Pumpkin

I was given three pumpkins yesterday, and I already had an uneaten quarter in the fridge. Is it pumpkin season perhaps? Autumn?

What to do with pumpkins?
Pumpkin soup of course and Cousin Rosa's Braised Pumpkin. There are also many variations on pumpkin pie (check out Kurma's no egg pumpkin pie), pumpkin bread, pumpkin gnocchi, Indian dishes with pumpkin, a northern Italian pumpkin and chocolate cake (Torta), a Greek pumpkin and carrot pie with Kefalgraviera (recipe needs improvement) and many more..

What do look for in a pumpkin?
I always go for a rich yellow-orange pumpkin that's ripe, preferably a Queensland blue (that's me) or a Kent (Mark's favourite). I would prefer a quarter of a large ripe pumpkin than a small pumpkin. Not a big fan of the Japanese pumpkin, but this is all a matter of taste. I am sometimes tempted by a butternut. There are other varieties available in Australia such as: dumpling, jarrahdale and golden nugget. This is a good website to go to for more information:
http://www.taste.com.au/how+to/articles/455/pumpkin. There seems to be many more varieties in the US, check out this site: http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com

I lived in a Paris for almost a year in my mid 20's, and began craving pumpkin after 6 months. I located one in a shop and promptly bought it, cooked it up according to Cousin Rosa's recipe, only to be bitterly disappointed at the flavour - there was none. I like this story, because with all the wonderful food in Paris, I could still not buy a decent pumpkin.

Tonight I made pumpkin soup, and it was delicious. This recipe (previously below, now moved to May 2010) may seem a long winded approach, and by all means, throw everything in together and boil away for a half hour if you're not in the mood. But for something special, this approach is well worth the effort.

Felafel with Quinoa

Making your own felafel is not so hard, but you do need to think about it a day ahead.
This recipe is an adaptation of a standard felafel recipe with quinoa (keenwa) replacing the cracked wheat.
What is quinoa?
Go to wikepedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
In my own words:
A South American grain that has a lot of uses. Gluten free. Apparently has a coating of a substance call saponin, which needs to be rubbed off in cold water. Very easy to use, and a great substitute for cracked wheat.

Bush Cooks:
I was once given a plastic bag full of felafel mixture by a Lebanese neighbour as a thank you present, and told to keep it in the freezer and cook as requried. I've done this when living out bush, and parceled up the mixture into meal size portions. It can be an easy meal, and much healthier than fast food. One other tip - if you don't have parsley, use celery leaves. In fact, I would almost recommend celery leaves over parsley.

FELAFEL RECIPE (Adapted from The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, by Tess Mallos)
Ingredients
225 gm dried chickpeas (organic preferably)
cold water
1/3 cup quinoa
2-3 cloves garlic
1 onion
2 spring onions
1/2 cup either flat leaf parsley, fresh coriander, or celery leaves (you can be generous with this amount)
1 teaspoon coriander, dry roasted and finely ground
1 teaspoon cummin, dry roasted and finely ground
lemon or lime juice to taste (start with a tablespoon and adjust to your taste)
salt (start with 1.5 teaspoon salt, and adjust to your taste)
freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

oil or ghee for deep frying (I prefer ghee)

Method

1. Rinse chickpeas and take out damaged or black ones.
2. Put in large bowl, cover with cold water and place in refrigerator. Soak for 24 hours.
3. Rinse the quinoa under running water and let soak. After around a half hour, rub the quinoa to get rid of the saponin and rinse in fine strainer. Let drain for 10 minutes.
   
4. Drain chickpeas and place all ingredients (except oil/ghee) in a food processor and grind until you have a coarse paste. Taste and adjust the lemon juice and salt to your taste.
5. Cover and let stand for a half hour.
6. Wet your hands and make small balls or patties, about a dessert spoon each.
7. Heat the oil or ghee, and when hot drop in the felafel patties. Move around with a wooden spoon and keep cooking until brown. Remove and drain on paper.
8. Continue with the rest of the mixture. Freeze what you don't deep fry.

To Serve
Serve with freshly baked Turkish bread, carrot and beans cooked with tomato, a green salad and a dip (yoghurt, carrot, babaganoush or beetroot.)

