Vegetarian dinner with my folks!

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!

Israeli Cous Cous with Roast Tomatoes and Olives

A recipe from smitten kitchen!



For roasted tomatoes and dressing
2 punnets red grape tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For couscous
2 3/4 cups chicken stock
2 1/4 cups Israeli couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup Kalamata
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Roast tomatoes and make dressing:
Preheat oven to 125C.

I halved tomatoes through stem ends and placed cut sides up, in a single layer in a large shallow baking pan. I added garlic to the pan and roasted for about 45mins. Cooling only took about 10mins before the tomatoes could be used in a blender!

Garlic was peeled and pureed with oil, water, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes in a blender until dressing was semi smooth.

To make cous cous: I brought the stock to a boil in a heavy saucepan and stirred in cous cous, then simmered, uncovered, for 6 minutes. I then turned off the gas and left the cous cous to set for about 10 minutes.

After all this was ready it was time to combine it with the chopped herbs and olives.

Oh man, so good. Even for my boy and housemate :D

Mushroom pie & potato with goats' cheese

I received a comfort food cook book from my boy for my birthday, which is great because comfort food is the best kind! My first recipe was a delicious pie/tart using mushrooms and goats' cheese.

Ingredients:
200ml milk
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove
350g potatoes
50g butter
350g mushrooms (I used field and button as they were all that was left at the grocer)
100g goats' cheese
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
salt and pepper to taste
Thyme is a nice addition as well

Prior to starting, I preheated the oven to 200C. First I cut the potatoes into 2cm x 2cm cubes and placed them in a pot with the milk and cream, then brought this to the boil and simmered until the potatoes were cooked (about 15mins). While the potatoes were cooking, I cooked the mushrooms in the butter with thyme over a medium-high heat, cooking until all moisture had left the pan.
Once all above had cooked I laid the pastry out into a cooking dish, and filled it first with the potatoes, then with the mushrooms on top. I then put the cubed goats' cheese on the mushrooms and closed up the pastry. I brushed the top of the pastry with milk, scored it, then put it in the oven for 20mins - or until the pastry looks cooked enough.
Delicious!

Just as a note, I would probably use a different cheese next time - probably fontina. This is just my personal taste though and goats' cheese worked pretty well.