Pumpkin and mushroom soup

Here in New Zealand, a cold wind has slammed the door shut on the mild false spring of recent weeks. As the storm built up, I made comfort food: my favourite pumpkin soup. This time I used half a grey skinned Crown pumpkin, bought already cut from the greengrocer. I often use butternut or buttercup pumpkins. In NZ the big orange pumpkins that Americans make into jack'o'lanterns are not so common, and I seem to remember them as not being so tasty as our little NZ varieties, but its been a long time since I was over there in pumpkin season!
Don't freak out at the whole head of garlic, once roasted it is mild, sweet and subtle; nothing like the intensity of sauteed garlic. For stock I usually use Rapunzel organic herbal stock cubes. They are delicious and don't have any of that chemical aftertaste of most stock cubes.

I'm pretty sure this is as original as one of my recipes can be. It has evolved over many years in response to my dislike for the taste of pumpkin, but respect for its affordable nutritional value.

Pumpkin and mushroom soup

half a medium size crown pumpkin, or whole butternut or buttercup
whole head of garlic
2 yellow onions, chopped pretty fine
bag of mushrooms, sliced pretty fine
1.5 litres of stock
1 teaspoon ground cumin
(other spices optional: coriander, garam masala, cinnamon or cloves,even some curry powder, can each add something lovely to this soup, )

Scoop out the pumpkin seeds and slice off the pointy end of the head of garlic so the ends of the cloves are exposed. Place pumpkin skin side down, and garlic root side down in a roasting dish and cook in a hot oven until they are soft and fragrant (about 45 minutes). Cool and then peel out of their skins (its so much easier than when they are raw). Puree in a foodprocessor til smooth.
Meanwhile, saute the onions in a soup pot with a little oil until they are soft but not brown. Add the mushrooms and saute until they are limp then add the hot stock and pureed pumpkin/garlic. Simmer until thick and silky.

Skillet Raspberry Jam

Hello everyone! Look who is standing!

So - I know it's been a long time...and who knows if anyone is still checking this - but I do have plans for a comeback of Nourish Us and much more. Stay tuned.

Tonight, I'm bringing to you my favorite homemade jam - a skillet raspberry jam. It is posted in celebration of summer and my friend Erin's beautiful raspberry bushes. The recipe originated in a beautiful issue of Gourmet from August 2004. Every time I think about this recipe - my mouth instantaneously waters. I am hoping this helps to bring forth this season's raspberries in Colorado...I've been waiting for them very patiently.

A couple notes: I have found that this jam does really nicely with raspberries or blackberries. It isn't a serious canning jam. I just put the jam in a nice air-tight jar in my fridge...I have found it can stay good for up to a month- if it lasts that long. It is very tasty as a spread on toast, topping on dessert...or on a spoon.

Skillet Raspberry Jam (try also Blackberry, Strawberry or Schnazzberry)

makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 lb raspberries (4 cups)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons powdered fruit pectin (not the liquid or low-sugar pectin)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

->Mash raspberries with a fork in a large bowl
->Stir together the berries, sugar, pectin and lemon juice in a 12-in nonstick skillet. Boil the mixture and stir occassionally, until slightly thickened - about 7 minutes
->Transfer jam to a large shallow bowl and chill. Cover the surface with wax paper. Let it rest until it is softly set - about 30 minutes. (Note: Jam will set further if it is chilled longer).
->Transfer jam to a jar...and try not to eat it with a spoon out of the jar. :)

Hippy Cooking

See how happy Gluten Roast can make you?

Here's a couple of odd recipes I've made this week. I improvised the rice crackers and they turned out to be very yummy. And the Non-cheesy Cheese Sauce I found in a garage sale find of a 1970s cookbook from The Farm, a hippy commune with a soya bean obsession.

Personally I try and avoid most soya bean products except miso. The research I've done into soya isn't entirely conclusive, but the indications seem to be that soya maybe implicated in some kinds of hormonal problems, such as nasty menopause and other women's health issues. I reckon better safe than sorry. Soyabeans are hidden in lots of different processed foods including lots of 'junk foods', but dodgiest form seems to be tofu and soymilk. The least troublesome is miso due to its fermentation process.

Anyway, the recipe that made me shell out 50c for The Farm cookbook doesn't have any soyabeans in it. It's similar to a recipe I used to make when Louise was little and had a dairy allergy, but I lost the recipe in my travels since then. Finding it last week was like being reunited with an old friend, just when I've had to give up my love affair with sugar.


Non-Cheese Cheese Sauce (from The Farm)

1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/3 cup rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
2 cups water
1/4 cup margarine


Mix dry ingredients in a saucepan. Gradually add water, stirring with a whisk until a smooth paste. Place on heat and stir constasntly until it thickens and bubbles. Let it bubble for about 30 seconds then remove from heat. Whip in the margarine. Have with vegetables or pasta or spread on pizza.

Homemade Rice Cracker Recipe

1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cold butter
3 Tbsp parmesan
1 Tbsp garlic granules
pinch salt
generous grind of pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup (rice) milk
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 200 degree. Put all the ingredients except the milk and sesame seeds into a bowl and rub or cut the butter in as though making pastry or scones. Mix in just enough rice milk (or other kind of milk) to make the dough stick into a ball but not be sticky. Roll or press out onto a greased baking sheet and sprinkle sesame seeds on top, press into the dough. Cut the dough into squares and slide apart on the sheet. Bake until golden brown and crisp.

While on the topic of anti-junk food food, check out this YouTube Chef with her Depression Era recipes. Mmm mmm.

Reunion?

Would anyone be interested in a:

"2010 Florida Family Reunion"?

