So back to the butternut pumpkin. This is the second time I’m making a butternut pumpkin soup. The last time it turned out really bland and I wasn’t overly impressed, which is why it hasn’t made an appearance on the blog. This time around, I decided I wanted some bold, punchy flavours so I looked around and took a few ideas from around the web. It turned out this recipe was easy, simple to make and has big, bold flavours. I remember thinking the last time, that a little ginger would make this soup so much better and I was right. This soup just warms the cockles of your heart.
I took the idea of topping it up with blue cheese from a recipe I found online. Please do yourself a favour and add the blue cheese. The blue cheese elevates this soup from being a nice soup to being a fantastic one.
Spiced Butternut Pumpkin Soup
700g butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp grated ginger
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 – 1 tsp red chilly flakes, or to taste (optional)
1/2 tsp chives
2 tbsp olive oil
1 litre boiling water
1/3 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Blue cheese, to crumble over
In a large pot, over medium heat, pour the olive oil.
Add the garlic and when it is fragrant, add the onion and and saute over medium heat, till softened and translucent. Add the ginger and continue sauteing.
Once the ginger has released its aromas, add the celery, carrot and pumpkin.
Sprinkle the salt, pepper and red chilly flakes and stir well.
Let the veggies, saute for about five minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Add one litre of recently boiled water. (You could add cold water too, but that will increase cooking time. Using hot water results in the soup simmering almost immediately.)
Cover and simmer till the veggies are cooked and tender.
When the vegetables are fork tender, take off the heat.
Using an immersion blender, blitz till you are left with a smooth puree. Add the cream cheese and blitz again.
Add the parmesan cheese and chives and stir through.
Serve hot with a little blue cheese crumbled over.
Enjoy!
Mediterranean Salad
This (sort of) Mediterranean Salad came together thanks to a colleague who put me on to the wonderful combination of roasted peppers, grilled eggplant and feta. She was putting together a sandwich for lunch using these lovelies and I thought to myself, I could make this into a salad and see how it works out. So on my way home, I stopped by my local Coles and went straight to their deli section and picked up some Danish feta and grilled eggplant. I have yet to work out how to make this eggplant at home. While I strongly believe that made from scratch is way better than store bought, sometimes you need to be open to using a store bought shortcut, especially when you haven’t made anything for lunch and need something real quick. Enter, store bought fire roasted peppers; another thing I want to make at home.
Back to the salad. It essentially is made up of veggies, the condiments mentioned above and feta – that’s it! No dressing or anything. The best part is you wont even miss the dressing. The feta is soft, creamy, sharp and salty, so it takes the salad to a whole new level. Feel free to add or take away from this salad and make it your own. I have made this salad a few times and both, my husband and I love it. I made it with and without olives, so feel free to use them, or not. Also, toasted pine nuts on the salad would be divine. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner, but I fully intend adding them to the salad when I make it next. This salad would make a wonderful addition to any barbecue as well.
Mediterranean Salad
A couple of handfuls of Salad leaves (I use the 4 leaf mix from Cole’s)
1 fresh tomato, cut into chunks
Sliced cucumber (about 1/2 cups worth)
A few slivers of thinly sliced red onion
2-3 slices grilled eggplant, roughly chopped
A few slices roasted peppers, roughly chopped
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Danish feta, to taste
Place all the ingredients except the feta in a bowl and toss together.
Crumble the feta over the salad and lightly toss.
Serve.
** This salad also makes a lovely veg. sandwich.
Disclaimer: I haven’t been compensated for this post either monetarily or in kind. I just happen to shop at Coles and that’s why the mention.
Beef Puffs
Here in Sydney, I was thrilled to find I could buy frozen puff pastry. That meant it was now possible to enjoy these little puffs with a fraction of the effort and time involved. Now don’t get me wrong. I am all about cooking and baking from scratch, but everyone needs to be open to a few shortcuts every now and then, especially when life gets hectic. So today, we are going to use the store bought frozen version. That covers the pastry. For a tasty filling I use my Beef mince recipe, but leave out the potatoes. Also you need to make sure that the liquid has cooked out so that you don’t have a runny filling. A runny filling will only result in a soggy pastry.
Now it’s just a matter of assembling the puffs. I cut up each thawed sheet of pastry into 6 portions and place the filling on one side keeping away from the edge. Run a finger dipped in water along the edges and fold over to seal. Apply an egg wash and bake. You can make these in a larger batch and refrigerate them. Just bring them to room temperature and heat them up on a pan or in the oven and you can sit down to a nice little snack. Very often, I have these with some tomato ketchup and I can safely say, nothing beats it.
