Let There Be Pumpkins!

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch on the weekend and loaded up with lots of orangey goodness. Here is Son #3 checking out the huge pile of pumpkins at the farm, scoping out the best one. So, while I figure out what to do with this year's batch, let's not forget about these great recipes from past years. First, start off your day with Hearty Autumn Muffins. For lunch, try my personal favourite: Pumpkin Soup. And, of course, what is soup without scones (or Rustic Pumpkin Bread)? For dinner, try Fresh Pumpkin Pasta with Sage Alfredo Sauce, or a stew with Savoury Pumpkin Biscuit Topping. If you have more time on your hands, the Roasted Pumpkin and Walnut Manicotti is superb. End it all with Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding Cake, or Pumpkin Spice Sweet Rolls.

Sweet Corn in Rich Onion Sauce - Step by Step Recipe

I took this picture recently.

Yes, I take all the pictures for this site but this one is easily the most delicious looking, according to me. If you don't agree, its because you don't know how good this dish tastes, so let's do something about that, shall we?

2 corn cobs from the super market and I was good to go.

First step is to chop them up corn cobs into 1" long pieces. I want to be honest with you here - you need a mighty sharp knife for this. I only have wuss-knives and it was a very tough task. I did the best I could and then shaved the rest of the corn off the cob. That will get added to the sauce gravy. Nice, eh?

Speaking of the sauce, let's get started with that. Chop up 2 large onions, 2 pods garlic and a 2" piece of ginger and throw them into the mixer.

Grind to a coarse paste like so.

To this, add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp jeera (cumin), 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp onion seeds (optional, cuz I didn't have any!), 1/2 tsp sugar and 6-8 curry leaves.

Something about the above picture makes me smile. I think its those fresh curry leaves. Fresh curry leaves always make me smile.

Mix well. If you are anything like me, you would smell this mixture before keeping it aside. Go ahead, do just that!

Heat about 1 cup oil in a pan.

Gently place the corn pieces in the hot oil. Take care not to splash oil on yourself. It burns!

Turn and fry the other side, until its golden brown all over.

Drain and set aside. (Sidenote: using steel ladles on your non-stick cookware and taking a picture with your right hand while dealing with hot stuff with your left is to be done at your own risk. )

When the oil has cooled down a bit, remove the excess. We want only about 1 tbsp oil for the sauce.

Start up the stove again and when the oil heats up, add the mixed onion-spices paste.

Fry for 8-10 mins and then add the shaved corn pieces. (An extra step because I don't have sharp knives in the house - refer above). Mix well.

Now add the fried corn cobs.

Lower fire to minimum and top it off with 1 cup scant curd/yogurt. I added 1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup curd and beat well before adding (make sure your heat is at low and you use scant yogurt, otherwise the mixture will curdle and that will just not be a good thing to happen at this stage!)

Let it simmer on a low fire for 2-3 mins. Add salt and mix well before removing from fire.

Its absolutely yummy. If you like corn, this is super delicious - hot and sweet!

Here's the recipe again, all in one place.

Sweet Corn in Rich Onion Sauce

Recipe Source: Complete Indian Cooking by Mridula Baljekar, etc.

Serves: 2

What I Used:

2 corn cobs

2 large onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves

A 2" piece ginger

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp onion seeds (optional)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp chili powder

6-8 curry leaves

1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup scant yogurt

Oil

Salt

How I Made It:

1. Cut corn cob into 1" pieces.

2. Grind onion, garlic and ginger.

3. To the above, mix in the spices, curry leaves and sugar.

4. Heat 1 cup oil and fry corn pieces until golden brown. Remove excess oil and fry the onion paste mixture until oil separates (8-10 mins). Add the shaved corn pieces and the fried corn cobs. Mix well.

5. Lower heat and fold in the curd/yogurt. Simmer for 2-3 mins. Add salt and remove from fire.

This may be a good combination with roti. Or maybe even rice. We have no idea because we ate it as is. We bit into the juicy corn and licked the sauce until the plate was clean.

Since this is just not any other dish, it seems like a good entry to Hb's event. Some interesting recipes are sure to show up on her blog very soon!

Guest/Restaurant Attempt: Osteria Mozza's Orecchiette with Sausage & Swiss Chard

Dear Readers:

Have you had the extreme pleasure of dining at Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza? Were you fortunate enough to order the orecchiette with sausage and swiss chard?