Summer, Northern Hemishere / Winter, S-Hemi

No recipe ever calls for anger; many require regret

Last weekend Norman launched two new books. The launch was a little party at Martha and Norman's house in Hamilton, New Zealand. I offered to help with the catering. Norman especially requested bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese and Martha filled a huge platter of these as bite-sized morsels. I wanted to make something else that would fit in with the book's themes.

One of Norman's new books is about secret Jews living in Mexico and the Southwestern US for the past four hundred years. I decided to evoke the secret Jew in Mexico theme by making chocolate hamantaschen. Hamantaschen are little pastries associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim which actually took place a couple of weeks ago. A sweet pastry is wrapped around a filling (traditionally a poppy seed mixture) in a triangular shape. Hammentaschen represent the ears, hat or pocket of Haman, the wicked villain in the story of Esther which Purim commemorates. Esther spends much of the story keeping her Judaism secret while living in the king's harem, until finally revealing her true identity to save her people from Haman's planned genocide of the Jews.

The chocolate filling in my hamantaschen represents the Mexican component of Norman's book of secret Jews. I mixed cinnamon and ground almonds with very dark chocolate, and if not for Martha's allergies I would have spiked it with a little chilli as well. To keep the traditionalists happy I also made some hamantaschen with poppy seed filling. Both flavours were gobbled up quickly!

The pastry was very fragile and difficult to roll and wrap. I got quite stressed out trying to patch together these little beasts that kept collapsing at every step. I remembered why, much as I love baking, I tend to avoid anything that involves a rolling pin.

A much easier kind of pastry to work with is filo, which somehow manages to be quite sturdy despite cooking to a delicate buttery, paperish wrapping. I made dozens of these Moroccan meat cigars which were easy to make and eat. Both the cigars and the hamantaschen recipes came from one of my favourite cookbooks: The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden.


The other book being launched didn't receive the same culinary attention, though in retrospect we should have served Eskimo pies. Penguins of Ice are Fools is a sweet funny little book of about 200 short sayings by Norman, illustrated with 4 wood prints by Martha. The sayings give more of an accessible insight into Norman's personality than is usually available in his books. They are funny, poignant, cynical and nostalgic. Anyone who has ever enjoyed a conversation with Norman, will like this book which only costs $10. Email him directly, (or contact Meliors via www.meliors.net) to buy your copy now.

"At a certain stage between stew and soup, a fork becomes anomalous.
Why not begin with a spoon."

"Old black-and-white films are like mashed potatoes on cold rainy evenings."

Cigares a la Viande (Moroccan Meat Cigars)
from Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food

2 medium onions
3-4 tbsp oil (plus more to brush the filo)
500g (1lb) lean minced beef
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cinnamon
1/2 ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cayenne (optional)
juice 1/2-1 lemon
4 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley or coriander
250g filo pastry

Fry the onions in oil til soft, add the meat, crush and brown, then add all the seasonings except the parsley. Stir well, pour in ab.out 1 cup of water, cover and cook slowly for about half an hour until tender and most of the water has evaporated, Blend in a food processor until smooth then add the parsley.
Cut the filo sheets into quarters, pile on top of each other and cover with a damp towel while you work. Brush the top piece with oil. Take a walnut size piece of meat and roll into a sausage shape. Place along the short end of the filo piece and then roll up like a cigarette, turning in the ends about a third of the way along. Continue until all the meat has filled all the filo (I found the amounts matched almost perfectly).
Brush the tops with oil and bake at 325 degrees for about 1/2 hour until golden and crispy. Serve hot.

Green Eggs???

I have never in my life seen a real green egg until now. I always thought Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" was a metaphor. On the contrary!

We were having a yard sale last weekend and someone we met told us where to get real fresh eggs. I'm thinking brown at this point. Being egg lovers, we drove about 3 miles in a direction that we have never been and purchased 3 dozen. Now when the lady opened the cartons to show us, I became very skeptical of eating what I saw. THERE WERE GREEN EGGS!

I know that most of the family is from the country and knows about the fresh eggs. I'm 38 years old and this is the part of life that I embrace, when new and exciting things are discovered. I feel like a KID seeing this for the first time. I'm all giddy! And to add to my happiness is the fact that these eggs are by far the best I have ever tasted.

I'm still skeptical about the green ham.

Banana Cake Fantasia

I can't eat bananas except cooked into a cake. I don't ever buy bananas but when I live with people who bring them into the house and then let them turn black in the fruit bowl I'm quite happy to make cake! One of the secrets of good banana cake is very very ripe bananas mashed very thoroughly.


I'm not actually sure of the origins of this recipe, but it is by far the best banana cake that I have made. Probably because of the large quantity of butter. I remember visiting Grandma and Grandpa in America and being surprised that butter was not ever put on the table, just used in baking and margarine was the table spread. New Zealand being butter-land, butter was not priced as a luxury until a few years ago. Now its expensive but I'm too attached to the taste, and concerned about the nasty chemicals in margarine, to give it up.


For an everyday cake, rather than a celebration one, I just sieve icing sugar on top instead of making icing/frosting. I think it actually looks more enticing than an iced cake, promising delicacy and fluff. It also reminds me of this super-sweet art installation I saw at a festival in Melbourne in January this year.

Best Banana Cake

This cake is perfect for making in a food processor. Make sure you cream the butter and sugar until they really are creamy, not just combined. The smoother those first ingredients are, the better the cake will taste.

Cream together:

• 250g (1 cup) butter
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (scant)

Beat in gradually:

• 4 eggs
• 4 mashed bananas

Mix in a cup:

• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp milk

Sift:

• 2 tsp baking powder
• 450g flour

Add to the creamed mix, alternating wet and dry.

Finally add:

• 1 tsp vanilla

Pour into a cake pan and bake about 1 hour at 180/350 degrees, until brown and springy on top, and a skewer inserted comes out clean.