Pepitas - My New Favorite Nutty Thing!

Pepitas sounds so much cooler than pumpkin seeds (and these are just the meaty part of the pumpkin seed).  You have to get these and roast them up. They jump a little and start to brown up. (They jump kind of like the Mexican jumping beans we had when we were kids - they were in a little plastic box and when you held the box in your hand it warmed them up and they jumped. I found out later there was a little worm or bug in there and when it got warm it made it uncomfortable and it jumped to get away from your heat---ewww - bad memory and not terribly PC, eh?)

I first had these at a class at A Thyme for Everything in LSMO (and if you haven't been there, and you're in this part of the country - you are missing out on it BIG TIME!) Anyway, it was a Mexican Christmas cooking class by Chef Nancy Stark. We watched her make tamales, Queso Fundido with freshly fried tortilla chips, tortillas, Mole, an amazing rice dish and Churos with a decadent chocolate pudding-like dip. (Do you remember the Coyote and the RoadRunner? When Wile E. was thinking of eating that fast little bird he'd start drooling. I get it now because that is exactly what I'm doing after writing what we had!) The pepitas changed everything, though.

In a subsequent weekend, we went to the "Mexican Price Chopper" in Kansas City, Kansas. It's true, if you want real Mexican bits for your meal - you have to go where they carry them. Masa (not just cornmeal), New Mexico Peppers, Poblanos, LARD (it's true, you can't find it everywhere), you can even get your tamale masa made up in big old bags in the meat counter. And we had to scour the store for pepitas. You could get them already roasted and salted, but I just wanted the roasted ones. You do it in a frying pan - dry - no oils. They have this smokey, rich, warm flavor. She sprinkled them on the Queso Fundido with goat cheese (that's the Queso below, just out of the oven and with the fantastic pepitas sprinkled over it). 

It. Was. Life-Changing. 

 

Again with the "Mexican Price Chopper" - and that is how it is known around these parts by Anglos and Mexicans alike - you can't just make Anglo foods meld to your will to taste authentic. We made pork tamales with pork butt. I got the dried New Mexico peppers, blackened them, soaked them, scraped them (I get why these are only made in huge batches and once a year!). I made the masa for the outside of the tamales (and in true Cookin'Neen fashion, I tried to imagine what ELSE could go in tamales - what kind of sweet tasty treat or what kind of veggie-stuffed tamale would stand up) and was able to spread that creamy corn paste on the corn husks just right - yes, it impressed the heck out of me. We had a spinach and rice dish that was divine.

But the pepitas have my heart. I put them on salads, on anything with cheese, and just eat them out of the jar. (I roast up about a pint of them at a time.) My problem is finding them. I found SOME at the Price Chopper in Greenwood, Missouri. Bottom Shelf. In a corner. They're so good, they should have their own display like avocados do.


Next year, Christmas at Rancho NeenAnn will be muy festive, and muy delicious!!