Squash vs Pumpkin - Part 2

Cue the Charlie Brown music, and let's talk about pumpkins. Unlike Linus' ongoing vigil in the pumpkin patch waiting on the Great Pumpkin, we do in fact have this glorious fruit (yes, it is botanically a fruit) appear every year in the Fall. Pumpkins are loaded with all kinds of nutrients: they have high levels of Vitamin A, Folate and Fiber, low in calories and zero fat or cholesterol. Another one of our favorite "super foods!"

Jaspee Vendee (on right) from Gaia's Breath Farm

Pumpkins come in many shapes and sizes and are used in a variety of ways: baked, roasted and pureed. I considered doing a fun dessert, but that just seemed a little too easy. So putting my thinking cap on this week I came up with two different soups and a stew to share with you. This week was special not only because I was on a creative streak with my pumpkin recipes, but because Larry and I were having dinner with my fellow Small Bites blogger JL Fields, and her husband Dave.

With JL Fields and Liz Johnson at the John Jay Farm Market 

JL and I were thrown together quite by chance and all thanks to Liz Johnson. We met this summer in a whirlwind Throwdown Competition that basically came out of an email exchange about recipes. She and Dave are on their “Farewell to NY Tour” at the moment, getting ready to move to Colorado in a few short weeks. While we’ve just become new friends it was an honor for me to have her dine with us recently.

I don’t profess to know all that it takes to be vegan, that is her bailiwick, but she has educated me on many things vegan, and I am so very grateful. Food is one of the few things in humanity that crosses all cultures, preferences and classes. We all need to eat to survive. Since I entered the world of food as a career I have such a different appreciation of ingredients and preparation.

Cinderella Pumpkin from Gaia's Breath Farm

That said, I was on a recipe-creating streak this week and I came up with three interesting ways to use two different types of pumpkins. Both that I used came directly from Gaia's Breath Farm, through my CSA Basket. However, you can easily use the store bought variety, and even substitute with butternut squash. The only thing I would suggest is using a smaller sized pumpkin. They are sweeter and less fibrous. The gigantic ones are really only good for carving, in my opinion. The flavor level is very low. The other suggestion would be to not use the canned variety in these recipes either.

So let’s get to it! In both soup variations I start off the same way: sautéing the onions with olive oil.

Then adding the spices, liquid and pumpkin.

Pumpkin Apple Soup

Thai Coconut Pumpkin Soup

In the two recipes I suggest pureeing all for one of them, and partially for the other. It’s completely up to what you like. The one that I pureed partially will give you a thinner soup base with the pretty pumpkin cubes visible.

My other recipe was created for our dinner with JL and Dave. First off, yes, it’s made with meat, but that was the plan. She made a very tasty chili using lentils, kale and squash and here is the recipe.

Mine is inspired from Williams Sonoma, of all places! I am always trolling around that web site looking at gadgets and cookware. I came across a recipe on their web site and decided to play with it a bit changing up a few things that I had in my pantry.

Stews are just about the best thing to make in the Fall and Winter months. Not only are they a One-Pot meal, which is big plus, but they are dishes that you can cook on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon while you are doing other things around the house. From a big pot you can have dinner for a couple of nights during the week easily and you can change it up by serving them plain, over rice, noodles or polenta.

First you brown the meat, then saute the onions and deglaze with wine. Then the liquids, meat and pumpkin go back in, bring to a boil and head to the oven.

After several hours of cooking out came my delicious stew and garnished with fresh parsley.

Pork, Pumpkin and Apple Stew

I hope these recipes will inspire you to head to the pumpkin patch at your local farmers market, or produce aisle. I would also like to take a moment to wish those hit by Hurricane Sandy a speedy recovery and all a Happy Halloween. Keep an eye out for the Great Pumpkin tonight!

Buon Appetito!

Pumpkin Apple Soup
Makes 1 quart

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ cup Vidalia onion, about ½ onion
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper
1 cup apple cider
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 lb. pumpkin, about 4 cups, chopped 2” pieces
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 whole sage leaves
1 sprig thyme
Kettle Corn, (sweet and salty popcorn), optional garnish

Place a small heavy bottom pot over medium heat and add the oil and onion along with ¼ teaspoon of salt and pepper and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the apple cider, stock, pumpkin and apple and mix to combine. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the herbs and cook until the pumpkin and apple are soft. If you can take the back of a spoon and press the pumpkin up against the side of the pot you know it’s done.

Remove from heat and allow it to cool slightly. Fish out one of the sage leaves and the thyme branch. Using an immersion or regular blender puree the soup until smooth. Taste for seasoning and serve warm.

