One of Mums’ pumpkins she gave me grown on her allotment, it has since been turned into soup J
The mornings are certainly starting to feel distinctly more autumnal, but in contrast to the Swiss autumn, it remains decidedly damp and misty. The leaves have fallen off my 4 trees in the front garden. I am electing to delay clearing it up, as I think it will probably be one of those demoralizing never ending jobs, so perhaps waiting until they have all fallen off and then clearing them in one go may be better for my morale J. At this time of year in Switzerland, it is normally sunny and dry if a little cooler, and at exactly this time of the year, I always enjoyed the Kuerbisfest at the local farm at the top of the hill, Braendliliestalhof. The children climbed up beercrates on climbing ropes, had pillow fights whist sitting on a suspended log, hay bale mountains and corn baths. Really good fun, but health and safety would never allow that to happen in a million years in the UK now! We always went at midday for their wonderful pumpkin soup. They grew over a 250 different sorts, and the colours on the wheeled canopied carts were the essence of autumn. It is my favourite time of year.
If you are good at German, here are some of the recipes from the farm, but their wonderful pumpkin cake alson on the link sticks in my mind too, they always sold slices of that on the day too, but reckon they added some spice into it at some point..
If you are not so good at German, the recipe for their pumpkin soup translated:
Ingredients:
1 orange Knirps (these are like Japanese Hokkaido pumpkins)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
Bouillon/stock
Salt and pepper
Curry powder
Double cream
And the thing that makes it taste great: Vermouth.
Take the stalk off the pumpkin. Split into 4 and deseed, no need to peel, skin stays on.
Onion and garlic peel and chop, put into pan with pumpkin and a little water and cook til soft.
Puree, Season with salt, pepper and curry powder. Cook for a little longer. At the end , add double cream and Vermouth.
No amounts are given in this recipe, so it’s a bit of a guess, but soup making does not really require a lot of accuracy anyway! I always remember them making a huge vat of this soup and had a giant stick blender over 2 metres long and sloshing in a whole bottle of Martini at the end, it was great stuff, and very warming!
Butternut squash cake:
Whilst on recipes connected with pumpkin and squash, this tea loaf I made last year for a trip to the Schwarzwald in October. We had an amazing dry and sunny week there, and this recipe bring back memories of eating slabs of this cake spread with a little butter in our wooden house with the wood pellet fire on. It was so cosy. I love the taste of the ginger in this cake. It freezes really well, and it matures, so its best the next day after making.
Baked Butternut squash gnocchi, which we had last night. Rather high cholesterol, but a great, easy to prep Autumnal dish from Novelli.
serves 4.
Half large squash or 2 small ones about 500g of butternut. Peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks.
3 garlic cloves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
95g semolina or polenta
40g Parmesan (reggiano)
65g butter
3 medium eggs
125ml double cream (I used single and milk)
1) Oven 180 degs C or Gas 4
2) Put squash, thyme and garlic into roasting tin and cover with foil and roast for 45 mins (can drizzle with a little oil here, not mentioned in recipe).
3) Transfer contents of tin into food processor and whizz to puree.
4) Add polenta/semolina, parmesan and butter and whizz again.
5) Whisk together eggs and cream, season. Add to food proc. bowl and whizz.
6) Line 18cm x 28 cm roasting tin with baking parchment. Spread evenly into tin. Cover with foil.
7) Can bake straight away or place in fridge til needed. Bake 30 mins.
8) Cool slightly after baking and cut into slices. Sprinkle over a little extra melting cheese ontop like cheddar/gruyere/brie or tallegio and grill til melted.
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