You Must Brine the Pumpkin Seeds in Beer and Roast Them in the Air.
I don’t know how to carve pumpkins. I can control a primitive face with a toothy smile and triangular eyes or simple ideological symbols , but that’s it! However, I cook pumpkin seeds very well.
Roasted pumpkin seeds are usually fine. At best, they are crispy chunks of highly flavored fiber. At worst, they are tough, chewy, and soft. Most people soften the hardness and softness with a simple 10-minute soak in salt water, but I like to go a little further and dissolve them overnight in a hot vinegar-beer hop mixture. The deep fat fryer takes care of the texture.
Nightly soaking may seem like overkill, but it really matters. I discovered this by accident. I carved out my elegant Lenin Lantern last night and boiled the seeds in my regular beer brine, intending to dry and air-roast them tonight. But then I decided to hang the fruit basket from the ceiling (to make room on the counter) and forgot about the seeds, which I set aside for cooling until this morning.
I drained and dried them as usual, then poured them into the deep fryer basket (small pan removed) and poured olive oil over them. I then air-roasted them at 300 ℉ (the same temperature I use when I roast them in a large oven) in just 10 minutes (which is a third of how long they take in a large oven). They were perfect.
The night brine soaked the seeds with tons of scent. I could even taste the hops from whatever beer I was using (a very hoppy IPA the man left in my fridge). They were a little sweet, a little spicy, and quite salty. I didn’t even finish them with salt. (Though I briefly thought about adding a few pinches of MSG.)
In addition to shortening cooking times, the rapid circulation of hot air in the deep fat fryer produced evenly crispy, lightly browned seeds with more crunch and easy chewing. I don’t think I will cook pumpkin seeds any differently from now on.
To make them you will need:
- Pumpkin seeds (just over a cup)
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup beer (If you want to make it even more festive, you can use pumpkin beer. If you want to give your seeds a hoppy, floral character, use an IPA.)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- Olive oil
Rinse pumpkin seeds under hot water in a colander. Pour them into a saucepan along with the remaining ingredients (except the olive oil) and bring everything to a boil. Watch carefully because beer tends to boil over. Remove the pan from heat, cover and set aside for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight. (I left mine on the counter without worry because the brine is very sour, but move it to the refrigerator as soon as it reaches room temperature if that makes you nervous.)
Drain the brine away from the seeds and pat dry with paper towels, then add enough seeds to the deep fryer to cover the bottom of the basket in one layer. (If you have a tiny model like mine, you may have to work in batches.) Sprinkle enough olive oil to cover the seeds and shake the basket well. Cook for 10-13 minutes at 300 ℉, until the pumpkin seeds are browned around the edges. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.