A pumpkin in the Garden

Have you ever heard the saying...........A single pumpkin in the vegetable patch will make you smile, but THREE of them and you feel like they are laughing at you.

  That is just what Nigel Slater says in his book TENDER, a cook and his vegetable patch.  Truthfully, I have not had much experience with cooking pumpkins but this year things were about to change after a dear friend gave me several small pumpkins.  They were all so bright and shiny and I thought just the right size for baking.......not carving:-).  In the past, I would just hollow out the interior with my hands and maybe carve out some eyes, and cut jagged teeth into its skin, and throw the flesh away. I was just a young kid than and probably didn't even know the flesh was edible.  I only remember my mom making pie with pumpkin that came in a can.  A good pie I might add so why go to all the trouble of splitting open a pumpkin, removing the flesh for cooking, sorting out the seeds to wash, dry and roast.  Well after reading Nigel Slater's chapter on pumpkins, I just couldn't resist trying some of the yummy recipes.

So lets get started.......

    

The first recipe I tried was Roasted Pumpkin with Caramelized Sausages.  What's not to like all ready?  I baked the pumpkin halves for over an hour with just a bit of olive oil drizzled over.  After removing the halves from the oven,  I carefully scooped out the flesh, placed the cooked pumpkin in a small glass baking dish with a bit more olive oil, salt and pepper and back in the oven to caramelize.  I than mashed this with a bit more butter and tried to get it as smooth as possible.  You can might even chose to use a food processor especially if you have kids....or a picky husband.  Either or........they probably really dislike lumps.

Moving on to the Sausages, my husband's mouth watering all ready as he peaked into the oven to see those babes getting darker and richer by the minute.  Here is my version of  Nigel Slater's Sausage and Pumpkin Mash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Put the Sausages in a baking pan large enough to take them in a single layer.  If they overlap, they won't cook properly.  I n a bowl mix the mustard's, honey, and lemon juice and stir well.  Pour them over the sausages and toss gently.  Bake for twenty-five to thirty minutes, rolling the sausages over in the honey and mustard mixture once or twice, so that they eventually take on a sticky, glossy coat.

Divide the mash among four plates and pop the sausages on top.  YUM

I also made use of the seeds by soaking them overnight in sea salt water, drained them and dry roasted them on parchment in a 150 oven for 24 hours.  My husband loved them..........they didn't last too long!

  The next day I decided to use the second pumpkin I cooked in more of a THAI dish.  I used Chickpeas, Lemongrass, and Cilantro.  Sweet Squashes marry well with the earthy flavor of beans and lentils.  Since both my husband and I love Chickpeas I knew this was going to be a winner.  Besides, Chickpeas are chewy and hold up well in dishes that are slow-cooked.

Nigel paired Lemongrass with the Chickpeas not only to lift their spirits but also to return some of the lemony freshness to them.  My husband teases me about lemons constantly because I am always buying them.  He thinks I should start buying them by the case.  I just keep reminding him how good they are for you because of their cleansing properties and are smoothies taste so much better with added lemon.  I add an entire lemon to our smoothie every morning.  So that makes 7 lemons a week or 28 lemons a month:-)  Now that is a lemon lover!

The next recipe is suitable for vegans too and even though neither myself, and definitely not my husband are vegan, we loved this!  And just as Nigel said, bean dishes often taste better the next day when all the ingredients have had a chance to get acquainted.

This serves 4 to 6
Dried Chickpeas - 1 cup soaked in water for several hours (overnight is easiest)
onions - 2 medium
peanut oil - 2 tablespoons (plus a little more later)
garlic - 4 cloves
ginger - a thumb size piece
ground coriander - 2 teaspoons
ground tumeric - 2 teaspoons
green cardamon pods - 6
hot red chiles - 2
pumpkin - 1 pound peeled and seeded (more seeds for my honey)
vegetable stock 1 cup
coconut milk - 13/4 cups
yellow mustard seeds a tablespoon
cilantro leaves - a handful

to serve
cooked basmati rice for 4 to 6
limes - 2 halved

Drain the chickpeas and bring them to a boil in deep, unsalted water.  Let them simmer for 45 minutes until tender.  Drain

Peel the onions and chop them quite finely.  Pour the oil into a deep, heavy pot and add the onions, letting them cook over medium heat until soft and translucent.