OK, well, our friends Sara and Sean had and decided to take on the challenge of recreating it.

Being the rare (never done before) restaurant attempt, we had to get a little unorthodox when it came to the "their version" photo. We found this one via Food GPS and it's taken of the actual dish served at Mozza.

Osteria Mozza's version:

Sara and Sean's version:

I wish every attempt were like this attempt. Not just because Matt and I didn't have to do everything or because it was delicious, but because it was picture perfect, and by that I mean: Sara knows how to take a picture that is perfect.

This recipe is mainly about the homemade pasta. And the homemade pasta is mainly about hard work and semolina flour, the latter of which Sean was worried about procuring but ultimately did at Surfas in Culver City.

Once the dough was made, it was rolled into a long tube and sliced into thin ovals.

Then, Sean and Matt placed each of the little ovals in the palm of their hands, one by one, and pressed with their thumbs from their other hand, forming the "little ears."

The sauce was interesting because, despite the reddish hue in the Batali picture, no tomatoes were involved. Swiss chard, on the other hand, is involved. Big time.

Much like our last Batali attempt, the sauce in comparison to the pasta seemed relatively simple: you remove the casings of both hot and sweet sausages and cook the meat with the chicken stock, garlic, swiss chard and hot pepper flakes, adding the olive oil and parmesan cheese at the end.

OK, so truth be told, there's more to why this attempt holds a special place in my heart.

1. Sara made these little menus that deemed the meal my birthday "feast attempt."

2. They served us burrata and heirloom tomatoes as the salad course.

3. Sara made tiramisu and made me blow out a candle, which I haven't done since I was sixteen, possibly longer.

SIDEBAR. I'd like to quote an email just in from Sara: "Go ahead. Rip on the tiramisu. That sh*t was truly dismal. And I blame Batali." OK, so I won't go crazy on the tiramisu (which was also a Batali recipe), but I will say that I think Batali's brandy proportion was a bit off. Every few bites you'd run into what one might call an extreme brandy situation.

4. We topped off the night with a few intense rounds of Memory with this amazing modern / designy version of the game, which reminded me that I have the memory of Izzie Stevens on last season's finale of Grey's Anatomy. Speaking of which, I missed the premiere this season. Did she die or what?

RECIPE via Cook's Illustrated

Note: Osteria Mozza does not just give out their recipes. So, according to readers on chowhound, this is as close as it gets to Mozza's version.
Another Note: We substituted swiss chard for broccoli rabe.
Triple NOTE: We tripled this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

Table salt
1/2 pound orecchiette (any from-scratch recipe should do if you are going for homemade)
4 ounces hot italian sausage , casings removed
3 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through a garlic press (1 tablespoon)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 pound broccoli rabe , thick ends trimmed, remaining portion cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta, stir to separate, and cook until al dente. Drain and return the pasta to the pot.
2. While the pasta is cooking, cook the sausage until browned in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it into 1/2-inch pieces with a wooden spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until the garlic is fragrant and slightly toasted, about 1½ minutes. Add the broccoli rabe and chicken broth, cover, and cook until the broccoli rabe turns bright green, 2 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring frequently, until most of the broth has evaporated and the broccoli rabe is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
3. Add the sausage-rabe mixture, oil, and cheese to the pot with the pasta and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Fiery Red Thai Curry

If I were like my younger brother I would have titled this "Ring of Fire Thai Curry," but I have always been more couth than him. Back in my days in Kingston I used to frequent a Cambodian/Thai restaurant called Phnom Penh. I usually always got the #15, Pad Thai, but occasionally I would branch out and try different dishes. One night my housemate and I ordered a red curry with whole finger hot chiles in it (I really can't remember the name). He dared me to eat all of the chiles from both dishes, which I promptly did (and rather regretted later). This dish is based on the memory of that dish. The Thai chiles are from my own garden (see pic below)--the only peppers that actually grew in the garden this year. They provide the perfect burst of heat in the spicy sauce.

INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- stems from 1 bunch cilantro
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped ginger
- generous tbsp red curry paste (or to taste)
- 1 cup veggie broth
- 6 kaffir lime leaves
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vegan oyster sauce (or veggie stir fry sauce)
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 6 green Thai finger chiles, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 pkg extra firm tofu, cubed (baked or fired, if desired)
- 2 tbsp plain soy milk
- 4 green onion, cut into 2" pieces
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Place the first nine ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Transfer to a wok or large pot and heat over med-hi heat. Cook for 10 mins, stirring regularly, until sauce has thickened and darkened in colour. Add broth, lime leaves, sugar, sauces, chiles, and tofu and bring to bubbling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for at least 30 mins, allowing the chiles to cook and the curry to develop its flavour. Add more broth if too dry.
3. Add soy milk, green onions, and cilantro and cook for 5 mins, uncovered. Remove lime leaves, adjust seasoning to taste and serve over rice.

Italian Spinach

I know you are supposed enjoy your tomatoes in the hot and hazy days of late August, but up here in the North it takes until late September to finally get a good crop. It has been a long journey that started with planting seeds all the way back in February. I can't say that we are swimming in tomatoes since not that many ripen at one time. I had all sorts of dreams about canning my own pasta sauce this year but there is no way we have enough tomatoes to do that. Still, this year's crop is a vast improvement over last year's crop of exactly zero. So, with a few extra tomatoes on hand I whipped up this simple but tasty side dish. You could also easily turn this into a sauce to serve over pasta, as I have indicated below.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 small sweet onion, halved and sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- about 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 cup dry vermouth
- 1 bunch spinach, washed and drained
- salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large pan/pot. Saute onion and garlic for 5-7 mins, until softened and golden. Add cherry tomatoes and vermouth and bring to bubbling. Let simmer for about 10 mins, until tomatoes have reduced into a sauce.
2. Add spinach, cover pan, and cook for a min or so. Once spinach begins to wilt, remove lid and cook, stirring constantly to coat spinach with sauce. Cook for a few mins, until spinach is tender but not overdone. Season to taste and serve, draining off excess liquid if needed.
3. If you want to make a pasta sauce, add about 1 tbsp of tomato paste to thicken, then toss with pasta.
Here is one of our beefstake tomatoes. Mmmmm.

Giveaways and Gratitude

Earlier this year, I created a fan page on Facebook for Edible Garden. The main reason is because I saw so many people becoming fans of so many websites/people/places/products and I wondered if this little site of mine should also have one. So I created one and then duly forgot about it.

Recently, a good friend of mine nudged me back into reviving it, and I did. One huge advantage is that this way, I needn't spam all my friends with food and recipe updates - I can do that to just the 'fans' of Edible Garden - other food crazy people like me :)

Current stats say Edible Garden has 181 'fans'. To me, that's a huge number and it makes me blush and stammer and feel all proud of myself and this lil space of mine.

To celebrate, I am giving away one of my favourite things in the world - perfumed candles! The ones I have come in small boxes with a lid and this time, I have three of them to giveaway. All those who don't like these cute little things that smell divine and light up your house, raise your hands. Yep, that's what I thought!

All you need to do to enter is be a fan of Edible Garden on Facebook. That's right, this is exclusively for those special people in there, with a warm hug and a thank you from me.

Its not too late to join in, justfollow this link right here.

I will be randomly picking three winners on Monday, Sept 28th at 10:00pm Singapore time. I will ship these beauties globally so let's get started shall we?

Gourmet's Georgian Cheese Bread

This recipe caught my attention for a number of reasons.

1. I'd been looking to make bread again.

2. It reminded me of stuffed crust pizza. Do they still make that?

3. I had all of the ingredients on hand.

4. Sorry, I just passed out. What was that? All of the ingredients on haaaand?

 Gourmet's version:

 

our version:

First things first, gather up your coordinating color schemes of yeast and flour. Be sure they match your dining room chairs and look cool with the mustard-yellow wall.

The first part of this recipe told me to: Sprinkle yeast over warm water and stir in 1 tablespoon flour. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast does not activate, start over with new yeast.)

I've only worked with yeast one other time, and so I couldn't tell if it had activated or rather, if it was creamy, so I started over and compared the two. I ended up going with the second one, the one on the left, which basically looked the same as the one on the right if not a little creamier.

No KitchenAid with paddle attachment necessary.

Next, you knead the dough for about five minutes and then form it into a ball. By the way, if you have never made bread you should try it. It is one of the most satisfying cooking endeavors--from getting your hands in there and kneading the dough to filling your house with the smell of warm, freshly baked bread. Plus, it's hard to mess up (unless your yeast isn't creamy enough--so gross sounding, I can't stop saying it) but so far, it seems like bread always comes out amazing.

