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1 June 2010
PUMPKIN AND RAISIN GALETTES
"Every year at Halloween we buy thousands of pumpkins, to use them as lanterns in the American style. Then, sadly, many people throw them away. They don’t seem to understand that pumpkins are actually edible. Cinderella set a bad example by using one for a coach. The real reason people grow pumpkins is that you can eat them. Why not try?"
By: Julia Gasper A Google search says that there are 2,860,000 recipes for pumpkin on the internet alone. OK, so 2,000,000 of them are variations on pumpkin pie. That still leaves 860,000 ways to eat your Halloween pumpkin. Imagine that all those noughts are round, amber-coloured pumpkins, and beautiful gigantic vegetables like globes of sunshine captured to brighten up our autumn. Beginning to feel hungry? You’ve only got to go to the Sainsbury’s webpage to find 26 recipes, the hazard being that they are written in USA language (I won’t call it English). At the top of the list of ingredients for Spooky Pumpkin Pasta, it says “For Tip”. Tip? Don’t go and fling all the ingredients on your compost heap! What it really seems to mean is that these ingredients are used to make a sauce, which you then put (“tip”) on top of some tagliatelle, or ribbon pasta. By the time you’ve figured that out, you’ve already thrown away your pumpkin, and the battle is lost. What’s more, a lot of the recipes include fancy ingredients you are not likely to have to hand, such as shallots, Thai fish sauce or lemon grass. What people really need to know is that pumpkin and its cousin the squash are delicious just chopped into chunks and roasted with a little oil or butter, like potatoes. Put that alongside a roast chicken, or serve it as a course in itself. No sweat, no Fret I have looked around for some no-sweat, no-fret ways to cook and eat that pumpkin. Here are some of the best. We will start with soup, which is always welcome when the weather has turned cold:- GOLDEN AUTUMN SOUP. A slice of pumpkin, approx. 1 pound in weight (450g) 1 large onion 1 mug of dried yellow split peas 1 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped A little sunflower oil - about 2 tablespoons A bay leaf, preferably fresh A sprig of parsley 1 flat teaspoon of dried dill, or fresh if you have it Soak the spilt peas until well expanded, preferably overnight. Slice the onion finely. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan. When making large quantities, you may like to use that cauldron your great-grandmother got out at Halloween (and stir it with a broomstick). If in a hurry, you may like to use a pressure-cooker. Sauté the onions, turning frequently, and don’t let them brown. Cut the pumpkin into 1-inch chunks. There is no need to remove the peel. When the onion is soft and golden, add all the other ingredients to the pan and pour in enough water to cover them all generously. Cook gently with a lid on until everything is mushy and soup-like. Add salt and pepper only after the spit-peas have softened. Exact timing for this soup is difficult. If you cook it in a pressure-cooker, which is a laudable way of saving energy, it may take only 20 minutes. If you simmer it on your hob or Aga, it may take an hour or more. Split-peas that have been stored for a long time will need longer soaking and cooking. What you should enjoy is the mild, comforting flavour and the glorious saffron colour of this soup, which I invented. It looks as if you have used saffron or turmeric, when you haven’t! CORSICAN PUMPKIN SOUP I got this recipe from a book by Rolla Lucarotti, who says it comes from Vico, high in the Corsican Mountains. It is very simple. Take one kilo of pumpkin, cut it into chunks and simmer it in water with a pinch of salt until nice and soft. Put the flesh through a food blender (they used a sieve in the original), return the mush to a large saucepan and add one litre of milk (1 ¾ pints). Bring this back to the boil and put in a good handful - about 100 grams or 3oz - of small pasta shapes. Let them cook in the soup until tender, season to your taste and then the soup is ready to serve. PUMPKIN AND RAISIN GALETTES This is another Corsican recipe from the same book. It will give you all the taste of pumpkin pie with half the trouble. 1 kilo of pumpkin flesh, without the peel A couple of tablespoons of plain flour 4 eggs 100g (3oz) of sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder A handful of raisins A tablespoon of oil or butter 2 tablespoons of brandy, or calvados or any other liqueur to your taste (optional) If you are going to use the booze, soak the raisins in it before you begin. Grate the flesh of the pumpkin using a coarse grater. You may be able to do this using a clever food-processor. The result should look like a pile of wood-shavings. Add the flour and mix it together to bind the pumpkin. Break the eggs into a small bowl, add the baking powder and sugar, and beat this together thoroughly before combining it with the raisins and grated pumpkin. Heat a pancake pan, i.e. a nice flat shallow frying-pan, and grease it with a minimum of oil. Add the mixture in tablespoons, enough to form into small pancakes, and cook in batches of two or three, turning them half-way through. Remove with a spatula and drain well on a newspaper before serving, very hot and fresh. Now, aren’t you glad you didn’t throw that pumpkin away? by Julia Gasper - 1 June 2010 | ||
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