Meanwhile peel the ginger, garlic and if you can find lemon grass, remove the tough leaves.  However, since neither grocery in my home town happen to have fresh lemon grass, I settled for this convenient tube of organic lemon grass.  Superb!  Make the above into a rough paste.  Stir into the softened onions and continue to cook.  Add the ground coriander and turmeric, than lightly cruse the seeds of the green cardamoms and seed and finely chop the fresh Chile's before stirring the in.  Keep the heat fairly low and on no account allow the ingredients to brown.

Stir in the coconut milk and continue to simmer.

 Put a splash of oil into a not stick pan and tip in the yellow mustard seeds.  As soon as they start to pop, add them to the pumpkin together with the cilantro leaves.  Serve with rice and the lime halves, ready to squeeze at the last minute.

As you can see, I made use of those delicious, crunchy, and slightly salted, pumpkin seeds for a garnish..  

Tune in for more pumpkin recipes soon.............I have more pumpkin to use thanks to my lovely friend Lisa.  

A Taste of Asian Cooking

Summer is almost over and once again we're approaching fall.  As much as I love summer, I am still quite sad to say good bye to Summer 2011.  I guess the highlight of my summer was of course my trip to China with my husband and mother.  We had such fun visiting my brother and his family in their beautiful home.  I am so proud of my nieces.  They have adjusted so well and are just as active over in China as they were back here in America.  The culture in Asia is dramatically different which was a bit troubling but for the most part.........we loved Asia, especially the authentic Chinese Cooking.  They sure know how to prepare fresh veggies that are irresistible.  So once again I will do my best to experiment in my own kitchen with some Asian dishes for my guests.


We started with some Vegetarian Egg Rolls, Dumplings, and Spicy Chickpeas. 

The Spicy Chickpeas were my favorite but my husband loved the Dumplings, but then again, he is a pasta lover no matter how it's prepared. For the Chickpeas I soaked some Garbanzo beans the night before, cooked them till they were tender, drained them and than the fun begins.

I sauteed a small onion for a few minutes, added a 1 1/2 in piece of fresh ginger finely chopped and a couple cloves of garlic also finely chopped.  Next of course whats adds to the beautiful coloring is a small amount of tumeric.....1/4 tsp.  Stir fry this for less than a minute and than add 1 lb of peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes.  Cook this up till it has reduced to a thick sauce and just before the end of cooking I stirred in chopped Cilantro and Garam Masala.  You can serve at once with some Raita (yogurt combined with scallions, cumin seeds and fresh mint and if desired a pinch of cayenne pepper), however these are quite yummy at room temp or even cold!

After about an hour of great conversation while sipping on some wine, enjoying some wonderful egg rolls, dumplings and of course the Chickpeas, we moved on to the main course.  So far my guests approved of my Chinese Cooking which I have very little experience with besides the standard "American" stir fry that most of us probably have prepared.  However, after so many wonderful dishes in China, I was eager to learn more and possibly duplicate some of those dishes we enjoyed on our trip.

I decided on a Green Salad with a spicy Dressing paired with Fresh Raspberries and Goat Cheese,  Chinese Greens with Oyster Sauce, and Finally, Glazed Chicken with peppers and Cashew Nuts.  Instead of serving the Chicken dish with the usual white sticky rice, I used a specialty Asian pasta which I ordered from the Internet.

 
Here the Chinese Greens are prepared in a very simple way - stir fried and served with an oyster sauce.  I used about a pound of Bok Choy.
Step 1 Trim the Chinese Greens by removing any discolored leaves and damaged stems.  Chop these into manageable pieces.
Step 2  Heat a wok (or heavy cast iron skillet - my personal choice) until hot, add 2 tbsp of peanut oil and swirl it around.
Step 3  Add the Greens and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the greens have wilted a little.
Step 4  Add the Oyster Sauce and continue to stir-fry a few seconds more until the greens are cooked but still slightly crisp.
Serve immediately

To prepare the main course of Glazed Chicken with Cashew Nuts I used a Hoisin Sauce which lends a sweet yet slightly hot note to this chicken dish.  Both my husband and I love a bit of spice!  The Cashew nuts add a pleasing contrast of texture too.  LOVE this dish!

