Halloween cookfest

To celebrate the 31st October this year I decided to buy large orange pumpkin and make a spicy pumpkin soup. The recipe I chose calls for ground coriander, red pepper, paprika and curry powder. To soften the pumpkin, I cut it in half, removed the seeds and roasted for 45 mins at 150 degrees C.
Once cool, I added the flesh to some chopped onions I had softened and spiced earlier. After adding vegetable stock, I blended, then added brown sugar and milk.
For a bit of fun I toasted the fresh pumpkin seeds with some salt and paprika and added as a garnish. At the last minute William made us the most fabulous fresh bread in what must have been record time. His method of using water that has been boiled has done the trick - every loaf is perfect now.

Earlier on that same day I had attempted a Charlotte dell'Abate.
I got this recipe from our new Italian cook book: The Vegiterranean. Ingredients included masala wine, espresso, cream, dark chocolate, amaretti biscuits and sponge fingers. I also had to make a zabaglione (which is like a custard) by slowly heating 3 egg yolks in a double boiler before tranfering to a bowl cooled by icecubes, taking care not to curdle the mixture. The Charlotte then needed 4 hours of freezing followed by 1 hour of thawing before it was ready. I was quite pleased with this attempt, it looked and tasted really good.

Thanks to Nicky's blog, I had a meringue recipe for my left over egg whites. This was SO easy and the result was all gooey inside as promised. Meringues are way too sweet for me, but I still ate 3!


http://sabakersdozen.blogspot.com/
http://www.epiculinary.com/ita_vegetarian.html