Yesterday, I had a shopping spree at the Farmers fresh market and came back home with lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. I was excited about the cute little pumpkin I had bought and wanted to make something with it right away. Too many ideas rushed through my mind from baking to sautéing and finally I had to fall for the soup idea. Any day, any time I can have soup, in fact soup has always been my great companion.

I topped the pumpkin soup with fried mussels, made a cobweb out of caramelized sugar and placed a fried mussel over it which looked like a bug, at least to me

Have a Creepy Halloween!

Roasted Pumpkin Soup Topped with Fried Mussel

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin, small-1
• Ground Pepper- 1 1/2 tsp
• Heavy Cream (optional)- 1/2 cup
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp

To make Homemade Vegetable Broth:

• Carrot, cubed- 1
• Celery, diced-2 stalks
• Onion, diced-1
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Rosemary- 1 sprig
• Basil, dried- 1 1/2 tsp
• Water- 3 cups
• Salt- as per your needs

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 425 F.
• Here is the cute little pumpkin:

• Cut the pumpkin along with the skin to medium sized chunks, drizzle with olive oil and line them on a baking sheet.
• Roast the pumpkin in the oven for 20 minutes or until it gets tender and slightly golden brown.

• Take out the roasted pumpkin chunks from the oven and let it cool down.
• Peel off the skin from the chunks and keep aside.

• Heat a dutch oven or wide non-stick cooking pan, add the carrot, onion, celery, thyme, rosemary, dried basil leaves along with water, let it cook covered for 20 minutes until the veggies turn tender.

• After 20 minutes, add the roasted pumpkin into the vegetable broth along with the other veggies.

• Let it come to a boil.
• Remove the thyme and rosemary stems from the veggie broth.
• Puree the roasted pumpkin along with the veggies in batches in a blender.
• Pour the pureed pumpkin soup back into the dutch oven or pan and simmer on low heat.
• Add the ground pepper and combine well.
• Add the heavy cream, simmer for a minute and remove from the stove.

• Serve the soup in a soup bowl.

Making Fried Mussels:

Ingredients

• Mussels, cleaned- 12 no’s
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- enough to deep fry

Check this out: Mussel Fry

Making caramelized cobweb:

Ingredients:

• Sugar- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Water- 1/2 cup sugar
• Parchment paper greased with butter- 2 sheets

Preparation:

• Grease the parchment paper with butter and keep aside.
• Place a small non-stick pan over medium heat.
• Add the sugar and water, keep stirring until the sugar melts in the water and the syrup turns clear.

• Stop stirring, continue to cook until the syrup turns brown and has the constituency of honey.

• Place the pan into a ice-water bath to stop the cooking.
• Immediately, using a spoon drizzle the caramelized sugar syrup on to the parchment paper creating the shape of a cobweb.

• If the syrup is too watery, let it cool down to have the right consistency.
• Alternatively, if the syrup is too thick, heat the syrup for few minutes and it will loosen up.
• Let the cobweb on the parchment paper stand for a while until it sets.
• Gently, remove the caramelized cobweb from the paper, making sure not to break it.
• It may take a couple of attempts to get the cobweb shape. I know mine is not that perfect, anyway it worked.

Serving:

• Serve the roasted pumpkin soup in a soup bowl.
• Top the soup with 4 to 5 fried mussels.
• On the side you could place the caramelized cobweb on top of few button mushrooms and place a fried mussel over the cobweb, so that it looks like a bug.

Tips:

If you are a vegetarian, ignore the mussels and you have the perfect veggie soup which will refresh and soothe you.

Finally fall is here, the season I always look forward to….

I am roaming around with my camera to take all the breath taking shots of nature attired in its most vibrant red and yellow colored gown. I lack words when it comes to admiring the beauty of nature in fall: it’s stunning, mind-boggling  and hallucinatory. Besides enjoying the nature, the other thing I love about fall is that, this is the season of pumpkins. All we can see is pumpkins now; at grocery stores, carved at the doorsteps of almost all houses, decorative pumpkins etc etc.

When everyone is busy carving up pumpkins for their doorstep, I thought I might as well do something with the pumpkin in my kitchen. The first thing that came to my mind was the mouthwatering pumpkin pie.

Pumpkins are packed with Vitamin A and offer a mild, sweet flavor in many recipes. There are countless recipes that call for pumpkin: pancakes, muffins, cakes, soups, stews or chili. But the classic pumpkin dish is always pumpkin pie.