Focaccia de Patata (aka Baked Gnocchi)

Many years ago, my eldest sister returned to Australia after spending a few months with a family in Lecce (Southern Italy) with a new take on Italian cooking. Cream based pasta sauces ? Dried figs with bitter almonds and mandarin peel, and this, one of my most favourite recipes.

Focaccia de Patata is an alternative to traditional boiled gnocchi, much easier to make, and better tasting. This is also one of those great recipes for remote living. Almost all the essential ingredients are long lasting or available in most remote communities. (Although you will need to tap into that store of frozen parmesan in your freezer.)

Just a word about potatoes. Old potatoes are good, and those best suited for mashing. (Do not use waxy potatoes. Apparently desiree and Toolangi delight are good, and I also like binji).

Another word about the dough - don't overwork it, and whatever you don't use a machine to make the dough. It just won't work.

FOCACCIA DE PATATA
INGREDIENTS
Dough
4 -5 potatoes, peeled and sliced (around 500 - 600 gms)
salt
2 eggs
50 gms plain flour
50 gms SR flour
(or any combination of cornflour, gluten free - around 100 gms in total)
200 gm Ricotta (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (Italian or Australian, not prepackaged or pre-grated)

Sauce
1 medium onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
Tin tomatoes
Tomato puree
(Replace the above with fresh tomatoes if available.)
Piece of green capsicum
salt and pepper

Assembly ingredients
Olive Oil
Black olives, seeds removed and sliced in half; or
Diced eggpplant that has been salted and baked in the oven.
Parmesan Cheese

IMPLEMENTS
One lasagne baking dish, or pyrex baking dish

INSTRUCTIONS
Dough

1. Peel potatoes and slice.
2. Place potatoes in salted water in a medium-large saucepan and cook on a medium-to-high heat until falling apart.
3. Strain well and allow to cool.
4. Place the cooked potatoes in large bowl and mash with fork or potato masher. (Do not use a food processor or stab blender.)
5. Add eggs, ricotta and flour. The amount of flour may depend on the dense-ness of the potatoes.
6. Pull mixture together. (Do not over knead). Set aside.

Sauce

1. Heat oil, add garlic pieces and cook for around 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped onions and piece of green capsicum and cook until onions are well cooked.
3. Add tomatoes and cook down.
4. Add salt and remove green capsicum. (A pinch of sugar should be added if tomatoes are too acid.)

Assembly

1. Dip a table spoon of dough mixture in olive oil, remove and place on base of tray. Continue until the tray is completed covered and resembles a focaccia. (You should have about a third of the mixture left.)
2. Pour tomato sauce over dough mixture.
3. Next place olives (or eggplant) evenly over mixture, followed by fresh basil.
4. Dip smaller spoonfuls of mixture into olive oil and dot/drop on top of dough.
5. When finished, sprinkle over with grated parmesan.
6. Bake in medium to hot oven for between 30 and 40 minutes. Place alfoil or baking paper over top if burning occurs.
7. When finished, let the focaccia sit for around 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with fresh green salad.

Polenta

I want to talk about polenta, the favourite of Northern Italians. Most people don't associate polenta with porridge, but really it is the Northern Italian equivalent of porridge. Traditionally made with Chestnut flour.
In many recipes, the instructions are to cook polenta for anywhere from one to three hours. In Italy, apparently they have special implements which stir the polenta for you. I have heard anecdotally that Australian polenta is softer and you don't need to cook it for long. I can vouch for that.
I cook polenta on a regular basis and my family love it. But the measurements are intuitive, so this is a hard one to put in a recipe. The main thing with polenta is to get your water to polenta ratio right. I would generally say it's a 1:4 or 1:5 ratio. (That is polenta:liquid)

Best Polenta Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1-2 tsp salt
1 litre water
250 gm coarse cornmeal (Polenta, not instant. I prefer a whole grain polenta.)
Rosemary (optional)
Small amount of stock cube or Bragg's seasoning (optional, available at good delicatessan or organic food shop)
50 gm Finely grated Parmesan (Italian or Australian and not prepackaged grated parmesan)
50gm Butter
Extra butter for serving bowl

IMPLEMENTS
Saucepan
Spoon whisk (available from hospitality stores - see photo)
Grater

METHOD

1. Put salt in water and bring to boil.

2. Add rosemary or stock if you like.

3. When boiling, take off hot plate and pour in polenta in steady stream, stirring all the while. Use the spoon whisk to stop any lumps from forming.