Beef Puffs
Beef mince (each puff requires a spoon of filling)
Frozen puff pastry sheets, as many as you need (Each sheet yields 6 pieces)
1 egg, for the egg wash
Preheat the oven to 220ºC (follow the package instructions if you’re using puff pastry).
Place the thawed puff pastry sheet on a flat work surface and cut into 6 potions. Place a spoon of the filling on one side of each puff staying away from the edges like so –
Keep a little bowl of water near your work surface. Dip a finger in the water and run on the edges of each puff.
Flip the empty half over onto the side with the filling and seal the edges. Place it on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Crack an egg in another bowl and beat lightly. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg wash over the puffs. This gives it a lovely golden brown glaze.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or till golden brown.
Enjoy them warm.
Sriracha Chinese Cucumber Salad
Chaklis – Savoury Indian rice crakers
Chinese Sticky Pork Belly
I usually make my favourite pork curry and we enjoy it. Apart from that, I’ve only ever made these pan-fried pork chops and thats how long my pork recipe repertoire is. Now that’s just wrong and needed to be fixed. You will see a few more pork recipes coming up. When I was on the lookout for some interesting ways to cook pork, I came across this recipe. I have heard so much about how good pork belly is and also how good a sticky Asian glaze can be, so obviously the two together had to be even better, right? I was so right. The original recipe calls for the pork to be cooked for 2 whole hours. While I’ve done this before when I didn’t have access to my pressure cooker, I knew I wasn’t going to slow cook it this time. I used my pressure cooker and in about 15-20 minutes achieved the same lovely tenderness. If you haven’t tried using a pressure cooker before, you should. Maybe borrow it from a friend and see if it works for you. I use mine all the time. I use it to cook meat, boil dry beans (instead of buying canned ones), boiling potato and beetroot and so much more. I cannot imagine life without my pressure cooker. Oh wait, I did have to wait for a whole year before I got mine from back home and it wasn’t fun. It just cuts down cooking time drastically and you save on gas/energy by cutting down on cooking time. That’s a win-win in my book. I hope to share more pressure cooker recipes with you in future.
Back to the pork belly. There’s beautiful flavour in the meat and the glaze is just a wonderful bonus. One thing I should mention is be very careful when the meat is in the pan, there is a lot of serious popping that goes on and you don’t want to burn yourself. Frying the pork adds some lovely crunchy bits to the pork. So you end up with tender, succulent meat, crunchy bits and a sticky glaze. Yum!!! I served this pork up with a bowl of warm noodles and some stir fried Asian greens.
Chinese Sticky Pork Belly
Adapted from: Kitchen Sanctuary
Methi Namakpare … savory fried crackers flavoured with fenugreek
Namakpare … Savory fried crackers
I made some a while ago, and while they tasted right, the texture wasn’t. They were not crunchy. You see they are meant to be crunchy and that’s what makes them so addictive. I was a little disappointed with this version and that was the end of it.
Anyway, I forgot about them for a little while and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, I came across a recipe a couple of days ago when I was looking around online. I decided I had to try them out. I was missing Indian flavours and I figured, this would be a good opportunity to try out another recipe.
This recipe simply involves making a tight dough, roll out into a disc, cut into diamonds, deep fry, cool down and … Enjoy! The ingredients required are also very basic ones. There is a good chance you will have all you need in your pantry. This recipe took me back home in a bite. The crackers taste fantastic, they are crunchy and so very yummy. Once completely cooled, you can store them in an airtight container. Enjoy them with a nice hot cup of tea.
Namakpare
Recipe from: Cooks Joy
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Salt, to taste
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
Water, as needed
Oil, for deep frying
Mix both flours, salt and cumin seeds.
Add ghee and rub it into the flour.
Using water slowly and gradually, knead into a tight dough. (You want the dough smooth but NOT soft.)
Cover and let the dough rest for an hour.
When you are ready to proceed, preheat oil for deep frying.
Divide the dough into 4 portions.
Working with one portion at a time (keep the rest covered so that it doesn’t dry out), roll out to a disc about 1/8 inch thick.
Cut into diamond shapes. In India, they have a really cool cutter with multiple blades that makes the process much quicker. But if you don’t have one, use a knife like I did. I forgot to take a picture of this step 🙁
Pictured above is a different dough (the one for methi namakpare …. recipe coming up soon), but the process is exactly the same.
