Recipe swap (and other food related stuff)

[Sunflower]

Well, Potatobunny, since you asked... (or at least didn't strenuously complain)... here is a good recipe my mother makes every year for Thanksgiving.  I frequently bring it to potlucks, etc.

CURRIED PUMPKIN SOUP
1 bunch green onions (enough to make 3/4 cup)
1 large onion
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1 16-oz. can plain pumpkin (NOT sweetened pumpkin pie mix)
4 cups (2 cans) chicken broth – low-salt kind if you have it
3/4 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 bay leaf
2 cups (1 pint) half-and-half cream
1 bunch parsley

Wash the green onions and chop the white parts and the lower, tender halves of the green parts.  Measure 3/4 cup worth.  Chop the onions fine.

Melt the butter in a large soup kettle and sauté the vegetables gently.  When they are tender, add the pumpkin.  Add the chicken broth and seasonings and let it all simmer about 30 minutes.

Take off the heat and let cool (or even run cold water over the outside of the soup pot; soup that’s too hot will gush out of the blender and burn you).  Then fish out the bay leaves, puree the soup in batches, and put it back into the pot.  [NOTE: An immersion or stick blender will save you the hassle of pouring soup in and out of the blender, because you can use it right in the pot.]

Add the half-and-half and heat to serving temperature.

Wash and mince the parsley and sprinkle it on top.

Edit:  Since this is an American, convenience-type recipe, I can only guess about how to adapt this to whole pumpkins.  Actually, I have half a butternut squash in the fridge I may try this with -- just roast the halved squash till tender, let cool, and scoop out of the shell; measure 16 oz. and proceed with the recipe.

[OrigamiOwl]

The very notion of canned pumpkin sounds kinda scary O___O I don't think it even exists here!
What I usually do with pumpkin is slice off the chunk you want, cut off the skin, cut out the seeds, roughly dice it and steam it on the stove until it's soft, then mash it.
Or microwave it if I'm feeling lazy

Canned pumpkin..?!?!

[Fimbulvarg]

You know, in Scandinavia (and several other places in Europe) pumpkin isn't really considered food. They're great for spooky lanterns, although people consider that an imported tradition too.

[kjeks]

Dear Kex:

Your soup sounds delicious!  I like the exotic note of the coconut, cumin, and turmeric (as "curcuma" is known in the U.S.) with all the root vegetables.

I've taken the liberty of editing your recipe to flow better in U.S. English.  (However, I've left your metric quantities the same; I may translate those later.)  I also inserted a few queries.  I hope this doesn't crush your spirit -- I'm a copy editor by training and a great believer in exactitude.  When I cook, I'm totally OK with experimenting, but I know a lot of people get anxious in the kitchen and need all quantities, processes, etc. spelled out without any room for doubt. 

With that said...

Ahhh thanks. It cost me a lot of time just translating and putting it into a form somebody else than me could understand. Ok normally I have this problem as well expressing complex thoughts in mother tongue as well .

Joghurt would work fine as well or even Milk. Also you could put red lentils instead of quark into the soup, but that would raise the calories a lot (but tastes fine as well).

In Germany there is a homepage called "chefkoch"  (head cook or as in southpark "chef" ), there are a whole bunch of good receipe for winter squashes like butternut or winter crooknek squash (if that's the correct term, there were many other names for that one listed as translation).

Mostly they chop of the pumpkins head and remove the seeds and simply put it into the oven (with skin) for up to 30 minutes. While in the oven one can cook rice, vegetables or meat or all three together, spice that and fill it into the pumpkin and then eat it from the inside out. Afterwards you can at least the winter crooknek squash as well as ordinary pumpkins still as lantern .

[Bobriha]

Mostly they chop of the pumpkins head and remove the seeds and simply put it into the oven (with skin) for up to 30 minutes. While in the oven one can cook rice, vegetables or meat or all three together, spice that and fill it into the pumpkin and then eat it from the inside out. Afterwards you can at least the winter crooknek squash as well as ordinary pumpkins still as lantern .

Sweet rice and millet porriges cooked in pumkin or winter squash are good as well. And once I tried kompot made of winter squash and sea-buckthorn (sandorn) and it tasted great!

[potatobunny]

Thanks guys, I'll let you know if I try any of the pumpkin suggestions.

