Delicious - June 2015 - Beetroot & Pumpkin Curry

My last post said that I found this issue unread on my dining table. Well, apparently it just looked unread as when I started looking for this recipe it turned out to be in the June issue.

Doesn't the cake on the cover look amazing? I would love to make that but, well you know, I can't bake too much. There is only so much that I can (should) eat. I do get a bit of a chance to bake now that I am in Toastmasters as I get to provide supper for the meetings. So perhaps I will make the Almond cake with poached pears and caramel praline. Sounds awesome doesn't it? Although it might be a be much for one of our meetings. Plus those pears would mean that it wouldn't be "finger food". There are plates there that we can use but, well, then there is just more washing up. lol

The Beetroot & Pumpkin Curry recipe jumped out at me when I was flicking through the magazine. I love both beetroot & pumpkin. I have had pumpkin in curries before but never beetroot. It had me a bit curious. Beetroot are plentiful and pumpkins are in season so it was a really good seasonal meal to make. Like all beetroot dishes the colour is glorious. The earthy flavour of the beetroot combined nicely with the spice. I am not a huge curry fan but I did really enjoy this one. The recipe called for it to be served with flat bread however I didn't feel like making any so I just cooked up some rice. I just used white rice but I think that the nuttiness & chew of brown rice would be much better with this dish. I did really like it but given I am not a huge curry lover and freezing didn't go well I doubt I would make it again.

Beetroot & Pumpkin Curry

by Jill Dupleix

Delicious magazine June 2015 pg 58

800 g baby beetroot, stalks trimmed & scrubbed (I used 3 or 4 regular beetroot)

400 g butternut pumpkin, peeled & cut into 2 cm pieces

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 long red chilli, thinly sliced

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp tumeric

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chilli powder (I would add a bit more)

50 g baby spinach (I used finely slice silverbeet)

1 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp raw unsalted cashews,

Natural yoghurt & fried curry leaves to serve (I didn't have curry leaves)

Boil beetroot until tender. Drain saving 2 cup cooking liquid.

Cook onion until soft & then add garlic, chilli, tumeric, cumin & chilli powder and cook until fragrant. Add tomato paste and cook for a further minute. Add beetroot "stock" and pumpkin. Simmer until tender (approx 15 min)

Peel beetroot, chop & process 150 g to a puree. Chop remaining beetroot. Add both to the pumpkin mixture. Cook until heated through. Add spinach and stir in to wilt.

Serve with rice, yoghurt & cashews.

Roast pumpkin & pomegranate salad

This is another one that I made a little while ago now. I went through a stage of doing a lot of cooking but not so much into the writing side of things. I have had a rather busy month. It has been pretty busy at work and I have other things going on. I have been trying to do a few things around the house but I haven't had too much success with getting too far on that. I have managed to pack some more stuff away in storage containers. There is so much stuff in my house as I just packed up my old house and moved every thing with me. This house is quite a bit smaller so there has been stuff shoved in nooks and crannies and there isn't a third bedroom as such because it is full of stuff. I did get rid of some stuff last year but there is some that I am not sure what to do with so I am packing it in storage containers and storing in my storage areas under the house. I plan on going through some of the stuff in my kitchen again too. Time for some stuff that hasn't been used in a while to go. 

This was a quick and easy salad to whip up to go with some chicken sausages that I got on special. I am a huge fan on pomegranates and always buy them when then are available. I think they are wonderful in salads as they add a bit of a tangy burst. 

Roast pumpkin & pomegranate salad 

1/2 medium size butternut, peeled & chopped into bite size pieces 

1 tbsp oil 

cracked pepper

1 small lebanese cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced 

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

handful of pomegranate arils 

marinated feta

wild rocket to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180 C. 

Place pumpkin on a roasting tray, drizzle wtih oil and grind black pepper over then mix together until each piece is coated in oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked. Remove, set aside to cool. 

Once cool, combine all ingredients and mix well. Drizzle with a vinaigrette if desired, I used just raspberry vinegar. 

August 2012 - Salmon wrapped in prosciutto

I can't believe that I have left it this long to get something made and posted from this month's delicious magazine. I keep saying that I will do better next month but I guess that I just have to face the fact that this hasn't been the best year so far for me and the blog just has to take a back seat until I am feeling better. Perhaps I might just post some recipes and pictures for things that I have made. I seem to fall down on writing the "chit chat" these days. I will keep going with my delicious magazine recipes though. Will not fall down on that. :-)

There were a few interesting things in this issue. I really liked some of Simon Bryant's recipes. In particular his sesame & tahini puffed rice bars with dark chocolate. I have everything but the puffed rice, oh and the chocolate, so will get that this week and make them on the weekend. I am not sure about the large amount of chocolate. Instead of coating both sides I might just do one, or I might try them without first and then decide if the chocolate is needed. 