I couldn’t wait any longer to make the pumpkin pie, so yesterday I did this, all  from scratch. In fact, I made the pie crust from scratch as well. Making pie crust from scratch is definitely challenging, but when you do it with all your heart you could never go wrong. I did it with all passion and it came out pretty good. I am going to post the step by step method of preparing the pie crust from scratch and the pumpkin filling for the pie. When you read the method you would be surprised to see how easy and fast it is to make the crust, of course it needs to be chilled in the refrigerator for few hours.

So get ready to welcome the most amazing fall with homemade pumpkin pie.

Making the Pie crust:

A good pie is all about the crust. Creamy rich European butter is the best butter to use. It has a higher fat content than American butters, so it’s tastier and more supple to work with.

Making the crust in the old-fashioned way – by hand, rubbing cold chunks of butter between the fingers and into the flour definitely beats those made using pastry blender or food processor.

Ingredients for pie crust:

This pie dough can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 3 months.

For making 9-inch piecrust:

• Unbleached all-purpose flour- 1 1/3  cups
• Granulated sugar- 1tsp
• Salt- a pinch
• Cold, unsalted butter, preferably European style, cut into 3/4-inch pieces-4 oz (8Tbsp)
• Ice water- 3-4 tbsp
• Pie plate- 9 inch plate

Get ready for having some fun:

Making the Dough:

• Put the flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to combine.
• Add the butter to the bowl. Rub the cold chunks of butter between the fingertips, smearing the butter into the flour to create small flakes of fat.

• Drizzle 3 tbsp of ice water over the flour , stir with fork, until the mixture forms a shaggy dough that’s moist enough to hold together when pressed between the fingers.
• Gently gather and press the dough together, and from it into a disk with smooth edges.

• Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour, but preferably 2 to 4 hours, before rolling.

Roll the Dough:

• Let the chilled dough sit at room temperature to soften slightly-it should be cold and firm but not rock hard.
• Depending upon how long the dough was chilled, it could take 5-20 minutes.
• When ready to flour, lightly flour the counter top or other surface and start rolling the pin from the center of the dough to outside, in circular motion.
• Roll aorund the dough until the dough is 13 to 14 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.
• Check that dough isn’t sticking by lifting it with a flat spatula.
• Do not add too much flour while rolling, as it makes a drier and tougher crust.

To line the pie plate:

• Gently transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate., by folding it in half and unfolding it into the plate.
• Do not stretch the dough as you line the pan, or it will spring back when baked.
• Gently lift the outer edges of the dough and line on the sides of the pan without stretching the dough.
• Trim the overhanging dough to 1 inch from the edge of the pan. Roll the dough under itself into a cylinder that rests on the edge of the pan.
• You can give the edges a decorative look by pressing the index finger on the dough.
• Prick the sides and bottom of the crust all over with a fork.
• Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight. This will relax the dough and help prevent the edges from caving in.

Blind bake the crust:

• keep the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 425F. Line the chilled piecrust with foil and fill it with dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes; remove the foil and the beans or weights. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F.
• Bake until the bottom looks dry but is not quite done and the edges are light golden, 5 or 7 minutes more.
• Let it cool on a rack while you prepare the pumpkin filling.

Pumpkin Filling:

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin puree- 15-oz can or make fresh puree.
• Unsweetened coconut milk-1 1/4 cups
• Light brown sugar-3/4 cup
• Ground ginger-1tsp
• Ground cinnamon-3/4 tsp
• Salt-1/2 tsp
• Freshly grated nutmeg-1/8 tsp
• Large eggs, at room temperature-3
• Baked piecrust -1

Preparation:

• Position the rack in the center of the oven, set a heavy duty rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and preheat the oven to 425F.
• In a large bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, coconut milk, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg until smooth.

• Whisk in the eggs, until the mixture is smooth.

• Pour the filling into the piecrust.
• Put the pie on the heated baking sheet.
• Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350F.
• Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the center of the pie is stiff.
• Cool completely before serving.
• This pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Voila, homemade pumpkin pie right from the oven…

Your house will be filled with the mesmerizing aroma of pumpkin pie.

Tips:

• Why Blind Bake: Blind baking gives the crust a head start, allowing it to firm up before filling is added. This prevents the crust from getting soggy. Dried beans or pie weights help it keep its shape.
• Don’t be tempted to skip chilling the crust before blind baking it.
• You can substitute pumpkin spice for ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• To make fresh pumpkin puree: Clean and cut the ripe pumpkin, boil in water until it is tender drain it in a colander and puree it in the blender. You could freeze any excess puree for future use.
• Don’t worry if the edges of the pie gets over browned, it tastes good too.

The Verdict: