Pumpkin curry and homemade papadums

Some years ago I've managed to make spring roll wraps from scratch for the first time, so I thought why shouldn't I give papadums a go?  Papadum is a thin and crispy flat bread or cracker and is usually served as a side with curry, but also as a snack. I bet there are at least as many different versions as regions and of course it sure differes from family to family. The  dough is either made of lentil flour, chickpea flour or black gram, but may also contain rice or potato flour. The raw dough is dried under the sun and then it is either deep fried in oil, roasted over open flame or baked in a tandoori oven. It is seasoned with various spices such as cumin, black pepper, chili or even sesame seeds. The most popular recipes use urad dal, but I just couldn't find it so I decided to try it with chickpea flour.

Well, I had more than one attempt and the third one worked out pretty good, I think. The first batch (see the photo above) I prepared using chickpea flour and black cumin seeds. I simply rolled it out on an oily surface with a rolling pin and dried in the oven, then deep fried it. They were much too thick! So a complete fail! My second attempt would have worked, but because of the seeds it was impossible to roll it out thin enough with the pasta machine. In the third batch I've added ground spices and used a mixture of chickpea and rice flour. Well, you need a lot of patience, but it works! It is possible to roll out the dough as thin as a baking paper, the drying time is also shorter and the result is crisp and pale, just as it supposed to be! However, it is not quite possible to make big round ones, mine were 6 cm diameter. Besides it is not worth to spend hours with shaping, unless you wanna show off. So just roll it out, chop it up, dry and fry. I served the papadums among a hot pumpkin curry with loads of black mustard seeds. On the photo of the curry, you see the first papadums which were too dark and too thick.

 

Ingredients:
500 g pumpkin
1 tablespoon ghee
1 onion
1 cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
4-5 dried curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried chili or as desired
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
400 ml coconut milk
250 ml passata
salt

Peel and cut pumpkin in more or less equal pieces. Chop onion and garlic, finely grate ginger. Melt ghee in a pot and sautee onion for a few minutes, add ginger, garlic and spices and sautee for a few more minutes. Then add pumpkin, passata and coconut milk. Cook over medium heat for 35-40 minutes. Season with salt and chili flakes.

100 g chickpea flour
100 g rice flour
50-70 ml water
salt
ground cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Mix flours with spices, add enough water so that you get a pretty hard dough. Slice it in equal portions and with a help of a pasta machine roll it out very thin. Now you have two options: either you play around and cut out circles or you just cut it in more or less equal pieces. Preheat the oven to 70°C and dry the raw papadums for 20-40 minutes. That way you can keep these for quite a long time in an air tight container. Heat oil in a pot and fry dried papadums, but do not let them get brown. Season additionally with some cayenne pepper or anything you desire.

Quince-pumpkin pots de crème

As promised yesterday, I am getting on with my pumpkin cooking campaign. This time it got together with a leftover quince and two juicy oranges. Frankly, I was pretty surprised that the quince has survived for such a long time in the pantry. I wanted to prepare something that you just get out of the fridge and it is ready to be eaten, so pot de crème seemed to be a good choice. Flavoured with speculoos spices and served with some leftover cookie crumbs it was a real treat.

Ingredients:
for the quince-pumpkin puree:
1 quince
130 g pumpkin (peeled)
1/2 teaspoon speculoos spice mixture
1 tablespoon cane sugar
juice and zest of 2 oranges
some water if necessary

for the pots de crème:
makes 6 100 ml portions
360 ml heavy cream
150 g quince-pumpkin puree
4 egg yolks
70 g cane sugar
1/4 speculoos spice mixture, if desired
zest of 1 orange

For the puree peel quince and cut in cubes together with the pumpkin. In a pot melt sugar and let it caramelise, add the chopped pumpkin and quince, orange juice, spice mixture and some water if needed so that ingredients are just covered. Cook over low heat until soft, then puree and let it cool.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Bring heavy cream to the boil, in the meantime beat egg yolks with cane sugar. Pour hot heavy cream over the egg yolk-sugar mixture while whisking constantly. Stir in the quince-pumpkin puree, season with some more spice mixture if you like and a zest of an orange. Pour it into ramequins or small glasses. Pour hot water into a heatproof bowl and place the ramequins into the water so that the water is half way up to the side of them. Bake for 15-20 minutes, they are ready when the middle is still wobbely. Let them cool and chill over night or at least for 5 hours.

