Pumpkin Soup With Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Nothing says fall or winter more than pumpkin.  From pies to breads to soups, I love everything pumpkin. This creamy pumpkin soup from Williams-Sonoma's Soup of the Day makes the perfect light dinner when served with a salad and bread but works equally well as the first course of a dinner.   The pumpkin I used had a surprisingly large number of seeds; I cooked them all and ate the extra seeds as a snack for the rest of the week.  Even Sidney loved them!

PUMPKIN SOUP WITH SPICY PUMPKIN SEEDS

Serves 6

1 small pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

FOR THE SPICY PUMPKIN SEEDS

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, cleaned

1 teaspoon canola oil

Salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Pinch of ground cinnamon

1)  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with tin foil.  Toss the pumpkin with the oil,
     season with salt and pepper, and spread on the prepared baking sheet.  Roast the pumpkin until soft
     and caramelized, 30-35 minutes.

2)  In a large, heavy pot, warm the butte rover medium-high heat.  Add the onion and garlic and saute
     until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the cumin and coriander and cook for 1 minute.  Add the
     broth and the pumpkin and bring to a boil.  REduce the heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes.
     Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

3)  Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor (or use a stick blender the way I
      do; this makes for speedier clean up).  Return to the pot and season with salt and pepper.

4)  To make the spicy pumpkin seeds, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and line a baking
     sheet with tin foil.  In a bowl toss the seeds with the oil.

5)  In another bowl combine 1 teaspoon salt, the cayenne, cumin, and cinnamon.  Add the pumpkin
     seeds to the spice mixture and stir to coat.  Spread the seeds in a single layer on the prepared baking
     sheet and bake, stirring once, until golden brown, 10-12 minutes.  Serve the soup garnished with the
     pumpkin seeds.

Gingered Beef Broth With Soba Noodles

This recipe has been adapted from the original one published in Williams- Sonoma's Soup of the Day. It caught my eye since I had been gifted with a very large quantity of soba noodles and was looking for a way to put a dent in my supply.  The fact that this soup is very easy to make is an added bonus.


The original recipe calls for the addition of bok choy into the broth.  In typical Albanian fashion I had spotted some earlier this week in one of the local grocery stores.  Upon my return, however, not only was there no bok choy to be had but no one in the store even knew what bok choy was.  (Such is life and grocery shopping in Albania).  The store did have Chinese or Napa cabbage so I used that as a substitute.

GINGERED BEEF BROTH WITH SOBA NOODLES

2 green onions

3 cups beef broth

2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1 large clove garlic, crushed

Salt

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 Chinese cabbage, cut into 1-inch chunks

1/4 lb thinly sliced white mushrooms

5 oz soba noodles

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Sriracha sauce for serving (optional)

1)  Thinly slice the green onions, reserving the white and pale green parts in one bowl and the dark

     green parts in a separate bowl.

Aromatics

2)  In a large, heavy pot, combine the broth, 3 cups water, the ginger, garlic, and the white and pale

     green parts of the onion.  

3)  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain

     the liquid, discarding the solids, and return the broth to the pot.

Broth a steeping

4)  Season with salt and pepper and keep warm over low heat.

5)  In a frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil.  Add the Chinese cabbage and mushrooms

     and saute, stirring frequently, until the vegetables begin to caramelize and soften, about 6 minutes.

     Set aside.

A double dose of veggies

6)  Return the broth to a boil and add the soba noodles. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes.  Add

     the Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, and soy sauce an stir to combine.

7)  Serve, garnished with the dark green onion slices.  Pass the hot sauce at the table, if using.

Little Gingerbread Men (A.K.A. Gingerbread Cakelettes)

Dressed and ready for the party

I'm a sucker for cake pans.  Unique shapes, intricate designs,  or bite sized portions and I'm all over it.  From the sand castle bundt cake pan (which can also double as an ice mold) to the giant cupcake pan and individual portioned brownies so every piece has an edge crust, if it is a different pan, I have it.  After all, presentation is just as important as the taste!  So when I saw the individual gingerbread men shaped cake pans at Williams Sonoma a few years ago, I knew I had to have the pan.  This is one of those pans that only gets hauled out once a year but the resulting cakelettes always create a stir.  If you don't have this pan and aren't inclined to go out and buy one, you can turn the batter into cupcakes.

The recipe is originally from Williams Sonoma and came with the pan.  I call it a two-for-one deal.  I've added black pepper into the spice mix to give it an extra kick.