I am also keen to make both Valli's south american roast chicken with guacamole and her harira (moroccan lamb, tomato & lentil soup). I just received my new 5 in 1 multicooker today so I think that I might give the harira a go with the pressure cooker function. I am really keen to get using it. So will be looking for lots of things that I can do in it. 

Tonight though, I made the salmon wrapped in prosciutto with pesto and roast pumpkin. I used more of the cashew & lemon pesto that I made before instead of making the parsley pesto in the recipe. I also had a bit of an oopsie with the pumpkin in that I accidentally turned the oven up to 250 C instead of 200 C so it got a bit "dark" around the edges, LOL.  I served it with a nice portion of salad. It was all very good. 

Salmon wrapped in prosciutto with pesto and roast pumpkin

Serves 4

1kg butternut pumpkin peeled and chopped (I used Kent pumpkin)

1 tbsp garlic olive oil

4 x 180g skinless pin-boned salmon fillets

4  slices prosciutto

Pesto and salad to serve

Preheat oven to 200C. 

Place pumpkin on a baking paper lined tray and drizzle with oil and season. Roast for 30 - 40 minutes or until tender.  

Season salmon with salt & pepper then wrap each salmon fillet with a slice of prosciutto.  Cook in a pan over a medium heat for 3 – 4 minutes on each side until cooked to your liking. Serve with pesto and salad.

Sweet & Spicy Potatoes and Pumpkin

Nice quick little post with a side dish that I made recently. I have talked before about playing around with your side dishes. It really makes so much difference to your meal. I served this with pickled pork and cabbage fried with onion, garlic & ginger. It was all ever so good. Oh, and I have heaps of the potato & pumpkin left so I think I might use it in a frittata or something on another night. Oh and one recommendation, I used butternut for this dish but it was not firm enough. I would definitely suggest a firmer pumpkin. For those in Australia, Queensland Blue or Kent.

Sweet & Spicy Potatoes and Pumpkin

2 tbps brown sugar (I used a US tbsp though so 1 tbsp + 2 tsp)
1 tsp hot smoked paprika (if you don't have hot, use 1 tsp smoked paprika + 1/4 tsp chilli powder)
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil (about, I just poured some in)
1 tsp honey
500 g pumpkin, chopped
4 potatoes, cut into eighths


Combine brown sugar, paprika, allspice & salt in a plastic bag and shake to combine. Add olive oil and mix. Add pumpkin & potatoes and shake and massage until all are well coated. Place on a foil lined tray and drizzle with honey. Bake for 30 minutes at 180 C or until done.

Greek Pumpkin and Rice Tart

I like to keep the 90 second rice packets in my cupboard. I know rice is easy to cook and is relatively quick to cook also but some times I just don't feel up to making too much and having these in the cupboard really helps me to still eat well on days like those. There are also a couple of "slices" or tarts that I have made that use them. I think with all of the recipes you could easily use rice that had been cooked and cooled. I really enjoyed this dish. The original recipe uses prosciutto but I ended up using bacon instead. It was a little bit salty but not too bad. This would depend on your bacon and feta though. It was very good hot but I enjoyed it even more when it was cold. 

Greek Pumpkin and Rice Tart 

6 slices bacon

6 spring onions

1 bunch dill

250g packet 90 sec rice, I used jasmine 

8 eggs

100g feta

4 - 6 baby bocconcini, halved

1/2 (about 1kg) butternut pumpkin

60ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil

200g cherry tomatoes

1 lemon

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 26cm, heavy-based, ovenproof frying pan. Place bacon slices, over base and side of pan, trimming to fit if necessary.

Peel pumpkin then cut into 7mm cubes and toss with 1 tbs oil. Then place on a tray and roast in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until just soft. Set aside to cool slightly

Roughly chop white and most of green part of onions, then roughly chop with all but thick stems of dill. Place half each of the onions and dill in a large bowl. Reserve remainder. Add rice and eggs to onion mixture, then crumble over feta. Using a whisk or fork, whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture into lined pan, then cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Scatter pumpkin mixture over egg mixture, top with halved bocconcini. Transfer pan to the top shelf of the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make tomato salad, roughly chop tomatoes and place in a bowl with reserved onions and dill. Squeeze over juice from lemon, add remaining 2 tbs oil, then season. Gently toss to combine.