Cream of pumpkin soup with coconut foam and cayenne pepper

New year, new habits or something like that. That philosophy motivates me these days and I really try to make things better and more efficient then in the past. Besides I promised myself not to look back, but just go forward. Let's see what the magical number 13 brings, after all I was born on a Friday the 13th. As far as cooking is considered I decided to use most of the ingredients that I collected through autumn so that when spring is here my pantry and freezer are more or less empty. My first "victim" today was one of the pumpkins, yeah one of them, there are still 3 left so expect more pumpkin recipes within the next days. This one is a simple pumpkin cream soup, nothing more, nothing less. However, it contains both butter sauteed and oven roasted pumpkin, just like Heston Blumenthal suggests, to achieve a far more complex pumpkin flavor. On the other hand, if you end up with a more or less tasteless pumpkin, well then nothing can save the soup! This pumpkin season I wasn't very lucky with these yellow beauties, however this soup turned out delicious and was really comforting on this pretty cold winter day.

Ingredients:
for the pumpkin soup:
800 g pumpkin
200 ml coconut milk
1 shallot
50 g butter
few rosemary sprigs
2 cloves garlic
800 ml vegetable or chicken stock
salt
cayenne pepper
for the coconut foam:
200 ml coconut milk
2 g lecithin

Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake half of the pumpkin with 2-3 sprigs of rosemary and garlic. Peel both the baked and the raw pumpkin. Melt butter and add chopped onions and the raw pumpkin cubes and sautee for 15 minutes. Then add baked pumpkin, coconut milk and stock and cook for 20-25 minutes. Then puree soup and add a fresh rosemary sprig and let it stand for about 15 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. In case the soup is too thick then use some stock or coconut water to achieve the desired consistency. For the coconut foam bring coconut milk to the boil and lecithin and whip it with a mixer. Serve with an extra sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

After a pretty long time, that I spent sick in bed and couldn't even think of food, finally I am back in the kitchen. Though only slowly yet, but I am cooking again! The pumpkin season is blooming! So many different kinds of winter squashes are available that probably I won't be able to try them all. Besides I already have my favourite type, the so called Bleu de Hongrie, which if you ask me, has the best consistency and taste. I usually just bake medium chunks in the oven and it as it is. It is unbeatable! However for this monkey bread I used some butternut squash pimped with loads of spices. A lovely autumn treat that makes a nice afternoon snack with a glass of cold milk.

Ingredients:

for a 20 cm round cake form
for the dough:
350 g flour
150 g baked pumpkin puree
1 egg yolk
100 ml milk
10 g fresh yeast
30 g butter
30 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground anise
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
for sprinkling:
100 g cane sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger

for the glaze:
100 g butter
100 g cane sugar

Sift flour and make a mould into the middle. Crumble yeast and sprinkle with sugar and pour the lukewarm milk over it. As soon as the yeast swims on top, add pumpkin puree, spices adn the egg yolk and start to knead together. When the dough has almost came together add the cold, molten butter and knead a smooth dough. Let it rise for an hour or until double its size. Butter a 20 cm round cake form. Mix together cane sugar with ground ginger and pour it into a plastic bag. Take the dough and snip more or less equal sized bites from it and pop them into the plastic bag and shake it until it is covered with sugar. Place a row of the sugared bread chunks into the form and either sprinkle each layer with the glaze or pour it on top. For the glaze melt butter, add sugar and cook it over medium heat until it turns brown. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool in the form for 10-15 minutes then turn it over onto a plate.

Pumpkin Sunchoke Gnocchi Gratin

Last week, I had the idea to prepare sunchoke gnocchi, and I was thrilled about this "new" idea. However, then I realised that last year I have already prepared some, though then it was a sweet dish. Even now, I wanted to include beetroot in a form of a sauce or something, but then I decided to make a simple gratin with pumpkin.

