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What has happened to long-lasting pumpkin?

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Seasonal pumpkins don’t last as long as those that have been frost hardened.
Seasonal pumpkins don’t last as long as those that have been frost hardened. Supplied

Why do chefs these days put smears and gels on food? G. Stockdale

Somehow you have made modern dining sound like a trip to the clinic. Many years ago, when I first started food writing, a wide-eyed young chef, fresh back from France, taught me that a dish was never complete without saucing. "It's all about moisture," he said. "You try eating a mouthful of puff pastry. Impossible. Your mouth would dry out in seconds," he told me. "No normal human can produce that much saliva. Add meat in gravy, which what pie filling essentially is, and you get something edible."

Eat a lean RSL steak by itself and it will be cold by the time you finish it. Smother it in pepper, mushroom or red wine sauce and you can engulf it before the next race at Dapto. Purees, smears and gels are the modern version of the sauce. Instead of being made from the highly reduced and time-consuming stocks they can be Thermomixed pulps of seasonal vegetables that bring another layer of flavour and much needed moisture to a dish. Purees, smears and gels are also incredibly viscous, so they won't bleed into a crisp batter or starkly contrasting textured dish. Think of them of the chips to the gravy, the Rosella sauce to the meat pie or the chateaubriand sauce for your next sirloin. Oh. That young chef? He had just opened a little restaurant in Carlton, Melbourne. His name is Shannon Bennett.

Purees, smears and gels are the modern version of the sauce.
Purees, smears and gels are the modern version of the sauce.Ken Irwin
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I am trying to find good old waxed paper. A. Matheson

Back in the days when colour television was novel and telephones had curly cords, school-lunch sandwiches were wrapped, no, sorry, carefully folded in waxed paper. It was slightly clammy, waxed – naturally – and was vaguely pink-and-rainbow coloured in a way that would make the federal member for Dawson, George Christensen, nervous. I have scoured shelves and Googled my fingers off but can't find good old-fashioned waxed paper. Can any of our readers help?

What has happened to long-lasting pumpkin? J. Latimer

A mate of mine who grows pumpkins in the southern colder areas told me that she holds pumpkins on the vine long after ripening to allow them to harden with the frost. This allows the skin to thicken and the pumpkins, particularly the older varieties such as Windsor and Queensland Blue, can be cellared over the winter months. The commercial reality is that these days growers harvest pumpkins when ripe and send them straight to market. The downside is the seasonal pumpkins don't last. The upside is that these days pumpkins are grown year round in the warmer areas of Australia.

Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @Foodcornish

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Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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