Just for fun I topped mine with a few kettle corn popcorn kernels for a cute garnish!

Cooks Note: the pumpkin I used for this recipe came from the part that was leftover from the stew below. 

Thai Pumpkin Soup
Makes about 2 quarts

1 ½ cup leeks, sliced thin and rinsed well
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Kosher salt
White Pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 13oz can Lite Coconut Milk
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
12 cups pumpkin, 4 lb size, peeled, seeded and cut in 1½ -2” cubes
2 dried Thai chilis (3 if you like it really spicy!)
Zest and juice of 1 orange, divided and set aside
¼ cup chopped cilantro plus more for garnish
Shaved unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted, for garnish

In a heavy bottom pot over medium heat sauté the leeks and garlic with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and ¼ teaspoon each of salt and white pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent, but not brown.

Add the ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add the coconut milk, stock, pumpkin and chilis. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Add ½ teaspoon of zest and 2 tablespoons of the juice. (Save the remaining for later.) Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender, but not completely falling apart.

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Scoop out about two-thirds of the pumpkin cubes and set aside. Add the cilantro to the pot and puree until smooth. Season with additional salt and pepper and the remaining orange zest and juice if desired. Add back the pumpkin cubes you removed. Serve warm and garnish with shaved coconut and cilantro.

Cooks note: If desired you can puree all of the pumpkin too. The version I have above will give you a little more texture and looks pretty with the cubes.

Pork, Pumpkin and Apple Stew
Serves 8

4 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ Vidalia onions, diced
3 – 4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup white wine
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 15oz. can Hunts Fire Roasted Tomatoes with juices
3 lb pumpkin, peeled and diced into 1 1/2 " pieces
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 cup apple cider
3 cups chicken stock
½ cup chopped parsley

Preheat an oven to 325°.

Season the pork with salt and black pepper. In a 7-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, coat the bottom with olive oil. Working in batches, brown the pork on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes per batch, transferring each batch to a bowl, and adding more oil as needed. Reduce the heat to medium and with 2 tablespoons of oil sauté the onion and garlic until golden brown, about 7 to 10 minutes. Deglaze with the wine and reduce for about 2 minutes.

Add the ginger, tomato paste, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, cloves and red pepper flakes. Stir constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add the apple, tomatoes, pumpkin, sage, apple cider, stock and pork with the juices. Mix well. Bring to a boil and season with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Cover the pot and place in the preheated oven. Cook until the pork is fork-tender and falling apart, 2½ to 3 hours. Remove from oven and pull apart the pork with a fork and gently mix throughout the stew. Mix in the parsley and serve either simply alone or over polenta, rice or noodles.

The Noble Apple!

Just Google the word “apple” and pages of links appear bearing stories, descriptions and recipes galore. So what is it about the apple that is so intriguing? We identify it as the “forbidden” fruit, yet it’s not specifically mentioned in the Book of Genesis. (They were painted into our consciousness by artists of the millennia.) Apples appear in Greek, Norse and Celtic mythology tied to gods and goddesses bribing, tempting and fighting over each other for them; Snow White bit hers and fell into a deep sleep; Irish folklore says a continuous peel from an apple tossed over your shoulder will bear the initial of a future beloved; in King Arthur’s mythical time the mystical isle of Avalon is believed to be the Isle of Apples; upon witnessing an apple falling from a tree Sir Isaac Newton developed his theory on gravitation, and an amusing one: Danish folklore says that an apple will whither around adulterers.

Let’s deal with today. Apples come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, 7,500 of them to be exact. Whether they are called mela, manzana or pomme it’s a yummy and delicious fruit - and oh so good for you. We’ve all heard the proverb "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Research suggests that apples may reduce the risk of many types of cancer and are a rich source of antioxidant compounds. The fiber contained in apples reduces cholesterol by preventing reabsorption, and (like most fruits and vegetables) they are bulky for their caloric content. We use them in all sorts of ways: snacking, desserts, sauces, juice and liquors. After reading many things about this ubiquitous ingredient I wondered what I could do that was just a little bit different?

First, lets take a look at just a few that you will come across everyday: Red Delicious,  a crispy apple great for snacking; Golden Delicious: an all purpose apple that has a rich flavor, great for baking and making applesauce; MacIntosh: tart and soft, great for apple pies; and last the Granny Smith: a crunchy, sweet and tart variety great for snacking (because it’s a little firmer and will take longer to to cook). Slow Food USA developed a wonderful resource guide about this noble fruit.