Turn oven to the grill setting and cook tart for a further 5 minutes or until egg is set and pumpkin and feta are golden.

Serve tart with tomato salad.

Pumpkin Pie with Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream

I have spoken of my love of pies before. I know that this all stems from my gramma. She was the best pie maker ever. Plus she grew all of her own fruit so in the summer time it was one glorious pie after another with fresh just of the tree (or bush) fruit. My gramma would also preserve or freeze her fruit as well so that we could have her glorious pies (and other desserts) all year round. 

This pie however, I remember more from Mum. It is Mum's recipe that I have. I always remember begging Mum as a kid to make pumpkin pie but it didn't very often get made so I like to make it a couple of times a year now just to savour it. If you don't tell people that there is pumpkin in it then they would never realise. It is just such a fabulous recipe, lovely and spiced with just the right amount of sweetness. This time around instead of one big pie I made some individual sized tarts so now I have a bunch of those in the freezer for any time I am feeling like it and I didn't have to eat a whole pie myself. LOL.

This time I also made a vegan pumpkin ice cream to serve with it which I found over on Tasty Yummies. I was intrigued by a vegan ice cream and was very impressed with it. I couldn't find almond milk so used oat milk and I used brown sugar as that was all I had. I really liked it a lot and it went perfectly with the pumpkin pie. It has also piqued my interest in exploring more vegan ice cream recipes. 

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 1/2 c cooked mashed pumpkin, well drained (roasted and then mashed is best)
• 1 can evaporated milk

Method: 

• Combine sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger & salt. 
• Add eggs, pumpkin & cream and mix well. 
• Pour into an uncooked pastry shell. 
• Bake at 210 C for 15 minutes. 
• Reduce heat to 180 C for 40 minutes, or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

For my pastry I use my Gramma's recipe it is the best pastry in the world:

Gramma's Pastry (for one single crust pie)

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 c plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c butter (gramma used lard)
• 1 tbsp white vinegar 
• 1 small egg 
• water

Method:

• Combine flour and salt. 
• Cut in butter using a pastry blender.
• Place egg in a 1 cup measure and lightly beat, add vinegar and top up with water to 1/2 cup. 
• Add to flour mixture and little at a time until you have a soft pastry (you probably will not need all the liquid). 

Pumpkin Leek & Chorizo Risotto

So encouraged by a friend I have started on a bit of an exercise kick. Today was the beginning of week three of swimming four days a week (actually considering going to 5 days). I am now up to swimming 30 x 25 metre laps. Today it took me about 40 minutes. I have to admit that I am really enjoying it and am pleased to have been pushed into it. I have also managed to lose some weight. Since the start of this year I have lost a total of 5.5 kg. Not a huge amount but it is certainly a start. Losing is definitely better than gaining or even just staying still. I hope that with the swimming that the weight will come off quickly to start with. 

Now, I know that risotto isn't exactly diet food, however I did make this quite some time ago plus it is absolutely to die for (oh and I don't really do diet food... lol). I just love pumpkin risotto so much. In fact I really am a fan of almost any kind of risotto. I like to make my pumpkin risotto with raw pumpkin that has been fairly finely diced and let it cook in the stock as the rice cooks. Some of the smaller pieces start to disintegrate and provide a lovely orange colour while the bigger pieces stay whole and add a different texture even when fully cooked. For this one I had a leek in the fridge that needed using up so used that in place of onion and I also had some chorizo so finely diced it and fried until nicely coloured. I don't normally add the chorizo to this but it was so, so good in it and I will definitely add it in again. 

Pumpkin, leek & chorizo risotto

Ingredients: 

• 1 chorizo, finely chopped
• 1 leek, halved & finely sliced
• Wedge pumpkin, finely diced (I am not sure how big it was, there was probably 1.5 cups of diced pumpkin)
• 1 c arborio rice
• 1/2 c white wine (or extra stock)
• 3 - 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• grated parmesan (about a cup maybe)
• rocket, to serve

Method:

• Heat saucepan (I used my swiss diamond sauté pan) over a medium heat. 
•  Place chorizo in and let cook. Remove from pan leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. 
• Add leek and cook until soft. Add rice and stir for a minute. Add pumpkin and stir.
• Add wine and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed. 
• Add stock slowly, stirring after each addition until absorbed, continue adding stock until rice and pumpkin are cooked. 
• Add parmesan and stir. Season if necessary. 
• Serve on a bed of rocket.

