Pumpkin Soup Sunday

North Indian-spiced Pumpkin Soup

When I was living in SE Asia, I always ordered pumpkin soup if it was on the menu. I tasted pumpkin soup in Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR and it was always fantastic. Since I've been home, I've tried to find a recipe that comes close and this one is pretty good, although I found it a bit finicky to make. We had this soup on November 1st and again the following Sunday because the recipe made quite a bit.

The recipe calls for several different spices, most of which I had - nothing too exotic. It calls for whole cloves but I used ground (and then, too late, found the whole cloves hidden at the back of my spice shelf!).

One spice the recipe calls for is
'black cardamom pods'. I'd never heard of the pods, but I dutifully went to my local YIG and searched the spice section. I found the jar at left. It is full of little 'pods' but they don't appear black. However I figured this was pretty close, since I live in a small town, with no 'Little India' section or specialty spice stores!

The recipe says: 'warming spices are the centrepiece of this pumpkin soup, and it pays to shop for fresh ones . . .' I used what I had on hand.  I did toast the spices as directed.

The recipe calls for two small pie pumpkins but I am too lazy to go to the trouble of cutting them up. I used 2 cans of pure pumpkin purée.

I started the spice warming in the black frying pan, but realized it wouldn't be large enough to hold the pumpkin and liquid. So I switched pans, but I didn't want to lose all the spices, so I added half the water to the spice pan and then poured it all into my soup pot.

At left is the garnish cooking. It looks rich - and it is, the cashews are cooking in butter - but the garnish really added to the soup.

        The finished product! I like thick soups like this, but water can be added to thin it out.

Recipe

Soup

• 1 tbsp cumin seed (I used ground)
• 4 tsp coriander seed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick, 3 inches
• 6 cloves (I used 1/2 tsp ground)
• 3 pods black cardamom
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 large brown onions, thinly sliced (I used regular white cooking onions and I diced them)
• 2 fresh bay leaves (I used dry)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 cups homemade chicken stock (Homemade! What's up with that? I used perfectly acceptable, reduced salt Campbell's. You could also use vegetable broth for the vegetarian option). 
• 2 cups water
• 6 cups peeled and chopped pie pumpkin ( or 3 cups pumpkin purée, about two 14 fl. oz. cans)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt, preferably 3% MF (I used one 200 ml container).

Garnish

• 3 tbsp salted butter
• 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
• 2 tsp black or brown mustard seed (I used the 'yellow' kind you put in pickles)

Method

• For the soup, toast cumin, coriander, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until fragrant, about 3 minutes. (At this point I got out my soup pot). Add butter to pan/pot. When it has melted, stir in onions, bay leaves, ginger and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes or until onions are softened. Reduce heat to low (I then added the toasted spices from the frying pan), and cook an additional 10 minutes, stirring frequently, or until golden. 
• Pour chicken stock and 2 cups water into pan/pot. (I took 1 cup of the water and rinsed the spice pan wit it and poured it into the soup pot). Stir in pumpkin and salt. Increase heat to medium, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. (Obviously the canned pumpkin doesn't need to cook as long. I reduced the heat and simmered it for about 20 minutes anyway because I wanted to 'infuse' the pumpkin with the spices). Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.
• Remove cinnamon stick and bay leaves and discard. (so far so good). Remove cardamom pods and, when cool enough to handle, scrape seeds out and add to pot; discard pods. (OK, this was really tricky - the pods I used were pretty small and the soup pretty thick, so it took me awhile to find all three. Maybe the 'black' cardamom pods are bigger).
• Working in batches, purée soup in blender (Use a hand blender right in the pot - much easier). Keep warm while preparing garnish. (Soup may be made ahead, covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days and re-warmed over medium-low heat).
• For garnish, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add cashews to pan and continue to cook until butter turns a light tan colour. Remove from heat and stir in mustard seed (butter will continue to darken for a few minutes and develop a nutty aroma).
• Ladle soup into warm bowls and garnish each with a spoonful of the butter/nut/seed mixture.

Serves 6

I'm not sure where I got this recipe - could be from the LCBO's 'Food and Drink' magazine, kind of looks like the font. We both really enjoyed it. It would be good served with warmed naan.

Enjoy!

From Pumpkin to Jack-o-lantern

Paul got me a very nice pumpkin this year, for $3.25 at Your Independent.  I would have preferred a longer stem - just makes it easier to work with. I had decided I wanted to carve an owl, so the next step is to search the Internet.

I found it harder to find free templates this year - ones that could be downloaded without signing up for the 'free' newsletter. I found the owl, below, which is a good size. It is the black areas which will be cut out. In hindsight, I wouldn't use this one again. Too many little details and many of the black areas are too thin, making carving difficult.  Also, the 'white' areas are too narrow in many cases, like around the beak and eyes, leaving not enough pumpkin to hold the whole thing together. The face on my carving eventually fell out and I had to hold it in place with toothpicks.

Once you've chosen a template, 

tape it on your pumpkin. It should 

be fairly secure, but have some play.

At right are the tools I use. As it turned out, the black knife did not have a stiff enough blade. Make sure your knife is sharp. The nail has to be smooth. Mine was an inch and a half - 2 inches would have been better. Make sure the nail is not too thick. I've also seen that a ball point pen works - I've only ever used a nail.

