Pumpkin Pie from Scratch

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving because it is about spending time with family and friends without the comercialism that has grown up around almost every other holiday, and (from a food blogger, even one as sproadic as I am) the central place that dinner plays in Thanksgiving cannot be forgotten.

Thanksgiving dinner for me invovles a balancing act between the traditional flavors of my childhood and my desire to eliminate processed/canned foods from my diet.  So no Campbell's Classic Green Bean Casserole or Canned Cranberries for me.  Actually, I must admit, my starting point is not that low.  Growing up, my dad always made fresh cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole was not a frequent visitor to our thanksgiving table.  But there are always ways to improve.

The biggest culprit for using processed/canned food in my childhood Thanksgiving dinner is probably one of my favorites to eat.  Pumpkin pie. The crust was frozen, the filling was canned, and the milk evaporated (canned).  Sure it is quick and easy, but for someone who enjoy cooking, quick and easy are not the adjectives that make one's mouth start to water, and with only a little extra prep work and a bit of extra time, you can make a pie that is environmentally friendly*, and supports local agriculture**. Most importantly, though, it will be flavorful and nuanced in a way that could never be achieved with a can, and is easy to make.

* If environmentally friendly products are used
** If ingredients were purchased from local farms.

Recipe For Butter Pie Crust (From Land o' Lakes Recipe)

• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter
• 2 to 2.5 tablespoons ice-cold water

Combine flour and salt in large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough water with fork just until flour is moistened.

Shape into ball. Flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate 20-30 minutes.

For 1-crust pie, roll out 1 ball of dough into a 12-in circle, between two sheets of lightly floured parchement paper (helps prevent sticking to rolling pin). Fold into quarters. Place dough into 9-inch pie pan; unfold dough, pressing firmly against bottom and sides. Trim crust to 1/2 inch from edge of pan. Crimp or flute edge.

Chill in refridgerator for 15 - 30 mintues.

Recipe for Homemade Pumpkin Puree (adapted from the pioneerwoman.com)

• 2 whole Small Sugar Pumpkins

Cut the pumpkins in half. With a spoon or a scoop, scrape out the seeds and pulp from the center. You don't have to be too thorough with this. Recut pumpkins into quarters.

Place pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet (face down) and roast in a 350°F oven for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin is fork-tender. They should be nice and light golden brown when done. Allow to cool slightly, then peel off the skin from the pumpkin pieces until you have a big pile of the stuff.

Puree the pumpkin until smooth. If it looks too dry, add in a few tablespoons of water during the pulsing to give it the needed moisture. Strain pumpkin puree in cheesecloth for a couple of hours to get rid of excess moisture.

Excess pumpkin puree can be stored in the freezer, by spooning 1 cupful of pumpkin into each plastic storage bag. Seal the bag with just a tiny bit of an opening remaining, then use your hands to flatten out the pumpkin inside the bag and push out the air.

Pumpkin segments ready for roasting

Recipe for Pumpkin Pie (adapted from cookingforengineers.com)

• 1 Butter Pie Crust (see recipe above)
• 3 cups Homemade Pumpkin Puree (see recipe above)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Prebake the pie crust at 425°F for 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk pumpkin and spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt) together over medium heat in a medium sauce pan. When the pumpkin begins to cook, whisk in the brown sugar. Once the mixture is fully blended, scrape the sides of the saucepan down and whisk again. Add milk and cream and continue to whisk. Once the mixture begins to bubble and splutter, remove from heat.

Blend the eggs to form a nice creamy consistency (about two seconds in a blender). Add a small amount of the hot pumpkin mix, while mixing by hand, then add remaining pumkin and whisk vigorously for creating a smooth filling can be done with hand blender.

Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the prebaked crust. If you used a deep dish pie crust, this should fit perfectly. I used a "normal" pie crust, so there was about a cup of filling left over, which can be made into pumpkin custards by filling ramekins. Bake at 350°F for 45-60 minutes or until center of pie is jiggly when pie is rotated gently.

Remove from heat and let cool on a cooling rack for at least one hour. The center will fully set without over cooking the outer edges by removing the pie early. Refrigerate and serve cold, warmed up, or at room temperature.

Pumpkin pie in the oven, ready for baking

Neil Perry's Vegetable Lasagne

It has, surprisingly, been a year since my last blog post.  I have cooked dinner five out of seven days of the week for most of the past year, and have created some exciting and tasty dishes.  So I have no idea why I haven't posted.  I am also not going to give any guarantee's that this re-emergence to the blogosphere will continue, for a number of personal reasons.  But when I have the time, some inspiration, and amazing photographs, I will attempt to share with the world my culinary achievements.

