Pumpkin is not the most popular product in our kitchens, unfortunately. Its useful and medicinal properties deserve much more attention from the hostesses. Pumpkin porridge is tasty and healthy, it is recommended for diet and baby food. In combination with cereals, it is a hearty hot dish. In Russian cooking , pumpkin and pumpkin dishes appeared no earlier than the 17th century, and there are many recipes for them.
During fasting, pumpkin porridge with millet, boiled on water, was the most common dish. Millet and pumpkin, enriching and complementing each other, made it possible to fill in the lack of vitamins, minerals, fats in the diet of harsh fasting.
An old and simple recipe for lean millet porridge is available even to an inexperienced chef. For cooking, we need half a kilogram of already peeled pumpkin, one and a half glasses of millet, three glasses of water, salt.
Put the pumpkin, cut into small pieces, into cold water and cook. My millet and add to the already soft pumpkin, salt, cook for another half hour on low heat. When the pumpkin porridge thickens, it is better to put the pan with it in the oven (80-90 degrees of heating), but if this is not possible, then you can “wrap” the porridge warmly. Actually, both the oven and the wrapping of porridge is a way to imitate the effect of the Russian oven, where cereal porridge, pumpkin were chopped, and this made them especially tasty.
They serve such porridge with honey, jam, some sour-milk product. If desired, a casserole or pumpkin-millet pancakes can be prepared from it . For casserole, you need to beat 2-3 eggs into the already prepared chilled porridge, add a little flour, mix thoroughly, transfer to a heat-resistant patch. The oven should be heated to 180 degrees, bake until golden brown.
For fritters, add 2-3 eggs to the porridge, half a glass of flour and sour cream. Fry fritters in vegetable oil.
Pumpkin porridge with carrots, millet and milk is a traditional recipe for South Russian cuisine. For two full servings, we need 250 grams of pumpkin and carrot, 200 grams (glass) of polished millet, milk - at least three glasses, one parsley root, celery root - 50 grams, salt, sugar, butter.
Soak millet for an hour, chopped peeled pumpkin and carrots (on a coarse grater or in a grinder), chop the roots (parsley and celery).
In boiling milk, dip the carrots, pumpkin, roots and cook over high heat. After fifteen minutes, add the swollen millet, salt and sugar (to taste), and butter (two tablespoons) to the milk-vegetable mixture. Cook porridge over low heat, tightly closing the lid, for another half an hour, then leave it on the stove to turn off. Serve hot with melted butter.
Such pumpkin and vegetable porridge, cooked on the water, can be an excellent side dish for a meat dish. In this embodiment, at the cooking stage, you can add sweet peppers and tomatoes.
In baby food, all the beneficial properties of pumpkin are fully appreciated. Pumpkin and meat puree, mashed apples with pumpkin are included in the diet of very young children, cereal pumpkin porridge is recommended for children already a year old.
Soft fiber, iron, carotene (which is five times more than in carrots), pectin - all these substances make pumpkin an indispensable baby food.
Pumpkin porridge with rice will appeal to both children and adults. We rub the peeled pumpkin (300 g) on a coarse grater and cook two glasses of water with rice (100 grams). When both pumpkin and rice become soft, add one liter of milk, a little butter, salt. This porridge is especially tasty sweetened, so add sugar to taste and pour a bag of vanilla sugar. In milk, over low heat, cook rice and pumpkin for 15-20 minutes. Like any porridge, this one requires additional heat treatment - stewing. We leave it for half an hour in a warm place. Milk pumpkin porridge with rice can be served with honey, jam, some berry syrup.