Ingredients: 
550 g sunchoke
60 g ricotta 
1 egg
200 g flour
nutmeg
250 g pumpkin
100 ml mlik
100 ml cream
1 pinch of cinnamon
2-3 sage leaves
1 piece of cheddar
salt pepper

Cook sunchoke, peel and puree in a mixer. You should end up with about 400 g of sunchoke puree, stir in the ricotta, egg and flour. Bring salted water to boil, reduce hit so that it simmers. Pipe gnocchi in the simmering water and as soon as they swim on top they are ready to be served. Butter oven-proof dish and put gnocchi into it. Puree baked pumpkin with milk, cream, sage leaves, salt, pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. Pour it onto the gnocchi and toss it together. Sprinkle grated cheddar on top and bake for 15-20 minutes over 200°C.

Pumpkin Seed Oil White Chocolate Ganache

Well, I hope that you are not yet bored of macarons! However, now I am here with a ganache, that might sound a bit bizarre, but I must confess, for me it was love at first bite! In fact, I could hardly resist not to eat it all before filling the macarons. But I made it! You know those nasty calories helped to contain myself. Probably, it is a daring combination, well it is indeed, but it was a great success! Of course everything depends on the quality of the ingredients you use, so get the best you can afford. By the way, I almost could not share these green cuties with you, because my camera did not want to give back that gorgeous colour, so yesterday morning, I've decided to take photos every half an hour. You have no idea how happy I've been, when finally, I had some useable photos, of course even those needed some work on the pc, but still! Ah, and right then, when I finished taking the photos the background crashed some of the macarons! At least, I had a good pretext to eat them!

Ingredients: 
45 g cream
100 g white chocolate
70 g pumpkin seed oil

Bring cream over low heat to the boil, while waiting chop white chocolate and put it into a bowl. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and wait for a few seconds, so that the chocolate gets warm and then stir it with a wooden spoon until it melts. Add oil in a thin strain while stirring constantly.

Pumpkin-Gorgonzola-Chestnut Ravioli on Pumpkin Puree with Brown Butter, Sage Foam and Caramelised Chestnuts

As promised here is the ravioli! I had many different versions on my mind, and believe me, it was not easy to decide for one! However, right then, when I started to roll out the pumpkin pasta dough, suddenly everything was crystal clear. In some way I wanted to include yesterday's planned gorgonzola sauce in this dish, or at least to use the cheese. So I ended up wrapping the blue cheese in the pasta, to which I've added some fresh sage leaves, just like here.
  

Then, I had the idea to mix some roasted chestnuts into the filling of the ravioli, where I also added some fried cubes of pumpkin. Be careful, when using the gorgonzola, and add only a little in a while, because it should not dominate the taste! That's the tricky part  I guess. So ravioli, done! What about the sauce? Originally, I wanted to cook a sage flavoured pumpkin puree, but then I separeted the sage from the puree, just to make them meet on another level. The puree is made out of oven baked pumpkin flavoured with garlic, allspice, nutmeg and brown butter, lightened with some cream.

As the sweet component of the dish, I decided to leave some roasted chestnuts whole and caramlised them with brown sugar just before serving and flavoured it with marsala. Only one thing is missing from the photo and that is some really good quality pumpkin seed oil. Ah yeah, and the sage foam, well that is simply based on my good old recipe for basil foam, of course with a few adjustments to fit this dish.

Fresh Pumpkin Pasta with Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Drum roll, please! The pumpkin season has officially started here right at the corner! Thanks to a Hungarian blog event, the pumpkin fever has caught me and I have many ideas! So let's start the line with two simple pumpkin dishes. By the way that beauty on the photos is the Hungarian Blue pumpkin, my most favourite type. Just yummy!

Yesterday, I preapred some pumpkin gnocchi and served it classic with sage and brown butter and loads of fresh parmesan cheese, however, this time I used Robert's recipe, instead of mine. I was wondering for days what to make out of that 5 kg of beauty and I had the idea of fresh pumpkin pasta with gorgozola sauce. Well, I indeed preapared the pumpkin pasta, which is by the way eggless, however I served it among a pumpkin seed pesto and fried pumpkin cubes with maple syrup. But there is more to come! I also made a bunch of blue cheese ravioli, so stay tuned!