Today, I will be sharing my adaptation of another Masterchef Australia recipe, Neil Perry's Vegetable Lasagne, from season 4.  This recipe sounded quite unique to me, an American used to meat, tomato, and cheese based lasagnes.  My DH, however, likes the béchamel based lasagnes better and has been asking for this recipe since it aired. I am happy to say that it did not disappoint.

Parmesan cheese sauce

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• Pinch sea salt
• Pinch freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup milk
• 0.1 lb coarsely grated parmigiano reggiano
• 1/4 cup ricotta
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Melt butter in medium saucepan, stir in flour; cook stirring for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper and gradually add milk, whisk until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Add parmesan and ricotta and mix through.  Stir in egg until combined. Season to taste. Cover with a round of baking paper so a skin doesn’t form.

Assembly

• 1/3 eggplant, cut into 3 mm slices 
• pinch of sea-salt
• olive oil
• 3 small zucchini, cut into 3 mm slices
• ~5 roasted red peppers
• ~6 dried lasagne sheets
• Parmesan cheese sauce (see recipe above)

For parmesan cheese sauce:
Melt butter in medium saucepan, stir in flour; cook stirring for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper and gradually add milk, whisk until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Add parmesan and ricotta and mix through. Stir in egg until combined. Season to taste. Cover with a round of baking paper so a skin doesn’t form.

For the assembly:
Place sliced eggplant in a colander, toss with sea salt and stand over a bowl to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse under cold water and pat dry. Brush both sides with a little olive oil and sear in a hot frying pan 1-2 minutes each side or until golden and tender.

Brush zucchini with a little olive oil and sear on both sides in the hot pan until zucchini is golden and tender.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease one 8x4 inch loaf pan with a little olive oil.

Assemble lasagne by place layer of eggplant in the base of prepared dish, followed by pasta. Spread pasta with parmesan cheese sauce, top with a layer of roasted capsicum, a layer of zucchini, a layer of eggplant, followed by another pasta sheet.  Repeat until ingredients are used up or you have reached to top of the pan.  Complete the stack with a final pasta sheet and layer of parmesan cheese sauce.

Cover with foil and bake at 60 minutes, or until lasagne is tender.  Serve with a tomato sauce (I used store bought vodka sauce).

Eggplant Pasta Sauce

Perhaps you have heard of Meatless Monday, a campaign to improve our health and reduce our carbon footprint by removing meat from our diet for one day a week. Well, I am not committed enough to eating vegetarian every Monday, but I like the idea of eating healthy and being environmentally friendly without committing to a life of no bacon. So, I try to eat 5 vegetarian meals (lunch or dinner) a week.

This is the first time that I made this pasta sauce, it is full of a flavor, texture, and heartiness that I did not expect in a vegetarian pasta sauce. I received inspiration for this dish from Saveur's Pasta Alla Norma and from a zucchini pasta sauce from The Best in Australia -- S1E1, but I don't think this dish is like either of them. I used Japanese eggplants, because in this type of dish, I like to have a bit of skin on all of my eggplant pieces. The standard Italian eggplant should work fine, but you will have a large number of pieces without any skin, also note one Italian eggplant is equivalent to two Japanese eggplants. Serves 2 people.

Eggplant Pasta Sauce:

Ingredients for Eggplant Pasta Sauce

• 2 Japanese Eggplants 
• 1/2 onion, chopped 
• 1 Tbsp olive oil 
• 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste 
• 1 clove Garlic, smashed. 
• 1 can Diced tomatoes, no salt added 
• Salt and Pepper to taste 
• ~1" piece of Parmesan Reggiano Rind 
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano 
• Oregano, to taste 
• Thyme, to taste 
• 1 bay leaf 
• 2-3 cups Water 

Chop eggplants into about 3/4" cubes, lightly salt. (Salting will draw out some of the moisture and reduce bitterness).

Sauté the onions in oil over medium-high heat in the saucepan. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes until translucent, add the garlic and let it caramelize it in a hot spot, then stir in a couple tablespoons of water and cook the onions and garlic together for a minute or two.

Reduce heat to medium-low, add the eggplant pieces to the pan, turn to coat the pieces with the oil and sautéed onion and garlic. Cook for 12-15 minutes uncovered, stirring and turning the eggplant frequently. If the pan gets dry and the pieces start to brown, stir in several spoons of water. The eggplant chunks should become soft, but still retain their shape.

Pour in the diced tomatoes, tomato paste and 1 cup of water. Add spices and parmesan rind, let simmer for about a half hour, stirring and adding more water if it gets too thick (I like gradually adding the water, so if the eggplants cook faster than expected, I can still have my sauce a proper consistency). Eggplants should be very tender but not mush. Sprinkle on the parmesan reggiano and stir to blend everything together.

Remove bay leaf before serving. You can remove the garlic, but I find that it is a special treat to who ever ends up with it.

Serve over spagetti or linguini and enjoy!