This serves 4

3/4 cups cashew nuts
1 red bell pepper and one yellow if desired like me for color
1 lb of skinless and boneless chicken breasts
3 tbsp of peanut oil
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine or medium dry sherry
3 tbsp of hoisin sauce
2 tsp of sesame oil
5-6 scallions green parts only, cut into 1 inch lengths

Step 1  Heat a wok until hot, add the cashew nuts and stir-fry over low to medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove and set aside
Step 2 Halve the peppers and remove the seeds.  Slice the pepper and chicken into finger-length strips.
Step 3  Heath the wok again until hot, add the oil and swirl it around.  Add the garlic and let it sizzle in the oil for a few seconds.  Add the pepper and chicken and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
Step 4  Add the rice wine or sherry and hoisin sauce.  Continue to stir-fry until the chicken is tender and all the ingredients are evenly glazed.
Step 5  Stir in the sesame oil, toasted cashew nuts and scallion tips.  Serve immediately with rice or noodles.

So that was our Asian Experience for this time.....YUM!

I was fortunate to receive the cookbook as a gift titled:   A FLASH IN THE PAN by Shirley Gill and Liz Trigg.  In their book they have 100 fast and furious recipes for wok and stir-fry.  Every recipe has step by step instructions and not only that, a very helpful ingredient list at the beginning of the book.  I recommend taking your cookbook with you to a Asian market or coop to purchase all yourspices.  You'll be glad you did.......at least my husband is happy to have me cooking more Chinese since it's one of his favorites:-)  and becoming one of mine too!

Back in America

Well we did it!  My husband Rob and I just returned from a 2 week trip to China.  It was an incredible experience some of which i'll share with my blogger friends. 

We spent most of our stay in the heart of the city, Bejing.  The purpose of our trip was to visit my brother and his family but we also decied to take on the GREAT WALL MARATHON.... The highlight of our 2 weeks besides the yummy food, which I pomise I'll get too:-)

Here is a photo of our start of the most difficult marathon I have ever run!


It was spectacular and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking but the run was definitely challenging.  http://www.great-wall-marathon.com/Default.aspx

The first 5 miles were on the wall which went ok but we than ventured out into the villages for the next 15 miles or so and I remember asking my husband at mile 14, do we ever get to come down these hills.  He said "what goes up must come down" but he stopped saying that a few more miles into our run.  We climbed and climbed .......  and climbed.  We entered the square about mile 21 and started up the wall once again.  Of course ROUND 2 on the GREAT WALL was much more difficult.  After about 2000 steps and almost 3000 to go we had pretty much decided that once is enough for this race.  We did finish and acutally didn't do so bad but we were really tired!  A couple hours later we were on our way back to the hotel to take a cab back to my brothers..........a cool shower felt like heaven!  The food tasted even better since by than it was almost 8 pm and we hadn't eaten since 5 am.  Our Shaklee Performance and Energy Chews carried us thru the race.  We were happy to have them both!  Our bottles of Performance were Strategically placed along the course to keep us well hydrated and our bottles were very cleverly labeled:-)  My husband had fun with this!

We had some delicous meals downtown prior to the race however.  One of which was at this dumpling place the Hotel Consieir directed our cab driver to take us.  As you can see, we're getting accumtomed to using Chipsticks.   We had some incredible dumplings there too.........the best food sometimes comes from small quaint neighborhood restaurants.  We had some incredible meals and I'd love to share more once we get more pics uploaded. 

Upon returning home, I have enjoyed experimenting in my own kitchen as well preparing some delicious Asian food.   We've had fried rice, Spicy Thai Seafood, and just the other night I made a Vegetable, Tofu Soba Noodle Dish.  My husband didn't even mind the blackened Tofu........

The recipe started out my marinading the Tofu in a sesemae, soy, ginger sauce.  After several minutes I fried it till it was crisp in a dry cast iron skillet.

The Tofu was set aside so I could next saute all the prepared veggies and in my opinion, the more colorful the better:-)

So there you have it...........a recipe adapted from the EARTHBOUND COOKBOOK.  As you can see, quite versatle. 

