My homemade pumpkin-kalabasa pie!

I am giving you now the recipe for my pumpkin-kalabasa pie, Feyma’s style. It’s really a simple recipe. You also just need another local ingredients here in the Philippines. The main ingredients would be the kalabasa (a local squash). You can buy the Kalabasa in any malls  here. Of course a good and cheap kalabasa can be found in the palengke (public market). At least there you can really choose the size of the kalabasa that you want. We are so choosy with ours. We want it the outside will be on the almost orange side. It means the kalabasa is ripe and good to cook for the purpose of making pie.

My niece Glenda is the expert of choosing ripe kalabasa, since her parents, they had a whole farm of it. She’s trained by her parents to harvest and choose the ripe one. So when it comes to buying our kalabasa here, I am sending her. Now our helper is good too. But I am learning in that department. I’m kind of good on doing that now too. 🙂 I’ve seen butternut squash here in some of our malls. But I am not using that for my pie. It’s more money than the kalabasa. So for sure we will never use butternut squash.

“First job before making the pie is to make the squash (kalabasa) puree”:

 

To boil the squash:

• 1 whole ripe squash (kalabasa) – cut into cubes
• Pinch of salt
• Brown sugar

Procedures:

• Wash the kalabasa and peel off the skin. Make sure to not leave any of the skin and the seeds and the stringy fibers before cutting into cubes. If skin not properly remove it might give a bitter taste. And it will ruin the taste of your pie.
• Put water to a big pot and put a pinch of salt and bring to a boil.
• Add the kalabasa to the boiling water and cook for about 40 minutes or until its tender when pierced with a fork.
• Puree the kalabasa in a blender, or food processor or in a food mill or with a hand held blender or potato masher or by hand. Giving you too many options there. LOL
• Let it cool. Save the extra for kalabasa bread, cookies or a pancake.

                                       

                                               ***** Kalabasa (squash) – Pumpkin Pie *****

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2  cups pureed kalabasa
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup evaporated milk (Alaska, Alpine & Angel brand or other brand is good too)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• A pinch of allspice
• A pinch of  ground cloves
• A pinch of ground ginger
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C).
2. In a mixer: combine the squash, brown sugar, cornstarch, egg, milk, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Mix until combined and smooth (might have to use strainer to make sure it’s not lumpy).
3. Pour into the unbaked pie shell.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for an hour or more, or until when you insert in the middle of the pie with toothpick it comes out clean.

Let it cool before serving. When serve put whip cream on top. Yummy for your tummy. 🙂

Have fun eating. Maybe you will make kalabasa pie for your Noche Buena.

Merry Christmas To All Of You LIP Family/Reader!!!