Tonight Mum, Dad and my little brother came over for dinner! I don't often cook for more than 2-3 people, but it turned out pretty well and I have leftovers for work which is always a perk! I have been cooking vegetarian a lot lately, so I thought I'd continue by making a pumpkin soup and onion tart. I got the recipes from smitten kitchen again... waiting until I get some verjuice before I continue on with Maggie Beer's book as almost everything in that book requires verjuice. Anyway, onto the recipes!
Butternut Pumpkin Soup:
Made about 6 portions...
Ingredients:
125g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1L chicken stock (animal content free)
1kg butternut pumpkin
1 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoons minced fresh sage
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 cup cream
First I prepped the pumpkin, garlic and onion by cutting the pumpkin into small pieces, and dicing the onion and garlic. Next I melted the butter in a heavy based saucepan, and fried the onion and garlic until they were clear. I then added all the stock, pumpkin, and herbs, and brought the mixture to the boil and simmered on a medium heat until the pumpkin was nice and tender. Once the pumpkin was cooked I turned off the heat and took the pieces of pumpkin out and blended them until smooth, which could then be added back to the stock. After returning the pureed pumpkin, I whisked the soup until it had thickened sufficiently, then added the cream. And it's done! I served it with little bread rolls with Gruyere cheese melted on top AND the following onion tart - which was probably my favourite part of the meal!
Onion Tart:
Makes 1 tart (1 sheet of frozen puff pastry)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
500g onions
1 sheet puff pastry
1/3 cup shaved Parmesan
Preheat the oven to 190C.
So I got my lovely boy to slice the onion for me (as my eyes are way too sensitive) and kept it aside ready for frying. I added the olive oil to the frying pan and, once hot, added the fennel seeds and sauteed for just less than 1 minute. I then added the onion and cooked until the onion started to caramelise - YUM. While the onion was cooking I spread a thin layer of the mustard over the pastry. Once the onion was done I put it over the mustard and covered with the Parmesan. Now into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the puff pastry looks nice and golden. Oh man, we have extra onion cut and I am totally making this again tomorrow night!
That onion tart looks delicious!! Im going to have to give it a try - looks like something that can be eaten cold too :) Cold caramelised onions are super tasty!
ReplyDeleteYou can get verjuice at a continental grocer in the 'gabba called "samios" - well worth the trip as you can pretty much be assured of stocking up on anything mediterranean/european and yummy! The deli in rosalie also stocks a lot of culinary goodies but is a bit 'snooty' and i think its just too overpriced compared to a real continental deli.
If you are not averse to internet shopping, check out ideli.com.au, they can get some really obscure and restaurant quality stuff - and especially imported cheeses!!
As one of the guests,I can vouch for the meal being totally delicious and healthy as well. Very impressed with the menu and flavours. Look forward to sampling more from this imaginative kitchen.
ReplyDeleteAaaah thanks for that smitten kitchen link. Looks good.
ReplyDeleteThat tart also looks delish