My Birthday Dinner

The next best thing to dining out for your Birthday is dining in with my awesome Husband.  We enjoyed a good bottle of vino (which by the way was a gift given from a dear friend).  A yummy cheese with some of my favorite Sea Salt Nut Thins, olives, and of course Kale Chips! 

Moving on to the main course.  A dinner is not complete at my house if there is not a big Green Salad with the simplest and yet most delicious dressing ever.  After my mother and I took a trip to Italy over 20 years ago to visit family we discovered the best way to eat fresh Greens.  Something we had at every evening meal no matter where we dined in Italy.  It has become a staple at my home as well.  READY!  Toss a big bowl of Greens with Grapeseed Oil, Fresh Lemon Juice, Sea Salt and fresh Ground Pepper.  Just experiment with the amounts.....you'll know:-)  By the way, Arugula is one of our favorites and freshly Shaved Parmesan Cheese.  Make that Parmesan Reggianno too!  Not too much but definitely enough:-) 

My husband loves pasta and since I do too I decided on a yummy new recipe just featured in the new Lund's magazine.  I changed it up a bit by adding a piece of my homemade lemon preserves to give it a bit more of a unique taste.  Since the recipe called for lemon zest, lemon juice and even lemon grass, why not add a tiny hunk of preserved lemon:-)  IT WAS SIMPLY DIVINE!  According to what I have read, Once you've tasted good Lemon Preserves in a dish, they haunt you!  You actually can't decide if they are soley salty, purely lemon, maybe a bit bitter, or just deliciously oily.  They do beautiful things to almost any dish.  If you want to make your own lemon preserves like myself, it's really not that hard.  Be sure to use organic lemons however.  You can also find them on grocery and specialty store shelves.
   

For those of you who know my mother Louise, you'll know she makes spectacular Deserts!  She offered to make my Birthday Desert and I of course couldn't turn down such an offer!  Everything she makes is absolutely delicious!  This year however, she didn't make just one.......I had a choice.  She had made a Lemon Cake with a Lemon Curd filling in between each of the 3 layers and White Chocolate Lemon Curd Frosting.  However there was also Fresh Apple Crisp......boring I know but you haven't tasted my Mom's!  Finally there was a Lemon Cheesecake with Fruit topping.  I left the decision up to my husband because I just couldn't decide!  He chose the Cheesecake for Saturday night but we did get to enjoy the Lemon Cake for Mother's Day.  

So that was my Birthday Dinner........yes much better than dining out this year!   Don't worry everyone.......I'll try and post a blurb about our yummy mother's day dinner too. 

My Amish Experience

I certainly didn't waste any time entertaining after picking up my New Dining Room Table way down in Amish Country.  What an experience it was.  Unfortunately they do not allow anyone to take pictures so you'll have to try to use your imagination when I speak of my Amish visit.  It was way back in October when we decided to have a table made my Meno.  He lives in Canton Mn which is about an hour south of Rochester.  My husband and I drove down with pictures of what we would like our table to look like.  Meno was more than accommodating!  It was such a treat to meet him and his family....all 9 children!  He even invited us into their home (a rarity) because he had a table similar to what we were describing.  There stood the mother braiding one of the younger girls hair, another daughter at the stove stirring up a pot of what appeared to be soup, and along came the next one with a bucket of just picked potatoes to throw in the kettle.  On the table were 3 loaves of bread dough raising ready to be baked.  It was going on 1 0'clock so obviously close to lunch time for them.  Nope we did not get invited to join them:-(

4 months later we received a call from Meno saying our table was complete and ready to pick up that Saturday .  Unfortunately we could not make it that particular Saturday and he politely said."sorry we do not do business on Sunday".  So the following weekend we took off about 10:30 am with a rented trailer and drove back down to Canton.  The Table Is Beautiful!  Meno and his three of his four boys helped wrap the chairs, leaves, and table in furniture blankets and in the trailer they all went.  We arrived back home safe and sound!  My brother and my mom were waiting for us to help unload.  By that time it was going on 7:30 pm so a very long day of traveling in wind, snow and terrible roads so we were exhausted!  After getting the table and chairs in place, we all sat down and were in awe of our gorgeous table.  Not a screw, nail, and all hand planed.  WOW.....a master piece to be treasured for a life time!   A long day but so worth the trip to experience how the Amish live with no electricity, ipods, computers, TV, radio,  and other luxuries we take for granted.  To end the evening we all enjoyed some pizza from KAREN'S HOMEMADE PIZZA and it was delicious.  A very good day and night enjoyed by all..........

