dessert!
Ingredients, preferably organic
(4 servings as a side dish, 2 as a main dish)
– half of a nice pumpkin
– 1 whole egg
– 50 g / 1.75 oz cassava flour
– 50 g / 1.75 oz whole rice flour
– 2 tsp freshly chiseled sage / 1 tsp dry sage
– ½ tsp all natural sea salt
– ½ tsp paprika
– a pinch hot pepper (optional)
– ¼ tsp baking soda + some freshly squeezed lemon juice (not from a bottle, unless you like sulfites!)
– some oil for frying
How to:
1. Steam pumpkin (cut into large chunks, seeds removed) until you can easily run a knife through the pieces. I have read that it takes 10 minutes. In my old steamer it’s more like 50 minutes ! This of course can be done ahead of time, like the day before.
2. Scoop out 200 g / 7 oz of the pumpkin flesh, add one whole egg and blend until smooth.
3. Add flours, salt, sage, spices, then baking soda and lemon juice on top. It goes fizz, and you’ve got your kids watching you, tell them it’s magic powder 🧚♀️. Chemistry 101 can wait a little ☺️. Stir with a wooden spoon.
4. Shape small balls between the oiled palms of your hands and place on an oiled dish to prevent stickiness. I use a round coffee scoop to get even amounts of batter for each ball.
5. Fry in hot oil, on medium heat and turning the cakes over as soon as the bottom is a nice golden color. Finish cooking and place on folded paper towels to drain excess fat before serving.
You can also add small pieces of sulfite-free raw shrimp (see here for more info) to the batter just before shaping into balls. This is what you will end up with :
Our son, his wife and their cat came to spend a few days with us. I wanted for the four of us in France to celebrate Thanksgiving like our other two children, in an XS version like me, meaning we had chicken instead of turkey, served with parsnips, green beans (our own, frozen from the past summer), and these pumpkin cakes. To stay within the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, I made a special dessert with cranberries. I am not telling you any more about it : that recipe will be posted before Christmas !
And now for my enigma : what in the world happened to my trusted silicone pastry brush ? This is how I found it one morning…
A clue : fatty foods are essential to satiety 😉. Giving up ? Answer coming up in my next post !
Until then, dear neighbors, have a good time cooking and eating pumpkin cakes !
sulfite-free cooking 
These sound and look delicious. Shame about your pastry brush – very odd as the silicone ones are virtually indestructible! Looking forward to your festive cranberry recipe. Have a good week 🙂
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Thank you Kathryn!
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