Matt didn't want me to mention this, but this was a tag-team attempt. See, at this point the dough just had to rise for a few hours, and I had to leave for work. I marked on the recipe where I was and Matt was excited to take over. From the pictures below, I'd like to say he was a little too excited. Check out how much flour he used. It reminds me of winter in Pittsburgh, which reminds me: go Steelers.

Basically, you take a bunch of cheese, press it into a ball and then wrap the dough around it. The recipe called for a mixture of havarti and mozzarella, but as previously mentioned, the major draw of this recipe was that it required exactly zero trips to the grocery store, so we used the leftover cheese we had on hand: swiss, mozzarella and provolone.

Then, you press it down again and cut a big X in the snowy terrain.

Turns out Georgian cheese bread is really just a fancy name for stuffed crust pizza. Needless to say, it was awesome.

Also extremely noteworthy: I just opened my birthday present and bon appetempt's pics are about to get a major upgrade moving forward thanks to my new and amazing Lumix LX3! So excited.

RECIPE via Gourmet

    2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (a 1/4-oz package)

• 7 tablespoons warm water (105–115°F)
• 1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 lb Havarti cheese, coarsely grated
• 1/4 lb salted mozzarella, coarsely grated
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted
  

EQUIPMENT: a floured pizza pan (at least 12 inches) or a floured large baking sheet

- Sprinkle yeast over warm water and stir in 1 tablespoon flour. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast does not activate, start over with new yeast.)
- Stir together salt and remaining flour in a large bowl, then stir in egg and yeast mixture to form a dough.
- Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and turn to coat with flour, then knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form into a ball and dust with flour. Let dough rest in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, punching down with a wet fist every hour, at least 2 hours and up to 3.
- Preheat oven to 500°F with rack in middle.
- Turn out dough onto floured pizza pan, turning to coat, then flatten with your fingers into a 7-inch disk.
- Toss together cheeses and press into a compact 3-inch ball with your hands. Place ball in middle of dough, then gather dough up around ball of cheese, squeezing excess dough into a topknot. Press down on topknot with a damp fist to press cheese out from center. Continue to flatten dough and distribute cheese evenly, pressing outward from center, until dough is an 11-inch disk.
- Cut a 6-inch X through top of dough to expose cheese. Bake until pale golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Brush surface of dough with butter and bake until golden and cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes more.
- Serve cut into wedges.

COOKS’ NOTE: Dough can be made 1 day ahead and chilled in bowl (for a slow rise), covered with plastic wrap. Punch down and bring to room temperature before proceeding with recipe.

Creamy Chunky Cauliflower Chowder

Say it! Say "chow-dah!" I don't think this is actually a chowder (when does soup become chowder, anyway?), but I wanted to go with an alliterative title. The temperature dipped down to 2 degrees the other night which suddenly put me in the mood for soup. Of course, now it's about 22 degrees, so that mood has passed. If it is still warm where you are, file this recipe away for later. It is creamy and chunky and perfectly satisfying. The boys loved it as well, which is great because they often balk at soups (or any dish where they can't identify the individual components or separate them out). The chowder has a slightly cheesy taste from the nooch and miso that is well-balanced by the leeks and roasted pepper.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp margarine
- 1 sweet onion, halved and sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 leeks, white and light green part, thinly sliced
- 1 large cauliflower, cut into florets
- 2 medium red potatoes, skins on, diced
- 4 cups water
- 1 roasted yellow pepper, skinned, seeded, chopped
- 1 recipe cashew cream
- generous tbsp yellow miso
- generous tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Heat oil and margarine in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and leeks and saute for 12-15 mins, or until reduced down and golden.
2. Add cauliflower and potatoes and water (salt the water if you want). Bring to bubbling, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 15-20 mins, until cauliflower and is very tender.
3. Remove half of the veggies with a slotted spoon. Add the roasted yellow pepper to the remainder and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
4. Add removed veggies back to the pot along with the cashew cream. Add miso, mustard, and nutritional yeast and mix well. Season to taste, heat until just bubbling, and serve.

Baingan Bharta - Recipe with Grilled Eggplant & Spices

I don't what it is about Punjabi recipes that is so alluring. Both TH and I, though born South Indians, have a huge affinity towards North Indian food. His favourite meal of all times would be garlic naan and palak paneer (which he orders in every Indian restaurant we every go to!) and I love my khadis, and khichdis and paneer butter masala too.