I used the serrated edge knife to cut the top. Some sites say to carve the hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. I don't get that - where do you put the candle in that case? Once I cut the top,  I cleaned out the pumpkin. Most web-sites tell you to spread newspapers because cleaning is messy. I'm lazy so I didn't bother - probably should have. Clean up would have been easier. I did have a grocery bag handy and I put all the slime and extra seeds in that. This pumpkin had lots of seeds but the flesh was very stringy, making it harder to carve. I did save a lot of seeds for roasting later.

Procedure: With the nail, start poking holes along the outside edge of the black areas. The nail does not have to go all the way through the flesh. You are just using the holes as a guide for carving later. This pattern required a lot of holes. It can be tricky because the template slips, so you have to keep your eye on what you are doing. At left, is my finished hole-pinched owl. Just follow the holes to carve the design you have chosen. In the picture at the left, I have already cut out the moon.

As I said, it was a lot of holes. At one point, my thumb and index finger were stiff, so I got out the power tools. Not such a good idea as it turned out - the paper got wet and mushy and I lost the pattern in a couple places.

The completed piece! If you look closely, you can see where I had to use toothpicks to hold it together. Just not enough pumpkin flesh between elements of the design. I also couldn't complete the right eye. The whole thing was getting soft and flimsy, so I made do with a little hole for the eye instead.

Luckily, a candle and the dark are very forgiving! Don't forget to carve 3 or 4 holes in the 'lid' to allow the candle smoke to escape.

I did this witch in 2012 using the same procedure.  I seem to recall it was much easier. But I couldn't find the same template or one I liked as much this year.

I also did this one in 2012. I think it is my favourite.

Of course, this is my all-time favourite Jack-o-lantern, our whoodle, Dune.

Soup Sundays

For the last 3 years, I have followed my husband to Asia and the Caribbean as he pursued a career in International Education Administration (not that I am complaining!). I have written travel/history blogs of the many places we have visited, but now that we have settled into our beautiful new home on the south branch of the Muskoka River, near Bracebridge, I am ready to write about other things.

 

So I thought I'd start my new Muskoka blog with soup! In my family, we started a tradition many years ago, which I'm sure is not unique to us, of having a family meal with soup as the main course every Sunday night. This started because I was given a bread maker one Christmas and I thought soup would go well with home-made bread. I have a couple of recipe boxes full of soups I've cut from magazines and newspapers, or copied from books, many of which I've never tried. I thought I'd work my way through these, more or less every Sunday, but I will also include some of my favourites.

This week's soup is: Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato 

Ingredients:

3               sweet red peppers, chopped

2               sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)

1               onion, chopped (I used a red onion because I didn't have anything else)

3              cloves garlic (no need to chop, whole will do. I used large ones)

2 tbsp     olive oil (the recipe calls for extra-virgin, which I used, but in this case does it really matter? And 

                    the vegetables are being cooked at high heat, so maybe regular olive oil is better).

1 tsp        dried Italian herb seasoning (I used Club House Signature Blends: Italiano)

1/4 tsp    each, salt and pepper

4 cups     chicken or vegetable stock (sodium reduced specified. I used a 900 ml tetra pac of chicken)

2/3 cup   Balkan-style plain yogurt (I used 1-100gr. container of Oikus Greek, which was plenty for the      

                     2 of us. What is the difference? Greek has some of the water or whey removed to make it thicker).

2 tbsp      chopped fresh parsley (I often skip the fresh because I don't have it on hand, but in this recipe,

                     fresh parsley is important to balance the flavours).

Method:

• In a roasting pan, toss together red peppers, potatoes, onion, garlic, oil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. (I used one of those store bought, disposable lasagna pans. You will need something fairly big - there are a lot of vegetables.) Roast at 425 F (preheated) stirring once (I stirred it at least 3 times) until tender and golden at edges, about an hour.
• In food processor, purée vegetables with stock, in batches; strain into large pot. (I deviated slightly from the recipe here. It seemed like extra work. I just poured the stock and vegetables into a large pot and used the hand blender to purée. The soup was quite smooth, but I guess if you want it  'silky' you should strain it. I didn't want to lose all that fibre). Whisk in 1 cup water.
• Bring soup to boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir yogurt with parsley and serve dollops on bowls of soup.

The recipe is from January 2007, I suspect from Canadian Living, but I cut that part off. It says it makes 4 servings but I think it is more like 6. We both loved this soup - really good with the yogurt. I served it with the 'Pilsberry Country Biscuits' and an arugula/mandarin salad. I would rate this one 4 out of 5 - 1 point off not because of taste, but because it takes a good 30 minutes to prep. the vegetables, and then they cook for an hour, so you have to organize your time if you want to eat before 8:00!

Enjoy!

Here is the nutrition information: per serving (approx.) - 244 cal. 6 gr. pro, 10 gr. fat (includes 3 gr. saturated), 34 gr. carb, 3 gr. fibre (more if not strained?) 8 mg chol, 463 mg sodium. % RDI: 11% calcium, 13% iron, 245% vit A, 275% vit C, 14% folate