In return, here is Potatobunny's Guide To Stirfrying
Heat oil in pan, etc
Step 1 - aromatics: if you're using garlic or ginger or onion, you put that in first, so they release their flavors. I skip this a lot because I'm weird about garlic.
Step 2 - animal protein: whether you're cooking a meat dish, or a vegetable dish with some vegetables, or rice or noodles, meat goes in before carbs or veg
Step 3 - carbs: if you're cooking a self-contained-meal stirfry, the starchy component goes here. If you're making fried rice, leftover rice straight from the fridge works best.
Step 4 - veggies: whether leafy or stuff like peppers or beansprouts, veggies go in closer to the end. The softer you want it to be/ the longer it'll take to cook, the earlier you put it in.
Step 4.5 - eggs: pile the rest of the stuff up in the middle so you have the base of the pan exposed and put in the egg. For vegan fried rice, tofu works well smashed and scrambled.
Step 5 - seasoning: if you're using meat, you probably want to marinate it a little first. Seasonings are soy sauce (dark for color, light for taste), oyster sauce (adds sweetness, usually contains zero percent oyster), a dash of sesame oil towards the very end. Also lots of black pepper if I'm the one cooking.

Possible combinations include chicken with ginger and soy sauce, leafy greens with garlic, beef and green pepper with a black pepper sauce, and clean-out-the-fridge fried rice.

[Faust]

I had meatballs and decided to spice them up. I added chilli and garlic, an onion and a chopped pepper.
After mixing I realised it wasn't sticking together so I put it in the frying pan, squashed it to shape and crossed my fingers. (To much veg)
After cooking for a while I realised it wasn't going to work. So I scrambled some eggs and quickly turned it into an omelette...  Which needed more eggs.

So I had this mess on rolls. It was quite good and only needed more chilli and garlic.

[Faust]

(My above post - shaped to be burgers, not remade into meatballs)

[Sunflower]

This evening I barbecued for possibly the last time this fall, since we're having our usual October blast of heat.

But my modest dinner of teriyaki chicken legs and roast vegetables was nothing to compare with Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time!!! (which I just discovered).

Now I know why they should never ever let Emil cook (he'd enjoy it way too much):

[kjeks]

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awsome! they could have titled "How you shouldn't behave at festivals" as well .

[Pessi]

We experimented with making mushroom pot yeasterday (our "home forest" is teeming with mushrooms so we do all kinds of food experiments with them) and it turned out so good that I dare to share the recipe. We used funnel chantarels (one of the only two kinds of edible mushrooms I know well enough to be hundred percent sure I'm not picking anything poisonous by mistake), but the pot can be made using any edible forest mushrooms.

What you need for two people is about half a litre of fresh mushrooms, a spoonful of butter, one onion, 1 dl double cream, a pich of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of wheat flour, 120 g smetana (sour cream?) and about 1,5 dl grated cheese (preferably emmental).

Warm your oven to 175 ° C and make sure you have two portion sized oven pans.

Mince the onion and the mushrooms. Sweat the onions in the butter on a frying pan, then add the mushrooms and let them cook untill the liquid has mostly boiled away. Add the cream and let boil for a few minutes. Mix the flour into the smetana and add the smetana to the pan. Stir well, then add about 1 dl of the grated cheese and the pepper stirring them well in too.

Distribute the mixture to the oven pans. Make sure to leave some room on top, for the smetana will start boiling in the oven. Put the pans in the oven and let them stew there for about half an hour, then turn the heat to about 250 ° C, add rest of the cheese on top of the food and let it be in the oven untill the cheese starts getting a brown tint.

Take out, let cool a little and enjoy.

[Fimbulvarg]

120 g smetana (sour cream?)

Hmm well, in Croatia I bought a tub of smetana thinking it was basically the same as rømme, which is a Norwegian kind of sour cream. Turns out it was nothing alike though. Smetana wasn't actually particularly sour, it was closer to Creme Fraiché than rømme/sour cream.

[Sunflower]

Following up on my response to Kex's wonderful German Pumpkin Soup recipe:

I made it today, substituting butternut squash for pumpkin and canned coconut milk for the fresh coconut and quark (because those were the ingredients I had).  Also, I realized that "50-100 g potato" works out to just one small potato. 

The soup came out a beautiful marigold-orange color (all that Vitamin A from the carrots and pumpkin! Plus turmeric!) with a silky texture thanks to my little immersion blender.  The coconut milk probably helped smooth the texture.  The flavor was tasty but a bit bland (though with a nice ginger edge, and sweetness thanks to the 1/2 apple I added).  I think it needs a bit more salt, umami, and spice.

I think next time I'll put in more leek/onion (although I may have created the problem, since out here "green onions" = "scallions" = "limp little things the thickness of a pencil").  I'm also going to use a *heaping* rather than a scant teaspoon of cumin -- of which there can never be too much, IMHO.  And rather than a few random shakes of salt, I'll add 1/2 tsp. and perhaps more to taste.

