Week 43

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Bacon (from The Pumpkin Cookbook), serves about 6.
2 lb pumpkin, cut in half and seeded
1 Tbs grapeseed oil
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups diced carrots
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 Tbs curry powder
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled coarsely
kosher salt and pepper to taste
grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375F. Place halved pumpkin on baking sheet and cook until fork tender, about 45 mins. Remove from oven, let cool and scoop out flesh. Reserve.

Meanwhile, heat grapeseed oil in dutch oven or large saucepan. Add onion, carrots, and celery and saute until starting to sweat. Stir in curry powder and saute another minute. Stir in the stock and add the pumpkin. Puree soup either with immersion blender or by transferring in batches to a blender. Return to pot and check seasoning. Warm through and serve topped with crumbled bacon and grated nutmeg.


Smoky Beef Stew with Hominy
Oil for browning meat
1+ lb beef stew meat
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2-3 garlic cloves or 1 tsp garlic powder
4 cups beef stock 
1 red potato, diced
1-2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1-2 oz smoked sun dried tomatoes
1 zucchini, diced
1 large can (29 oz) hominy (large Mexican corn kernels)
1 cup red wine
1/2 small can tomato paste
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Cojita cheese for serving

Brown meat in oil in large dutch oven or pressure cooker. Stir in spices (paprika, cumin, garlic powder). Pour in beef stock, cover and cook until meat is very tender (about 30 mins in pressure cooker or a few hours in dutch oven). Add all veggies, wine, and stir in tomato paste. Stir well to dissolve tomato paste. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until veggies are desired tenderness. Adjust seasoning to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with crumbled cojita cheese.

Pumpkin Pie
I'm trying to find or emulate a recipe for a fresh pumpkin pie that I made one time from a label that was on a pie pumpkin a few years back. It used heavy cream instead of condensed or canned milk and was the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. I found a recipe (from Simply Recipes) that seems like it might be close. I don't remember the recipe I used having cardamom or lemon zest, but I can certainly leave those out. Although the lemon zest does sound good. And I do love cardamom but I'm not sure how well it would go with the traditional pumpkin pie spices. So anyways, I'm going to give the Simply Recipes one a shot and see what it turns out like :)