Pumpkin Flip

   I love pumpkin pie and I love fall!  I’m a big fan of the coming season’s food and drinks including gluwine, spiced rum, and my pumpkin flip.
   You can buy a small sized pumpkin for under $2 at most grocery stores.  The process of gutting and puréeing it is pretty easy.  Cut the pumpkin in half and use a spoon to take out all the insides.  Put the seeds and stringy stuff in a bowl, we’ll come back to those in a bit.  Cut off the stems and place in a large pot with a cover and about two to three inches of water.  Cook on medium heat for about 45 minutes and check (steaming does it in 10-15 minutes but we are looking to absorb as much water as we can.)  The skin should want to just fall off the “meat” of the pumpkin.  After you separate the skin from the pumpkin meat we are going to puree the chunks in a food processor.  You could use a blender or even a hand held blender right into the pot and you should have a thick, orange, pumpkin puree when you’re done.  Let the puree sit in a strainer for an hour or so to drain, what you have left is pumpkin water, discard the pulp.  From a pretty small pumpkin, just under 2 pounds, I got about 14 ounces of pumpkin water.
   Now we have a cooked pumpkin purée water to use as we wish.  A “flip” is a type of drink that uses an entire egg in the ingredients.  That is what we are doing here to create an almost pie-like filling creamy texture.  I decided to use whiskey as my base spirit and why the hell not?

       Northwest Pumpkin Flip
       2 oz whiskey (I used bullet)
       1 oz simple syrup
       Light 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin spice seasoning (I used McCormick)
       2 oz pumpkin purée water
       1 egg, whole
       Combine all into a shaker filled with ice and shake very hard to emulsify the egg.  Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice (try this with crushed ice and without ice too) and top with a straw and 4-6 seasoned pumpkin seeds, see below.
   The seeds are going to be the garnish as well as a side snack.  Pumpkin seeds are really good when they are cooked right and you can add a variety of seasonings from sea salt to a fall seasoning blend I have made for the last couple years.  I’m only using a ½ cup of seeds because I haven’t talked my managers into putting this on a seasonal menu… which we don’t even have.  In the meantime I’m making just enough for some friends.  Wash your seeds in a bowl and clean all the stringy pumpkin guts off.  Strain the water out and put the cleaned seeds back into a bowl.

       Mark’s Fall Pumpkin Seed Recipe
       1/2 cup washed, drained pumpkin seeds
       1 Tablespoon melted butter
       1 teaspoon lemon juice
       1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
       1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
       1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
       4 dashes peychaud’s bitters
       Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.  Mix together all ingredients, seeds last, in a measuring cup or bowl and lay flat on a cooking sheet, allow to dry for about twenty minutes, (or use hair dryer, but be careful) and put into the oven for about 20 minutes or until a golden brown color.  I stir the seeds with a fork every couple minutes or so.  Watch these closely as different ovens will cook these faster or slower, I have burnt my share of pumpkin seeds.

Article and Drink by: Mark Sexauer