Pumpkin Soup

I don't normally post recipes on the blog but earlier today I made Pumpkin, Sage and Parmesan soup for my lunch and was asked numerous times for the recipe, so it seems to make sense to pop it on the blog.

Copyright Susan Crawford 2012

What I really loved about this soup, other than how delicious it was, is that both the pumpkin and the sage are out of my garden. However a shop bought pumpkin will do the job just as well I am sure and its a great little recipe for using up the remains of a pumpkin thats been used as lantern at halloween!

So first of all the ingredients are:

The flesh of a medium pumpkin, chopped into cubes (mine was frozen pumpkin from last year's crop)
25g of unsalted butter
1 chopped white onion
1 chopped clove of garlic
Nutmeg
A good handful of freshly chopped sage leaves
800ml of vegetable stock (I use Marigold)
3 tablespoons double cream
Parmesan
Salt
Black Pepper

Begin by melting the butter in medium sized pan with a good heavy bottom. Add the onion and gently cook for about 5/10 mins, then add the garlic for a minute or so. Next add all of the chopped pumpkin, along with the sage and a healthy grating of nutmeg. (I like a lot of nutmeg but obviously that's down to personal taste, however I think pumpkin needs plenty of other flavours added to it so don't be nervous of the nutmeg or the sage). Finally add the vegetable stock. Now keeping the heat pretty low, cook until the pumpkin is 'pulpy' stirring occasionally - mine took about 20 minutes with the lid partly over the pan, but use your own judgement on this. Turn off the heat and either mash or preferably roughly blend the soup. I use a cheap little hand blender for this and it does the job in next to no time. Don't over blend as you don't want a completely smooth soup. Pour in the cream. When serving add a plentiful quantity of grated parmesan all over the surface of the soup so that it melts into the soup. Add salt and pepper as preferred (you can always add the seasoning during cooking, but I like to do it at the end so that everyone gets it seasoned as they like it).

Serve immediately. On this occasion I served it with garlic bread and it worked perfectly but any bread of your choosing will work just fine I would think.

And that is that. Two of us had a healthy bowlful each for lunch and I would say there's at least the same again for tomorrow so I would say serves 4 to 6 depending on how much you like it!

Hope some of you try it, that you enjoy it and that it makes you good!

for now
Ruby x

"Christmas pudding debacle leads to new dessert being created"

I hope a wonderful christmas day was had by all. We had a lovely time at home with family members dropping in throughout the day.

There had however been a temporary panic on my part when my required ingredients for my christmas day dessert, a passionfruit trifle from a Nigella Lawson recipe, were unavailable. The best laid plans of mice and men...

So, a bit of creative thought on christmas eve was required. In the kitchen was the remains of a pannatone going a bit stale, and in the drinks cabinet (sideboard!) was a bottle of apricot brandy that I have never known what to do with.

I sliced the pannatone into triangles and laid the pieces in a deep dish and poured about a quarter of the bottle of apricot brandy over, squashed it all down a bit with a spatula, covered in cling film and put it in the fridge over night.

On christmas morning I took the dish out of the fridge, took off the cling film and poured another quarter bottle of the brandy over. Returned it all to the fridge until about an hour before dinner was due to be ready.

I then made a basic custard (about a pint)- not to thick (as it thickens when cooked) - and poured this over the pannatone/brandy mixture. I then sprinkled dark muscavado sugar all over the top. The oven was already on at 200 degrees (not fan assisted) so I popped the dish in at this temperature and left it cooking for about an hour. When the main course was served I switched the oven off but left the dish in the oven with foil over the top to stop it drying out.



I then served it warm with very thick double cream. And it was wonderful. Not too heavy as pannatone is quite light and the apricot flavour works like a dream.



(The pannatone was actually from the beginning of the year and had been wrapped in greaseproof paper and was still relatively fresh, but it does need to be drying out to work properly, as it would go quite sloppy with very fresh pannatone. Stale bread with sultanas and candied peel added would also work well)

Hope you like it.

for now
Ruby xxx

I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want...

is to craft if I want to.

I'm sure most of you already know about this particular yarnstorm but if you haven't read about it I encourage you to leave my blog (temporarily, of course) and go take a look, and then don't let the Telegraph tell us what we want to do. I love Jane's blog and am affronted at everything the journalist has written but would rather express my opinion as Jane herself has.



Gastro porn apparently. An egg custard to you and I.

Its so simple. I use frozen shortcrust pastry and make two custards at a time.
Earlier on in the day I roll out the pastry, line two pastry dishes and bake both blind for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Take out of the oven and leave to cool. Remove baking beans.

To make the custard, break 4 large free range eggs and whisk.
Bring a pint of full cream milk and 4 tablespoons of unrefined golden caster sugar to the boil.
Pour over the eggs and whisk again. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Pour equally into the two cases.
Grate some fresh nutmeg over each custard.
Return to the oven at same temperature for approximately another 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool.

And that's it.

I also made a brioche loaf (using my bread machine!) and boy was it good.



I've also been knitting away at Phyllo and am nearing the end of the second sleeve. As everything to this point has been stocking stitch I haven't bothered taking any more photos yet. Either later tonight or tomorrow I should be picking up the stitches for the yoke and things get more interesting.

I have also treated myself to Rowan's new yarn Cocoon which is just lovely, with a similar feel and tension to Polar. Its very very soft but with a little mohair in it to strengthen it up and stop it from pilling in the way that Polar did. I'm feeling good about it at this point.



I bought it after buying the latest Rowan studio book (book 6) and falling in love with this 'Sloppy Joe'



Just the sweater I need right now and should knit up really quickly. Not that I should be casting on anything else right now, but when has that ever stopped any of us?

The sexy knitters latest project has also just been decided on and its Tree Jacket from Zephyr style which I've been fancying for a while.



I have a large stash of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk aran from the John Lewis sale which would be just perfect. I can't seem to get a good photo of the colour though so I'll try again once I have cast on.

I also love the model's hair do and must have a go



Isn't it lovely?

for now
Ruby xx