Extraterrestrial Pumpkin!

~ Menu ~

Simple Pumpkin & Roasted Garlic Soup
Organic Multigrain Bread
Glass of Merlot
A tasting of Toasted Sesame Ice Cream
Coffee

It rained like a bastard last night and you know how rainy they can be. Nevertheless it is yet another lovely sunny autumn day. I am reveling in all the seasonal accoutrements; hot chocolate, socks, open fire down the pub, cosy nights …. and I have a pumpkin! A rather special one, as it happens, although it was only 75p from Tesco.

You’d think we’d be able to grow our own pumpkins rather than having to import them.

I made myself a quantity of lovely …

Pumpkin & Roasted Garlic Soup

750g diced fresh pumpkin 2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
1 medium sized floury potato
vegetable stock 3 pieces of roasted garlic
salt & pepper

~ Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC  fan/gas 6.
~ Toss the pumpkin with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, season and roast till golden and tender which till take about 40 minutes.
~ Meanwhile thinly sliced the onion and toss with the other tbsp of olive till in a saucepan till hot. Turn down the heat, completely cover the onions with a piece of foil pressed onto their surface, put a lid on the pot and cook gently till utterly tender – 30 mins or so.
~ Peel and thinly slice the potato and add to the onions together with the tender roasted pumpkin and add enough stock to just cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer till the potato is soft.
~ Add the roasted garlic to the soup and purée the whole lot till smooth.
~ Dilute if you think it needs it with a little hot stock or you could add some cream although it is perfectly delicious without. 
~ Taste and season – a little sea salt sprinkled on top is a definite advantage. I garnished with a little fresh sage.

Why not pin this to refer to later!

When making this soup (and lots of other things) I have the edge on you losers because every year I bring back Caribbean Seasoning from the BVI which is sea salt harvested from the waters of the appropriately named Salt Island, mixed with a perfect balance of herbs and spices.

There are no residents of Salt Island now, the last one, Norwell Durant, died in 2004 – his home was on the beach and he'd chat to visiting yachtsmen (and women) including us. Residents used to pay a token tithe to the Queen of England – a sack of salt a year, I expect she misses it.

After relaxing in the sun streaming through the window, enjoying some of this soup, good bread and wine I decided that I should really stop indulging myself and get on with some work on my book. As I have mentioned elsewhere I have almost written a book about making ice cream (see below - I've finished it!) and am living a fingers crossed situation in the hopes of publication.

I knuckled down and conducted a small test on my recently invented Toasted Sesame Ice Cream and can report that I am very pleased with the result.

Updates from the Future!

The ice cream book, Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine ...: ... or much time or effort or having to mash the stuff as it freezes! is now self published on kindle and as a paperback as No. 1 in a series of books on Genius Recipes.   

There are currently 4 in the series including SOUP (almost) the Only Recipe You'll Ever Need which gives 60 delicious soup recipes all based on one easy and flexible “genius” recipe. Also included are instructions for stock making, guidance on adding herbs, spices and other flavourings plus additional recipes for roasted garlic, pepper coulis, frazzled leeks, compound butters and other garnishes and accoutrements.

Read about all my cookbooks (there are 9 in all!) here.