You can always re-roll the scraps and cut them out.
Carefully place the cut pieces in the hot oil. I usually place the cut pieces in my slotted spoon and place the spoon in the oil and gently tip the pieces in. I find that’s the only way I can keep from burning my hands.
Fry over a medium low heat. (This low frying ensures they cook through and get crispy later.)
When they are a nice golden brown, drain and set on some kitchen paper to get rid of any excess oil.
When completely cooled, store in an airtight container.
Note:
Because you’ve used ghee while kneading the dough, you wont need to sprinkle flour to roll it out, the dough will not be sticky.
Fry it over a medium heat. Frying it over high heat will just brown the outside while the inside will still be doughy and won’t crisp up.
Homemade Split Pea and Ham Soup
After looking around the internet for a recipe, I found one I was happy with. I picked up all the ingredients I needed and got to work. I was happy with the fact that I found a pressure cooker recipe, which meant that I could sit down to a nice bowl of soup in a fraction of the time. Since its the middle of the year, I didn’t have any leftover ham. But for those of you that bake a leg of ham around the holidays, using your leftovers would be perfect for this recipe. I bought some smoked ham meat from the supermarket and used it. When I think back, I think I’d be happy even without the ham in the soup. The split pea soup is so flavourful, a vegetarian version would be really delicious as well. All this without the fuss of having to spend hours developing flavour.
I looked at this recipe and this one to get an idea and then from there on I mostly winged it. So here’s my homemade almost homemade split pea and ham soup. If you baked your own ham and made your own stock, you’ve got yourself a made from scratch Split Pea & Ham Soup. 🙂
Homemade Split Pea & Ham Soup
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
3 sticks celery, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp olive oil
1 lb dry split peas
1 stock cube (chicken, beef, veg – its upto you)
6 cups water
200-250g ham, diced
Rinse the peas under cold water.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker under medium heat.
Add the bay leaf and onion and saute till onions soften up.
Add the garlic, carrots and celery.
Saute for 4-5 minutes.
Add the peas, crumbled cube and water.
Cover and bring to a boil. After it reaches pressure / till the first whistle, simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes.
Take off the heat and let the cooker release pressure on its own.
When it is safe to open, adjust liquid by adding water if needed.
Adjust salt and freshly cracked pepper if need.
Add the ham, remove the bay leaf and let the meat heat through.
If the soup feels like it needs more cooking, cook till it reaches the desired thickness.
Serve hot.
I crack some black pepper over it after serving it up and
Notes:
** You could use stock instead of the cube and water if you have any at hand.
** This soup keeps well in the fridge. My pot lasted us about 10 days. I just took out small portions and heated it up as I needed it.
** I found that the soup thickened after refrigeration. So each time I need to heat up a portion, I added some hot water to the portion I was heating up, to reach the consistency I like and then heated it through.
Tiramisu … or the post that almost wasn’t
The recipe came together nice and easy. When I make this next, I will work on better presentation. This time around, I had a very eager husband buzzing around the kitchen with excitement. Halfway through my assembly, he decided he wanted to help me capture step by step pictures. So I have a few. I’m sure he will get better at them with a little practice. But you’ve gotta love a guy who is so eager to help 😉
Watch the video version of the recipe here –
Tiramisu
Adapted from: Green Road to Bliss
500g mascarpone cheese
5 egg yolks and 1 egg white
160g sugar
300 ml espresso coffee (I used strong, instant coffee – don’t tell anyone)
1/2 cup water
400g Savoiardi biscuits (lady fingers), approx.
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting
30ml brandy (optional)
Prepare the coffee. Set aside 1 tsp of coffee and mix the rest with the water.
Mix the brandy into the cooled coffee, if using.
Beat the eggs with sugar till fluffy about 2 minutes. Start on a low speed and gradually increase.
Add the mascarpone cheese and the 1 tsp of (cold) coffee that was reserved.
Combine everything together until you are left with a soft and creamy mixture.
To assemble –
Spread a very thin layer of the mascarpone mix on the bottom of the pan.
Lightly dip the savoiardi into the coffee solution, but do not over soak them. Layer them over the mascarpone layer. Try to cover the base of the pan with the biscuits without leaving any gaps.
Spread half the mascarpone mix over evenly and dust with cocoa.
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| Second layer starting up |
Repeat with another layer of savoiardi and mascarpone and a final dusting of cocoa.
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| Second layer almost done |
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| Take care to not overpour the mascarpone mix at the end |
Refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Serve and enjoy!