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough            (My version of a crust taken from THE EARTHBOUND COOK) 

2 packets active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon of salt

Place yeast and sugar in a large bowl.  Add warm water and whisk to blend.  Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let mixture set until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the whole wheat and white flours in several increments (1 cup at a time) mixing until the dough is slightly sticky.  You may not need all flour however I did!  Stir in salt.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it until smooth and elastic, 5 minutes.
Dampen a kitchen towel and wring it out well. 
Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in it, and turn dough over so that is lightly coated with oil.  Cover bowl with damp cloth and set it aside in warm, draft -free place until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.......I left my set over night. 

Gently punch dough down to deflate and divide into thirds or in my case, 2 disks for larger pizzas!  The baking time is the same whether you make large or small pizzas.  Keep the pieces you are not working with covered with the damp towel. 

TO form a piece of dough into a ball, flour your hands and than pull opposite edges of a piece of dough toward the center.  Pinch them together to from seal.  Working around the circumference, continue pulling and pinching the dough until a smooth tight ball forms.  Repeat with remaining dough.  The dough is now ready to be used to make your pizzas.  You can also wrap dough individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for up to 24 hours or freeze them for up to two months.  However let the frozen dough thaw in fridge overnight before using. 

To make pizzas, position a rack at the lowest position in oven and if using a pizza stone like me, place it on the rack.  Mine is always in the oven!  Preheat oven to 550 if it goes that high or else 500 for at least 30 minutes before baking so stone is hot.

Lightly flour a work surface, and using a rolling pin or in my case, my ands and the pizza roller, shape the dough into a flat round disk or whatever shape fits your stone.  Rectangle is fine too:-)  (I use my hands to gently stretch the dough into shape, pressing outward from the center, rotating the dough occasionally to form a round or rectangle. ) 

If using a pizza peel or pan, generously dust with cornmeal. 
Transfer the dough to prepared pizza wheel or pizza pan or baking sheet.  Brush the dough lightly with olive oil, leaving a 1-inch border unoiled. 

Arrange the toppings on dough.  Slide the pizza off the peel and onto preheated stone, using a jerking motion to release it.  Bake until golden brown about 10 minutes.

Remove the pizza from oven by sliding pizza wheel under it or use a tongs to slide pizza off stone onto a cutting board.   NOW ENJOY! 

"marinating" vs. "brining"

Who would have thought a simple Brine for Chicken would result in such moist succulent chicken.  Trust me the results are amazing.  My husband came home from work a couple weeks and it happened to be one of those wonderful "Spring" thaw days so he was expecting to grill a couple chicken breasts.  He looked in the bowl and said.....what's that?  A bit worried I think....

However after reading about this Brine in Art Smith's Cookbook "BACK TO THE FAMILY" I decided to give it a shot.  Needless to say our grilled chicken breasts were incredible.  My husband couldn't beleive how much more moist the Chicken breasts were after grilling since they have a tendency to be a bit dry when prepared without the skin.  So my suggestion, save time to brine!  You'll never go back to preparing boneless, skinless chicken breasts any other way.  In fact, Rob insists on brining most all our meat now.  Whew,what did I get myself into!  (According to Art Smith , Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken, brined all their chickens).  Turns out he used to work for the Colonel.  It was interesting to learn that back than brining was referred to as marinating.  Since experiementing with the brined chicken breasts, we have brined a pork roast, turkey breast and even bone in chicken.  Without fail.......so succulent!    Here's the recipe adapted from Art

Brine for Chicken
Combine 1/2 up kosher salt, 1/8 cup of sugar, a couple bay leaves, a tablespoon of peppercorns, and 2 cups of cold water.  Heat until this the salt and sugar dissoves.  Let cool.  Pour over chicken with a bit more water if necessary.   Leave for at least a couple hours or better yet.....over night. 

Tonight I decided to make Stuffed Chicken Breasts........yum!