GINGERBREAD CAKELETTES

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) butter at room temperature

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

3/4 cup molasses

3/4 cup milk

1)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour the cakelette pan.

The pan that started it all

2)  Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.  Set aside.

3)  In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat the butter until creamy.

     Add the  brown sugar and continue mixing until the batter is light brown in color.  Add the egg and
     molasses and beat until combined.

4)  Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the flour in three parts, alternating with the milk.

     Continue beating until it is fully combined.

5)  Spoon the batter into each cakelette pan, spreading it into the arms and legs. Make sure to fill the 

      pans only half full.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a 

      cakelette comes out clean.

6)  Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for give minutes before inverting the pan onto a

     wire rack.  Cool the cakelettes completely before decorating with an icing of your choice.

7)  Wash and thoroughly dry the pan.  Grease and flour the pan again and repeat until all of the batter is

      used.

Yields:  Approximately 20 cakelettes

Roasted Chestnuts

Chestnuts roasting in Ljubljana

Chestnuts are a perennial autumn nut.  Wander through any European city during the fall or winter months and you can see roasting on just about every street corner.  You can easily follow their distinctive sweet fragrance to the closest vendor.  There is nothing better than eating hot roasted chestnuts from a paper cone as you roam the streets.  This time of year chestnuts are also abundant in the markets.  From chain grocery stores to neighborhood shops and the grand vegetable markets, bins of the nuts are everywhere.  Not only are chestnuts good to eat "as is" they add body and complexity to other foods.  Whether combined with roasted vegetables and bread dressing or as a main ingredient in a  soup, they add rich complexity to any dish.

Roasting chestnuts at home isn't hard but it is time consuming.  Last November in a fit of over ambitious insanity, we hosted a lunch for twelve two days before our sit down Thanksgiving dinner for twenty-four.  Thinking I could multi-task with my ingredients, I planned a chestnut apple soup for the lunch and a chestnut sage dressing for Thanksgiving dinner. Even with the able hands of my visiting parents (who for some reason haven't visited since) Glenn and I spent hours trying to pry the roasted chestnuts from their shells.  I couldn't figure out why they were being so stubborn and at that time I vowed that until we had access to shelled chestnuts I would not be including this tasty ingredient in any of my dishes.

Fast forward a year.............we are heading into Thanksgiving week and chestnuts are once again on my menu.  This year, however, my menu and guest list are saner and I have a plan.  I also did more research and I think I may have found an easier roasting and shelling method.  Chestnuts must be cooked before being eaten.  Various methods call for boiling, broiling, roasting, or grilling the nuts before shelling them.  In pure experimental mode, I used three methods for cooking my chestnuts:  grilling on the gas fired grill, broiling in the oven, and roasting in the oven.

X marks the spot

ROASTED CHESTNUTS

Regardless of which method you chose, it is necessary wash and score the nuts before cooking.  I used a small paring knife to cut a large "X" on the flat side of each nut.  Given the large quantity of nuts I had, this was a time consuming, and if one isn't careful, dangerous task.  Fortunately I only stabbed my thumb once on this go around.

Oven Roasted Method:  Place the scored chestnuts on a piece of tinfoil, add a small amount of water, and wrap to form a packet.  Place the packet on a baking sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Chestnuts ready to roast

Grilled Method:  Place the scored chestnuts in a grill basket and grill over a 400 degree grill for 20 minutes.  Shake the basket every five minutes to ensure that the nuts cook evenly and none of them scorch.  You can also place the nuts directly on the grill but you will then need to use tongs to turn the nuts.

Chestnuts on the grill

Broiled Method:  Place the scored chestnuts on a baking sheet and broil under high heat for 10 minutes.

You will know the chestnuts are cooked when the nuts are fragrant and the shells split open.  Once they are cool enough to handle, peel the shells and the inner skin from the nut.

So which method did I prefer?  By far, the broiled nuts were the easiest to shell.  The grilled method worked well too but for some reason I found the roasted nuts to be extremely difficult to shell.  From now on if I can't buy my chestnuts from a street vendor I'll be cooking mine at home under the broiler.

The payoff

Try your chestnuts in the following recipes:

Fine Cooking's Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto
Saveur's Chestnut Pound Cake
Williams-Sonoma's Pear, Chestnut, and Sage Dressing 
Williams-Sonoma's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Chestnuts