Austrian Pumpkin Seed Oil

This morning we have been having an Austrian sort of morning. Georg played Andre Heller's latest 3-disc compendium and I made scrambled eggs with curly endive and pumpkin seed oil.

Pumpkin seed oil is a precious export in the Styrian region of Austria. They grow their own type of oil-pumpkins there, gently roast the seeds, and bottle the oil. When I was in Austria I ate it on pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto, as well as the Styrian beetlebean salad (see previous post).

Pumpkin seed oil is also supposed to be really good for you. It contains the nutrients vitamin A, E, Zinc, and Omega fatty acids. It regulates blood pressure and cholesterol, and also serves as some sort of anti-inflammatory, as it is known to help men with benign prostate enlargement.

I recently bought my own bottle and have been trying it on different things. Last week I put it on some boiled broccoli raab (rapini) and the nuttiness really complemented the bitter green. We ate the greens with maple barbecue marinated salmon and it was heavenly. In the future I'd like to make the classic Styrian pumpkin seed oil dressing (a mixture of pumpkin seed oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt) as a dip for beef kabobs. I've even heard the oil is really good on vanilla ice cream.