Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Adios, calabaza!

It was time to say goodbye to pumpkin, at least for a few months. After loads of pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin pancakes (these never made it on here, they were consumed before the camera could start up), pumpkin beer, roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin soup, I felt the need to use the last of the pumpkin in my kitchen.

It started off with some pumpkin dinner rolls:

These guys were really easy to whip up. You know those restaurants that offer a variety of little rolls with innovative flavours in a basket at your table? You'd find these rolls in that basket, yum!

First: mix the following in a bowl and let froth:
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water

Second: mix the following in a bowl:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt

Third: add the following to bowl with the yeast and water:
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup pumpkin puree

Fourth: mix the wet ingredients into the dry. I don't have an electric mixer, so I kneaded the dough until it was smooth and elastic. If while you're doing this, the dough seems dry, add a tablespoon of soy milk at a time, I only needed one.

Fifth: Cover your dough in the bowl and let rise for about 20 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. When the dough is puffed, divide into 8 balls and flatten a bit. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Original recipe

I kept going. These pumpkin scones were so good the first time, I had to repeat. The only difference was that the first time the scones were so big that you had to cut them in half. So I made them half size this time. I divided the dough in two before making the circles and dividing into six.

At this point a needed a pumpkin break. I had some chickpeas leftover from last weeks Apricot Almond Hummus, and tons of spices from when J used to make curry. So I made my first curry, mixing the spices on my own. Since F made me a Thai curry when we were in Padova 6 years ago I've tried to satisfy my taste buds to that level on my own. Still unsuccessful. This wasn't bad though:

1 onion, chopped and browned in some olive oil
3 gloves garlic, added to the onions once browned
garam masala
a few cloves
cinnamon
allspice
add the spices to the pan along with the chickpeas
after a few minutes, add half a can of coconut milk, a chopped tomato, and half a chopped red pepper (those are the veggies that were in the fridge)

let it simmer a bit and enjoy! I didn't do rice as I knew I had some taste testing to do in the near future. The combination of spices was pretty good for a first timer!

The curry went down, and it was time to get back to the baking. Next up: Banumpkin Bread.

3 really ripe bananas, mashed
add to the mashed bananas:
1/2 cup sugar (I used sucanat, and thanks for helping me get my keyboard back to English T!)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon beer
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a second bowl:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (I always add a little more cinnamon, yum!)
Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut flakes, then pour into a bread pan and cover with plastic wrap, putting this into the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for an hour. Maybe 70 minutes, until your spaghetti comes out clean.

I brought some of this bread to work, it went down a few hatches pretty quickly, I like to think cos it was delicious as they said, and not because they were trying to be nice and swallow before they gagged. I then brought it to some friends, and ate the other half of the loaf on my own. You must try this! The recipe that I adjusted from is from (never home) maker. I switched a few things like maple syrup for honey as that's what I had on hand, and didn't add cloves since I don't have ground cloves. Remind me to get some.

Here's a summary of my Sunday evening:

Better wipe that drool off of your space bar!

No comments:

Post a Comment