November 27, 2009

• Wrist-Deep In Gourds

  Well, despite recovering from a sudden, but mercifully brief, cold, Z-man and I managed to make a Thanksgiving dinner.  Granted, the tofurkey took care of itself.  But the best part was getting to use the french cooking pumpkin I got from Mariquita Farms last week.

  It was a pretty good size one, and splitting it open and scooping out the fibers and seeds totally took me back to Halloweens past.  And that rich, earthy pumpkin smell too! The real deal, sans cinnamon and clove and all.  Just pure pumpkiny aroma.  I haven't done that in years.  It's messy and involved, but, man, it's worth it. 

  Getting that thing ready was what took up most of yesterday, actually.  It wasn't too huge, although despite making spicy pumpkin soup with lemon cashew cream, roasting the seeds, and using pumpkin in a vine/gourd veggie tagine, I still have a little left over. 

  The tagine was a mix of zucchini, eggplant, butternut squash, and pumpkin.  I started with the onion/tomato standard base with cinnamon, but no cumin this time around.  I didn't have any more preserved lemon, so had to settle for a little lemon juice.  It wasn't super tagine-y, but it was very tasty and went well with the other dishes.

  Z-Man made some excellent roasted red russet potato with rosemary (swoon).  I didn't even bother with cous-cous, this was so good and satisfactorily starchy.

  I also made another batch of passion fruit sorbet.  I think I was a bit stretched with my attention, since this batch came out a bit less intense than the last. However light it turned out, it was a very nice finisher to the meal, which wasn't a super-heavy Thanksgiving gorge-fest.  But it was very satisfying.

  The roasted pumpkin soup was just what I was aiming for.  I totally guessed at the recipe, based on other soups I've made, but it worked well.  I'll share what I did, but I was pretty much flying by the seat of my apron.  I'm guessing at the amounts here too, except for the spices, which I do remember.

  Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds and Lemon "Cream"

  1.5 lbs fresh pumpkin, cut roughly into large cubes and de-rinded
  3 red padron peppers, seeded and sliced in halves lengthwise
  5 cloves garlic, whole and peeled
  4 dried red chiles
  1 small yellow onion
  1 quart vegetable stock
  1/2 quart vegetable broth
  7 anise stars
  6 whole cloves
  1 cinnamon stick
  salt
  olive oil (about 1/4 a cup and 2 tbsp)
  
  1 cup raw cashews
  1/4 cup lemon juice (meyer lemon if you can -- I didn't have any)
  1 tsp white miso paste
  2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  
  toasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish*
  
  1) Preheat the oven to 400°.  (I used the convection setting this time).  Also, soak the cashews in warm water.
  2) Grind up the star anise, cloves, and cinnamon together
  3) In a large bowl, add about 1/4 cup of olive oil and add the ground spices, reserving about 1 tbsp
  4) Toss the pumpkin, peppers, red chiles, and garlic in the oil and spices until thoroughly covered
  5) Spread out the pumpkin/peppers/garlic on a non-stick or foil-covered roasting sheet, and roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Check on it about midway and toss it all around to make sure nothing is sticking.  The padron peppers and chiles will blacken a bit, and the garlic and pumpkin will get slightly dark around the edges.  Don't let them burn, though!
  6) In a large soup pot, add about 2 tbps olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.  When hot, add the 1 tbsp spices you reserved and the chopped onion.  Pick off the padrons, chiles, and garlic from the sheet and add to the oil.  Add salt**.  Sautée for about five to seven minutes, until the onion is just translucent.
  7) Add the pumpkin chunks, and toss the whole shebang together.
  8) Add the stock and broth, turn up the heat to high, and bring to a boil.
  9) Reduce heat and simmer on low for about 30 minutes
  10) Cut the heat.  Either using an immersion blender or a food processor, purée the whole mix down to a smooth, velvety texture.  Be really careful doing this with hot liquid.  I was juggling several things at once, of course, and was a bit cavalier about my immersion blender and got a few spatter-induced ouchies because of it.  If you're using a blender or processor, only blend a cup or two at a time and make sure it doesn't volcano on you.
  11) Return the soup to the pot (if you used a processor).
  12) Drain the cashews and add to a food processor (clean yours out if you used it for the soup).  Add the miso and nutritional yeast.  Turn on the processor and slowly add the lemon juice through the hopper.  You may have to add some plain water (or perhaps more lemon juice, or diluted lemon juice) to get the mix down to the consistency you like.  You can actually do this without the miso and yeast, as I did.  The texture is a bit different, but this is the "usual" recipe for making a vegan lemon cream.
  13) Serve soup.  Garnish with lemon "cream" and toasted seeds.

  * Note about the seeds:  I actually used two kinds, since I was also using leftover butternut squash.  The pumpkin seeds I dry-roasted with salt, red pepper powder, and cardamom, also in the convection oven at 400°.  It took only about 15 minutes.  The butternut squash seeds, I roasted in tamari soy sauce and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.  I think the tamari ones came out a little better, but they are a bit salty, so use sparingly or let your diners garnish their own.

  ** I got to use some Cyprus black lava sea salt I'd picked up last year in Tarpon Springs.  It'd super dark and leaves grey dust on your fingers, but I figured it'd be a nice smoky addition, and it seemed to be.  I used about two pinches here.

  • 9:30 am
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