Applesauce is just about the easiest thing to do with your apple, other than cutting it up and dipping in caramel sauce or almond nut butter. All you need to do is peel, chop and place in a pan with about a half inch of water. Then cook over medium to low heat. Add a squeeze or two of lemon juice to keep the color pretty and a bit of brown sugar to sweeten it and voila! you have fresh applesauce.

I got to thinking this week about what I could do with this lovely ingredient that could be slightly different and came up with two easy dishes that I think you might like.

First I took the apple and sliced it paper thin and set in a bowl with lemon water. This will keep the slices from turning brown. I used my handy mandoline to accomplish this task.

Then arrange the slices over the salmon to look like scales and pop into the oven.

Just to mix things up a made a simple gastrique. Gastriques are basically a reduction of vinegar or wine with sugar or fruit. It's a French sauce used for seafood or meats - the sauce combinations are endless. For this one I chose  to be very simple: cider vinegar, lemon and sugar. I wanted the beautiful apple and salmon flavors to come through with a slightest enhancement of flavor.

For my second dish I decided to rework an old favorite "taboulleh." Taboulleh is a Lebanese salad that typically has bulgar wheat as the base and mixed with mint, parsley, scallions and cucumber.

Apple is the star of this dish with a little red onion to round out the flavor.

Just for  little "pop and crunch" I added arugula and hazelnuts. The finished product was not only beautiful but had amazing flavor!

I hope you enjoy these two simple recipes below and take advantage of all the wonderful array of apples the markets have to offer. Each has it's own unique character and flavor.

I also want to let you know that I recently participated in a ground breaking conference on weight loss and obesity. While the conference is geared to practitioners it was open to the community. They discussed various types of approaches to these issues through diet, exercise, medication and every day practical tools like smart-phone apps and cooking techniques (by me!) The woman who spearheaded this conference, Dr. Harriette Mogul, wrote a best-seller about woman struggling with mid-life weight gain and a two-pronged approach to help correct it. The book is called Syndrome W, A Woman's Guide to Reversing Midlife Weight Gain. It's a fantastic book (which I've read) and a must-read for any woman in her 40's-60's! It was a very informative conference. For details on the conference  click the link.

Until next week ... Buon Appetito!

Apple-crust Roasted Salmon and Cider-Lemon Gastrique
Serves 4

Gastrique:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch of kosher salt
Juice of 1 small lemon

Salmon:
11/4 lb filet of fresh salmon
Zest 1/2 lemon
1/2 Pink Lady apple, peeled and slice paper thin and set in small bowl of cold water and 1/2 lemon
Grapeseed Oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

For the Gastrique:
In a small saucepan add the lemon zest, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Reduce by 1/3. Remove form heat and stir in the lemon juice. If the gastrique is too thick carefully add warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to loosen it up. The finished product should be sweet and tangy, with the consistency of maple syrup.

For the Apple-crusted Salmon:
Brush the salmon with a little olive oil and lemon zest and season with salt and pepper. Remove the apple slices from the lemon water and drain on a paper towel. Using the most uniform looking slices arrange them over the filet in vertical lines like scales. Brush a little grapeseed olive oil over the slices. Place on a tray in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the filet is finished cooking. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

With a very sharp knife slice the filet into 4 pieces. (A very sharp knife will ensure a beautiful cut!) Drizzle with the gastrique and garnish with scallion, if desired.

Apple - Red Onion Taboulleh
Makes 4-6 servings

1 1/2 cups Bulgar Wheat
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
1/2 cup Red Onion, 1/4” dice
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 cup MacIntosh Apples, 1/4” dice
Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon, divided
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
2 tablespoons Thyme, roughly chopped and divided
1 cup Arugula, optional
1/2 cup chopped Hazelnuts, optional

Combine the bulgar wheat and boiling water in a bowl. Wrap tightly with plastic and set aside for about an hour.

Sweat the onion on medium heat for about 5 minutes with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the garlic and soften for about 2 minutes.

Add the apple and juice from half of your lemon. Cook slightly and then turn off the heat, leaving the pan on the burner. The goal is to warm the apple through, keeping the integrity of the texture. (We don't want mushy here!) Add in 1 tablespoon of thyme and let the pan cool.

Going back to our bulgar wheat. The bowl should be cool and the water completely absorbed in the grains. Fluff it up with a fork, then add the zest of 1/2 of the lemon, the juice of the other half of the lemon and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon of thyme, 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly to combine.

Add in the cooled apple mixture and toss gently. Taste for seasoning. Add the nuts and arugula if you want at this point, serve, and enjoy!