This is another recipe I'd been meaning to try forever. I had bookmarked a lot of variations from different sources but ended up making it my way. The ingredients list is basically the same across all baingan bharta recipes I saw online but I largely adjusted the amount of spices to suit our taste. Please be mindful of that when you try our your version.

Baingan Bharta Recipe

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 15mins grilling eggplant + 45mins for chopping and cooking

What I Used:

1 eggplant, grilled on stove top/oven

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 medium onions, chopped fine

3 green chillies (adjust to taste, I used Indian green chillies)

1 tsp minced ginger

1/2 tsp minced garlic (optional)

1 tsp of Kashmiri chilli powder (for the deep red colour. If using ordinary red chilli powder, please be mindful of the extra heat)

1 tbsp coriander powder / malli podi

1 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp oil

1 lime wedge

Fresh coriander leaves for garnish

Salt

How I Made It:

1. Grill the eggplant, cool, peel, mash and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. Once they sizzle, add the chopped onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic with a pinch of salt.

3. When the onions turn pink (don't brown it too much), add the garam masala, coriander powder, turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for 10 seconds and then add the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and cook covered for about 10 mins, stirring once or twice in between.

4. Once the tomatoes are cooked soft, add the mashed grilled eggplant and mix well. Adjust salt and let it simmer for 5-7 mins, stirring occasionally.

5. Remove from fire. Squeeze some lime juice and mix well. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis/phulkas/jeera rice.

This has become our favourite side dish with phulkas. If it didn't take this long for the eggplant to grill + make the baingan bharta, we would have this for dinner every other day.

Lunch Attempt: Gourmet's Beefsteak Tomato, Butterhead lettuce, Bacon with Blue Cheese Dressing

It's been a busy week, so we cut ourselves some slack and went for the rare, less intense lunch attempt. The laws that govern lunch attempts are much more relaxed than those of regular attempts.

For example: the first two words of this dish are Beefsteak Tomato. Even if we hadn't had some of Jodi and Neal's homegrown Roma tomatoes they'd given us on hand, I know that--what with this being a teeny tiny lunch attempt--we wouldn't have suffered through this gross sounding type of tomato.

Also, we didn't have a bug plate for the picture below, so we substituted a ceramic piggy bank (obviously). Again, it's a lunch attempt--all bets are off.

This salad looked awesome and it's close to being the only dish from the insane September issue of Gourmet that we have yet to attempt. So, here goes.

Gourmet's version:

Our version:

As mentioned, these are the roma tomatoes from Jodi and Neal's garden. Better name for tomato type: Roma or Beefsteak? Puhlease. Also noteworthy: according to wikipedia, common varieties of Beefsteak tomatoes include Beefmaster, Big Beef, and the Bucking Bronco. Who comes up with these?

Proof positive that Bon Appetempt washes their Butterhead lettuce.

The prep for this dish is pretty labor-intensive (on opposite day)--it amounts to little more than chopping scallions.

The bacon is the only element that requires actual cooking, but it's an essential component as, and here's a surprise (I mean, Gourmet talks about it like it's a surprise, but I really don't think so considering my last bacon-related attempt), the fat is used in the blue cheese dressing.

Matt's motto is if it's food, it can be paired with Blue Cheese dressing, though this was the first time we actually made our own, which, in keeping with the theme, was pretty simple: milk, sour cream, blue cheese, scallions, cider vinegar, bacon fat, salt and pepper.

Lunch attempt success.

RECIPE via Gourmet:

Ingredients

• 6 bacon slices, chopped
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3 tablespoons whole milk plus additional if necessary
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 cup crumbled blue cheese (1/4 pound), divided
• 1 (1/2-pound) head Bibb or Boston lettuce
• 1 large beefsteak tomato, cut into wedges

Preparation

Cook bacon in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain, reserving fat in skillet.
Whisk together 1 tablespoon hot bacon fat, sour cream, milk, vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper until smooth. Stir in scallion and 2/3 cup blue cheese. Thin with additional milk if desired.
Quarter lettuce lengthwise (through stem) into wedges, then remove core and arrange each wedge on a plate with tomato wedges. Stir dressing and spoon over top. Sprinkle with bacon, remaining 1/3 cup blue cheese, and pepper to taste.