Quiche Lorraine

A friend of mine asked me how I was going to make this blog stand out from all the others.  She gave me an excellent suggestion to make this a blog about cooking for two.  Portion sizing is difficult for me to judge (everyone eats a slightly different amount), but most of my recipes serve just enough for me and my husband, with some leftovers for lunch.

Quiche is one of my go to recipes because it can be made with whatever is on hand, as long as you have a pastry crust in the freezer, or at least that is how I thought before I made the short crust pastry for this quiche recipe, now I just need a stick of butter in the fridge.

For the second time in a row, I am posting a recipe that was shown on Masterchef Au.  This Classic Quiche Lorraine recipe was made by Gary Mehigan, one of the judges, and it is one of the best quiche recipes that I have made.  I think this recipe will become the base for many  of my quiche variations.   Note: A quick search suggests a 9" quiche makes about 6 servings, however, in my experience I only get 2-3 servings.

Short crust pastry:

• 1/2 cupbutter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch salt
• 1egg
• 1tsp water or lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Butter a 9" tart tin or pie plate.

Place butter, flour and salt in a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg and lemon juice (or water) and process until mixture forms a ball. Turn onto a floured bench and gently knead to bring dough together. Do not over work. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

Roll pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper to a 10 in circle. Gently ease into prepared tart tin or pie plate, pressing pastry into the edges of the tin. Trim with a small knife and prick the base. Lay a sheet of parchment paper over the base and fill with baking beans or rice and blind bake pastry for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven, take out paper and baking beans and return to the oven for 5 minutes to crisp.

Filling:

Ingredients for Quiche Filling

• 3 leeks, washed and thinly sliced white and green
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 strips thick cut bacon, cut into fine lardons
• 1 1/4 cup cream
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2cup grated gruyere cheese
• 1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

Sauté the bacon over medium heat until the fat is rendered and meat is golden, stirring occasionally. Spread over a double thick sheet of paper towel to drain.  Add leeks and cook until translucent, adding some water to the pan to create steam.  The leeks should be very tender.  Take off heat and add bacon back to the pan.  When cool, add 1/4 cup of gruyere to mixture.

Whisk cream, eggs and yolks in a bowl until well combined. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Assembly and Baking:

Fill the base of the cooked pastry shell with onion mixture.  Pour over egg mixture and sprinkle with tasty cheese. Bake at 400ºF 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 325ºF and bake until set ~30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

Sticky Figgy Upside-Down Cake

I am totally addicted to Masterchef Australia.  It is a surprisingly educational and informative show about cooking with just enough drama to keep the show moving along.  This is in contrast to the American version of the show, which has mega drama and minimal cooking.  Also the hosts of Masterchef Au seem to be truly interested in the development of the contestants (another stark contrast to the American version.) And their website (masterchef.com.au) has recipes for the star dishes from the show.


My first couple of posts are inspired (and created) by both the judges and contestants on Masterchef Au. Today's is the Sticky Fig and Caramel Upside-Down Cake created by Debra Sederlan, a contestant on Season 4. I rate this recipe yummy.

The original recipe called for a 8" spring form pan, however, 8" pans are not sold (in store) at Target or Bed Bath and Beyond and it was too expensive at Williams and Sonoma. So I substituted a 9" spring form pan and made 2 times the amount of cake batter. The recipe that follow is adjusted to the amounts I used. There is more batter than you need, so make a couple of cupcakes if you want.

Recipe for Cake Batter:

Half of the Ingredients for the Cake

• 1 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup whole milk

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla seeds together until pale and well mixed.  Add eggs one at a time until combined. Mix flour with baking powder and salt, add to wet mix alternately with milk.  Make sure combined but do not over beat.

Recipe for Caramel Sauce:

Ingredients for Caramel Sauce + Figs

• 1/4cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cupcream
• 1/3cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Enough figs to layer in bottom of pan

Place all ingredients, except figs, into a medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar has melted. Bring to the boil and cook until mixture turns golden brown.  Stir continuously.

Cake Assembly and Baking:

Figs arranged in 9" spring form pan

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Butter sides of a 9" spring form pan.  Layer bottom with aluminum foil and then parchment paper (this will help with removal of the cake), close sides around bottom.

Arrange fresh figs on bottom of pan.  Pour caramel sauce over the bottom, then gently pour cake batter on top until it reaches the half way up the sides.  

Bake for 45-50 minutes until cooked through.  Remove from pan, while still warm, by loosening the sides with a knife and then placing serving dish upside down on top of the cake, flip quickly, then remove the sides and bottom.

Hello World

Welcome to my blog about cooking, eating and learning about food.  I hope to inspire you to pick up a knife, spatula, or spoon and create food that is much more enjoyable than fast food.  I also hope to use this blog as a reason to learn about food and try new recipes.


Enjoy!


Katie