I like that it's vegan; I'm an omnivore, but here in California you have to cater to all sorts of diets.  But another time, I might try thinning it with canned chicken or vegetable broth (for umami and salt) and see if I miss the coconut.

In a separate post I'll share a soup recipe I got from the marvelous Moosewood vegetarian restaurant (via one of their cookbooks).  With all its spices and coconut milk, it's not remotely SSSS-friendly, but for something this yummy, I don't care.

[Sunflower]

Curried Spinach-Pea Soup
From Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

Moosewood notes that this recipe was inspired by Tibetan refugees working at the Upstate New York restaurant, who brought along their potato-intensive Himalayan cuisine and Indian seasonings.  I call this "Jungle Soup" because of its vivid chartreuse-green color.  It never fails to please even staid, elderly churchgoers who are normally afraid of spices.
 
5 cups water
1/2 T. salt
8 cups diced potatoes (about 5 medium)
8 garlic cloves
1-2 T. vegetable oil
4 cups chopped onions (3-4 onions)
1 1/2 T. grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp. (i.e. 1/2 T) turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste  [You can substitute a dash of Tabasco or other pepper sauce]
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 T. fresh lemon juice, or to taste (about 1/2 lemon)
1 lb. frozen green peas (about 3 cups)  [NOTE: This is one of the few cases where frozen peas are actually better than fresh; they keep their color better when cooked.]
4 cups packed fresh spinach (or equivalent frozen)
1 can low-fat coconut milk (14-oz. can, or 1 3/4 cups)
 
Peel and dice the potatoes.  Separate the garlic cloves and peel, but don’t cut them up.
Bring the water and salt to a boil in a large soup pot.  Drop the potatoes and garlic into the pot, cover, reduce the heat, and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.  When done, DO NOT DRAIN.
 
Meanwhile, peel and dice the onions small.  Peel and grate the ginger root.  Juice the lemon, saving all the juice (as you may want more than 1 T. to season to your taste).
In a large saucepan, warm the oil.  Sauté the onions on medium heat, stirring frequently, until they are limp and translucent, but not browned – about 10 minutes.  Stir in the ginger and all the spices, and saute another minute or two, until the spices are fragrant.  Add the lemon juice and 1 cup of the potato cooking liquid, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
 
Meanwhile, rinse and drain the fresh spinach and cut off any large, fibrous stems.  Measure 4 cups’ worth, packing the leaves down firmly into the measuring cups, and set aside.  (If using frozen spinach, thaw it and drain off excess liquid.)
 
Once the potatoes are tender to the fork, pour the sautéed onion/ginger/spice mixture into the pot.  Add the frozen peas and spinach, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the spinach wilts.  Take off the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes, until it’s no longer too hot to handle.  Stir in the coconut milk.
 
Now blend the soup with the stick blender until smooth and creamy, and reheat gently.  Taste for a nice mix of spicy/creamy/tart/sweet/salty and adjust the seasoning.  Serve.
 

[kjeks]

Following up on my response to Kex's wonderful German Pumpkin Soup recipe:

I made it today, substituting butternut squash for pumpkin and canned coconut milk for the fresh coconut and quark (because those were the ingredients I had).  Also, I realized that "50-100 g potato" works out to just one small potato. 

I try to put as less potatoe as possible into the soup because I still have to work about 3-4 kgs (7-9 lbs) down on weight for my job .

The flavor was tasty but a bit bland (though with a nice ginger edge, and sweetness thanks to the 1/2 apple I added).  I think it needs a bit more salt, umami, and spice.

I always write less spice because at my öast appartment sharing community they told me to cut down on spices because it always got too hot

I like that it's vegan; I'm an omnivore, but here in California you have to cater to all sorts of diets.  But another time, I might try thinning it with canned chicken or vegetable broth (for umami and salt) and see if I miss the coconut.

If I have vegan friends around I leave out the Quark and put a can of coconut milk into it. I dislike the vegan industrie though here it's rather good. But I'm not comfortable with buying egg-substituting powders, Soy-quark or stuff like that while nature provides me with a whole bunch of different vegetables for use. Espacially on our lokal food market. I know that its still difficult getting all the vegetable you want, but the most places in Germany there are huge amounts of different vegetables, grains or fruits for cooking. In some rural regions you wouldn't get coconut milk but that's it.

 I tried beef and pig into the soup but I only liked it whithout coconut and had to substitute the asian spices with savory, fresh celery and parsley. But as I'm rarely eating meat it is possible that I responded to the rarely tasted meat flavour .

Your Receipe sounds awesome. I will substitute the green with yellow peas (as I always have a large stack of them dried at home) and the coconut milk with the rest of the fresh coconut waiting in my freezer to be eaten. We got chilis in our backyard and I think they will work fine in your receipe.