Ingredients: 
50 g durum wheat flour
100 g flour
40 g cooked pumpkin
nutmeg
allspice
salt

Cook diced pumpkin until soft together with the spices in some water, or in a mixture of water and orange juice, then puree. Once it is cooled knead a dough with the rest of the ingredients and let it rest for about an hour, then roll out with the help of a pasta machine and cut it in the desired thickness.

50 g pumpkin seed
1 small clove garlic
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 bunch chervil
70 g freshly grated parmesan
7-8 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil
salt, pepper

Roast pumpkin seed in a frying pan, then add everything to a mixer, then season and serve it with the pasta.

Sweet and Sour Pumpkin

It happened that I have bought far too many pumpkins in autumn. The best proof of this is that I have used the last one only today. I had many plans with it, first I wanted to cook a soup, then a puree, after I had the idea of baking a cake, but somehow I never did any of these. Well, I did not dare to leave the pumpkin in the pantry any longer so finally I had to prepare something. I decided to make some kind of a preserve with a sweet and sour taste. Though I am not a fan of that, but I haven't tried in that way yet, so I was curious enough to go for it. After all pumpkin and orange is a great match and with some cinnamon you can't go wrong. I can't wait to try the pumpkin in a few days!


Ingredients:
200 g pumpkin
500 ml water
300 g sugar
juice and zest of 2 oranges
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 stick cinnamon
2 tablespoons apple vinegar
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar


Peel and deseed the pumpkin and cut in slices or small cubes. Bring the water together with the sugar and the rest of the ingredients over low heat to the boil. Let it cook for 10 minutes, then add the pumpkin and cook it for 2-3 more minutes. Fill it into jars and let it marinate for at least 2 days.

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Within two days I have used two pumpkins, yeah finally, they are gone, except one. Anyway, to yesterday's muddy weather the bright orange was a great match, however today we have a beautiful white blanket over the hills. Thanks to the snow now I am floating in Christmas feeling and looking forward to all the preparations and stuff. Now back to the gnocchi. I wanted to make a normal potato and also pumpkin gnocchi.

There was still a bag of purple potato in the pantry, and as they are quite floury, I decided to use them for the gnocchi. I have put them on the stove to cook, but then I realised that the pumpkin needs more time to be baked, so I immediately took it away from the stove and switched on the oven for the pumpkin. I decided to form the gnocchi the same way like when I made the ones with ricotta, and then I had the sudden idea of preparing a double coloured gnocchi, so I filled both in the piping bag and so the gnocchi were born. I simply served it among some brown butter and fresh parmesan, though feel free to add some fresh sage as well.

Ingredients:
1000 g pumpkin
100 g flour
100 g parmesan
1 egg
nutmeg
salt, pepper


Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake pumpkin for about 90 minutes, then let it cool for a few minutes. Half and deseed pumpkin and puree, then mix it together with the flour, freshly grated parmesan, egg and season with salt, peper and nutmeg. Pour mixture into a plastic bag or a piping bag. Bring salted water to boil, reduce hit so that it simmers. Pipe gnocchi in the simmering water and as soon as they swim on top they are ready to be served.

Pumpkin Tart with Fresh Goat Cheese

Yesterday, I have started the "Empty the Freezer" project again. This time the goal is to have enough space for the stocks that I am going to use during the holiday season. Though I haven't reached my goal the last time, but at least I have won a bit more empty space. This year I have a better chance, because there are not so much that I have to use before I start with the preparations for Christmas. Of course the most important things like the Hungarian túró and sour cherries will be saved, at least most of it. I wonder what I am going to find in the boxes, that I have forgotten already since a long time. I started the emptying process again with homemade puff pastry and some fresh goat cheese. I have also found some leftover crumble so a tart seemed to be a good idea to bake. There are still a couple of pumpkins in my pantry, so I decided to use one of them.

The crumble did a good job on highlighting the taste of the pumpkin, it might seem strange, but I really loved this combination together with the fresh goat cheese and the pumpkin seeds.

The preparation is pretty easy, just roll out the pastry and prick with a fork. Put thin slices of pumpkin on top and cover with a mixture of egg-cream-milk and parmesan cheese, seasoned with salt and freshly grated nutmeg. Sprinkle it with crumble, pumpkin seeds and fresh goat cheese then bake and serve lukewarm.