Honey & Mustard Roasted Potatoes and Pumpkin

I have talked before about how I believe it is just as important to spend time on making good side dishes as it is to make good main meals. This potato and pumpkin dish was so easy but so very tasty. I adapted this recipe over at Allrecipes to make this. I really enjoyed it and would definitely make it again. I served this with pickled pork with mustard sauce, braised turnips and steamed broccoli. The sweetness of the honey really added something to the meal. I would highly recommend the whole combination.

Honey & Mustard Roasted Potatoes and Pumpkin

Ingredients: 

• 4 small potatoes, quartered
• Wedge pumpkin, cut into chunks
• 1 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• salt & pepper

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 190 C. 
• Line baking tray with foil (this makes clean up easier). 
• Combine butter, honey, mustard and a pinch of salt & pepper. 
• Add potatoes and pumpkin and toss to combine. 
• Spread onto tray and bake for 30 - 35 minutes stirring a couple of times.

Pumpkin Agroldoce

So what do you have as a side dish? A while ago I  found that I was in a bit of a rut. Side dishes usually involved steamed broccoli or cauliflower, frozen pea/corn/carrot mix heated in the microwave, mashed potatoes etc. It was all pretty standard and... boring... for want of a better word. I decided that I really needed to make some new side dishes. I have discovered some wonderful things on other blogs. The Little Teochew's Spicy Tamarind Potatoes are a definite favourite. As is Nami-nami's Beetroot and Potato Salad and Chocolate & Zucchini's Zucchini & Mushroom Crumble. All of which have been made several times now along with a few other thing that I will post over the next few days. 

The pumpkin agroldoce recipe comes from April 2007 issue of Delicious magazine. It was part of a feature on the launch of the Dutch edition of Delicious magazine and the opening of Jamie's Fifteen restaurant in Amsterdam. I was really pleased with how this turned out. It was sweet and tangy with just the right amount of spice for me. I normally just roast pumpkin, or turn it into pies. I do occasionally add it in with mashed potato but this was just so good and really complemented the roast lamb that it was served with. I also served it with sautéed spinach and Jamie Oliver's Jerusalem artichokes sautéed with bay leaves & garlic a nice change from your standard fare with a roast dinner. I would definitely make it all again, in fact I have some pumpkin in the fridge screaming out for something lovely to be made out of it. Oh and the left overs are fantastic chopped up as a topping for pizza.

Pumpkin Agrodolce

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground coriander 
• 1 dried chilli, crumbled 
• 2 red onions, slice into rings 
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed 
• 6 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped 
• 1/2 c raisins (I wouldn't bother next time) 
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar 
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar 
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 800 g pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and chopped into chunks (I didn't peel) 
• 1/3 c pine nuts, toasted (I don't like them so didn't use them)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 160 C.
• Combine all ingredients, except pumpkin & pine nuts, in a large bowl. Add pumpkin & toss to coat well. 
• Spread on a large baking tray, season with salt & pepper and roast for 50 - 60 minutes. 
• Remove from oven, cover with foil and rest 20 minutes, then toss with pine nuts.

September 2002 - Spicy Roast Pumpkin, Feta and Olive Salad

Goodness me it has taken a while to get started posting this month. It is almost half gone and I am just doing my first one. At least it is just the posting that I am behind with and not both posting and cooking. I have been cooking my way through another stack of back issues of delicious. magazine. Spring is well and truly the theme running through all of the September issues, even if it doesn't always feel so spring-like outside. There are some wonderfully light, fresh and tasty meals on offer. 

I have to admit that I struggled with something to make from this issue. Not because there wasn't much that I wanted to make but because I had already made so much from it already. Jill Dupleix's Scotch egg recipe is a winner. She uses a muffin pan to pack the mince mixture around the boiled eggs and then bakes in the oven. I really enjoyed them when I first made then and have made them several times since.

The "a-z ingredients" feature in this issue is iceberg lettuce. I had already made the San choy bau, which was lovely, Nasi goreng, which was terrific, and the Marinated lettuce salad, which seems rather old fashioned but was very nice. The only other option in this feature was iceberg wedges with blue cheese dressing. I have made something similar in the past so decided not to go with that one. 

I did consider making Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova. I love pavlova and it sounds so luscious. Nigella's description of it makes it sound wonderfully rich and crisp with a chewy centre. I was having my grandparents around for father's day on the first Sunday of this month so thought that I could make it for that. However the prohibitive cost of berries at that time made me hesitate. With raspberries being $9 for a 125g punnet it is rather crazy. Blueberries were about the same price. Strawberries were much cheaper but I thought that the sweetness of strawberries might make the whole thing a bit cloying. There was, of course, the option of frozen raspberries but they would not look near as nice. Instead I decided to make a pumpkin pie for Father's day dessert and make something else from this issue. 

Since I had the pumpkin, butternut pumpkin, for the pie I decided to make Bill Granger's Spicy roast pumpkin, feta & olive salad. It was very good. Although a little bit more cumin and cayenne pepper would have been good as it wasn't quite as spicy as I was expected. I didn't have any spinach so used iceberg lettuce. I didn't use as much oil in the dressing either. I probably used 1/2 to 1 tbsp and I didn't bother with the shallot. I would definitely make this one again. 

Spicy Roast Pumpkin, Feta and Olive Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 800g pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes
• 100g baby English spinach leaves
• 150g marinated feta
• 20 kalamata olives, pitted

Dressing:

• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp chopped  shallots (optional)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 220C. 
• Place oil, cumin, cayenne, salt and freshly ground black pepper in a bag, add pumpkin cubes, hold closed tightly and shake to cover evenly. 
• Transfer to a roasting tray and bake 30mins or until tender and caramelised. 
• Combine dressing ingredients an a jar and shake until combined.
• Divide the spinach leaves among 2 plates and scatter pumpkin, feta and olives over the top. 
• Drizzle with dressing.

January 2008 - The Best Baked Pumpkin

The picture on the cover of issue #67 caught my eye, Cranberry & Cinnamon Semifreddo, it even sounds fabulous. Again, though it is a dessert and I have already fulfilled by quota especially when I realise that I started out with the muffins. I did give most of them away though. However I have plenty of jelly cakes that still need to be eaten.

There were a few more things inside that caught my eye. I know that I said before that I don't really like seafood, one exception is salmon, especially a lovely salmon fillet. In this issue Valli Little's recipe for Wasabi-coated salmon with cucumber salad looked wonderful. It uses 150 g of ground wasabi peas (among other things) to coat the salmon fillet. I adore wasabi peas to snack on and normally have a supply in the cupboard but when I went to check the cupboard was bare. Apparently I had forgotten to stock up again and so did the supermarket...grrr. I will make this one day soon though, I hope.

With my first choice defeated by lack of ingredients I went with my second choice. Jamie Oliver's The Best Baked Pumpkin. My hopes for this dish were pretty high as I have made Jamie's Hamilton Squash a number of times. I love it and it is a popular dish when entertaining too. The Best Baked Pumpkin was supposed to be done in a whole Jap (or Kent as they are called here now) pumpkin. I was unable to find a smallish one. Then I thought that I could make individual ones in golden nugget pumpkins but I couldn't get any of those either. So I decided that since the hamilton squash recipe works well in a butternut I would use one for this recipe too. It worked quite well except for the fact that there was a bit too much stuffing and liquid. To be honest while this was an enjoyable meal, served with a simple salad, I don't think it is the best and much prefer the hamilton squash.

The Best Baked Pumpkin

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

Ingredients

• 1 pumpkin (about 1 kg)
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• olive oil
• 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• a small handful of black olives, stoned and chopped
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
• 1 dried chilli
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 50g basmati rice, washed and drained
• 75g dried cranberries
• 50g shelled pistachio nuts (I used pecans)
  
• zest of 1 orange
  
• 200ml vegetable stock, preferably organic

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 230 C
  
• Cut the lid off the pumpkin and reserve it. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and keep them to one side. Make the hollow where the seeds were a little bigger by scooping out some more pumpkin flesh. Finely chop this pumpkin flesh and one of the garlic cloves.
  
• Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Pour in a splash of olive oil, then add the chopped pumpkin, chopped garlic, onion, olives, and half the rosemary. Cook gently for 10 minutes or so until the pumpkin has softened.
• Meanwhile, place the whole garlic clove and the remaining rosemary in a pestle and mortar. Crumble in the dried chilli, add a good pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon and bash until you have a paste. Add a little olive oil to loosen up the mixture and then rub the inside of the pumpkin with it.
• Season the cooked pumpkin mixture and stir in the rice, cranberries, pistachios and tangerine zest with a pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly then add the vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes (no longer or the rice will end up overcooked later).
• Tear off a sheet of tin foil that’s large enough to wrap the pumpkin in a double layer and lay on top of a baking tray. Place the pumpkin on top and spoon the rice mixture into it, then place its lid back on. Rub the skin with a little olive oil, wrap it up in the foil and bake in the oven for about an hour.
  
• The pumpkin is ready when you can easily push a knife into it. Bring it to the table and open it up in front of everyone. Cut it into thick wedges and tuck in, leaving the skin.