4. Return to heat (low) and continue stirring for at least 20 minutes. (You may need to use a simmer ring to stop the polenta from bubbling.)









5. Take off the heat and add butter and parmesan cheese. Mix through until all the butter is melted.

6. Pour into buttered bowl, or spoon directly onto plate.(Make sure you fill the bowl with water immediately.)












SERVING
I serve polenta with the following:

• Chicken cacciatore (or similar, something with sauce)
• Spinach cooked with tomato
• Eggplant Parmigiana

Jorge loves polenta.. see photo.

If you have polenta left over, it's great fried in olive oil the next day. Just remember to cook it slowly, don't need a lot of oil.

Best Smoky Eggplant Recipes

These are two recipes on the same theme: one Indian, the other middle eastern. The first part is the same.

STAGE 1

1. Place two eggplants on a barbecue grill.
2. Turn regularly until the skin is crisp and the eggplant is heavy and soft.
3. When cool, peel the skin off the eggplant and discard. Roughly chop the eggplant pulp and place into bowl.

MARK'S BABAGANOUSH RECIPE
Ingredients
2 large eggplants
Lime or lemon juice
Garlic (preferably organic)
Tahini
Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method
4. Place all ingredients into bowl (except olive oil) and puree with stab blender, until smooth and fluffy. Adjust ingredients to your taste.
5. Place in serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil.


PUNJAB EGGPLANT PUREE RECIPE
(Adapted from a Charmaine Solomon's very old - circa 1978 - "Indian - Cooking for Pleasure")

Ingredients
2 large eggplants
Oil
1 large, or 2 small onions
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cummin seeds
3 dried red chillis (omit for children) with seeds removed
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes or 2 fresh tomatoes (skinned, seeded and chopped)
Bunch fresh coriander
3 spring onions (optional)
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (optional)

Method
4. Prepare eggplants as above.
5. Heat oil in large cast iron fry pan or pot, and fry onions over a low heat until well cooked (soft).
6. At the same time, dry roast coriander, cummin seeds and chilli in fry pan and pound in mortar and pestle.
7. Add spices to onion mixture and cook for around one minute, then add tomatoes and eggplant and cook for around 5 to 10 minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates.
8. Add coriander, springs onions, salt and garam masala and simmer uncovered for around one minute.

Serve warm with rice. A great accompaniment to an Indian vegetarian meal, for example with vegetable kofta or palak paneer.

(A variation is to replace onions with asafoetida)

Eggplant - To Salt or not to Salt

Eggplants seem to have a long season, and recently I have purchased some lovely small thin local eggplants. And no, you don't need to salt them.
The matter of whether or not to salt, seems to be uppermost, on the matter of eggplants.
I still salt large eggplants (other than for recipes such as Babaganoush or Punjabi Eggplant puree), particularly those with lots of seeds. Small eggplants do not need salting.
Salting eggplant takes out excess water and the bitterness of the eggplant.

HOW TO SALT?

1. Slice or cut your eggplant as per your recipe. Sprinkle or rub salt into the eggplant. (You don't need to use good quality salt.)
2. Places slices on top of each other in a colander.
3. Put a sheet of plastic film over the eggplant, and place a large heavy object on top. I use a very heavy mortal and pestle. Place on a sink. (Sometimes the metal can react with the eggplant, so I always put plastic between.)
   
4. Brown liquid should gradually come out.
5. After around a half hour, take off the weight.
6. At this point I quickly rinse off the salt and put the eggplant into a tea towel and sqeeze it tightly to take out any excess liquid.
   
7. The eggplant should look half cooked.
8. Now you are ready to cook with them, the easiest dish of course is to brush with olive oil and bake in the oven.

Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is one of those end of summer vegetables, which is around all year. Did you know that sweetcorn is actually the immature corn, which is picked at the 'milk stage? Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_corn.

Most people think of eating sweet corn, on the cob, boiled or grilled, and then covered with lashings of butter. Yum! But you might be on a diet or not be a butter lover like me, so another great way of eating corn is cooked on the barbecue and served with lime juice and chilli. And salt.
If you like corn bread, you can always put in the fresh kernels of corn - to give it a bit of texture.