Pumpkin Soup

Here are the ingredients I used:

Yellow onion, diced
a whole bunch of pumpkin (I used canned because I am lazy, but it would have been better if I made puree)
Heavy cream
brown sugar
Garam Masala (a special Indian spice blend. It's delicious)
Curry powder
two bay leaves
a cinnamon stick
allspice
Salt
White pepper
chicken broth
a splash of orange juice - this really helps bring it all together
and one finely diced Death Pepper. I'm not sure what the Death Pepper is actually called, but I gave it that name because it got into my hangnail and ruined my life for about two hours. Nikki got us a pepper plant from Trader Joe's as a housewarming gift, and I chopped one of the little fuckers up to stick in the soup.

Note that the soup filled most of my Dutch oven, and one death pepper was enough to make it pretty hot. Adjust as you like. I liked the spicy to help brighten the sweetness and heaviness of the pumpkin. I also would have used worcestershire sauce if I had it, but I didn't, so there you go.

Sautee the onions first in olive oil, then add all the spices. You'll want more of the curry and garam masala than anything else. Note that when I made it, it really sucked up salt, so I had to keep adding it. Toss in the pumpkin (I think I used a big can and a small can), a pint of cream, and enough chicken broth to thin it out to a sufficiently soupy consistency. Add in the death pepper. Let this simmer for a while (like 3-4 hours) and then fish out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. With a hand blender, blend the soup for a nice smooth consistency. If you want to give your guests a real challenge, I suppose you could leave the cinnamon stick in there, but it's a bitch to get out of your teeth. When I made it, I only found one of my two bay leaves, and blended it anyway. No one complained about biting into it, so I assume it must have gone home with whoever took home leftovers.

My rule is, if you got the bay leaf, you make the soup next time. So far no one has admitted to getting the leaf.

The real trick is letting it cook all day long, so that the flavors have time to marry up. It was even better a few days later. I wish I had cooked this a day or two before the dinner, but alas.

For toppings, I had sour cream, bacon bits, sauteed shallots and a garam masala Parmesan chip. To make a Parmesan chip, I grated the cheese and crumbled it as fine as I could get it with my fingers. Then I added garam masala and brown sugar and combined it all thoroughly. Take a non-stick pan, and sprinkle in enough of the cheese to make a silver dollar-sized circle. Turn up the heat and let the cheese melt until it bubbles. Then turn off the heat, and CAREFULLY with a THIN spatula, pry the little bastards up and stick them CAREFULLY on some parchment paper so that you don't ruin the nice circle shape, and they can harden. Then they'll be crispy and delicious. You can also do this with just plain cheese, and it's a really nice topper for a salad.

Cappellacci di Zucca (Pumpkin Ravioli)

I have to start off by apologizing for the quality (or lack thereof) of the photos this time around.  Lighting is pretty much everything when it comes to photography, and our dinners tend to run longer than the sun is willing to stay up, so I've ended up with pictures like this which make my food look like a hot buttered mess!  (The first two words of that term are actually true for this dish.)

I stole this recipe from one of my favorite restaurants, L'Opera Ristorante in Long Beach.  I've eaten there many times, and every time I get the same thing.  I finally started trying to pick apart the flavors each time I ate the dish to decipher their delicious code.  I think I may have finally landed on it.  L'Opera's ravioli is made with butternut squash, but I switched it with pumpkin, and added a few of my own touches.

I used wonton wrappers for the little hats, partly because they're cute, but mostly because the idea of making my own pasta while moving into a new house was daunting.  My advice to anyone attempting to make this dish with wonton wrappers is DOUBLE THEM!  Most of the ravioli held up to being boiled, but there were a good number of rogue bursters that came apart during the process.  Doubling the wontons before stuffing them would've prevented this from happening.

Still, the dish came out beautifully, if I do say so myself.  My only regret is that the plate looked a little two-dimensional, and that I didn't get a decent picture.  But that's just an excuse to recreate them, right?

Ingredients:

2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup brandy (to taste)
6 tablespoons ground pine nuts (I used a coffee grinder to get a good consistency)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 package wonton wrappers
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup unsalted butter
a handful of fresh sage
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used Yellow Tail chardonnay)
3 cups plain marinara sauce (homemade or Classico - if I catch you using Prego I'll cut you)
salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste
parmesan shavings for garnish/extra deliciousness

Ravioli:

Mix together the pumpkin puree, ricotta, brandy, pine nuts and brown sugar until incorporated.  Place in a sieve over a bowl for a couple hours to let the mixture drain.  Once firm, scoop the mixture by the teaspoonful and place in the center of the wonton wrappers (or homemade pasta, if you're awesome).  Fold the wrapper in half diagonally, then fold each of the corners in, to create a little hat-like thing.  Repeat until you think you have enough ravioli to feed yourself.  Er ... I mean, your guests.  Place them on a generously-floured cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving time.

Brown butter sage sauce:

In a small saucepan, melt the 1/2 cup of butter on a medium-low heat.  Midway through the melting, throw in the handful of sage - I'd estimate about 20 leaves.  Stir occasionally until the butter reaches a golden brown color.  Remove from heat.  Pour 1/4 cup white wine into the butter for bite.

Spicy marinara:

Easy as pie.  Warm the marinara with the reserved 1/4 cup of butter.  Add about 2 teaspoons of chili flakes, salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer.

Create a bed of spicy marinara sauce in the center of a plate.  Boil your ravioli, place in a circle around the sauce, then pour a healthy serving of the brown butter sage sauce on top.  Finish with a piece of crispy sage and a parmesan cheese shaving atop each pillow, and serve.

Mabon

This year, the Fall Equinox landed on September 23rd. With the days becoming shorter, we celebrated the coming of harvest season and celebrated the Witch's Thanksgiving known as Mabon on Saturday. It is a time of balance and a time for giving thanks, appreciating the gifts tilled from the soil before it goes dormant until Spring. In light of this, we honor the old tradition of hospitality and count the blessings we have with the company of our kin, give thanks, and reflect on the balance within our individual lives.

Time is fleeting. Despite our best efforts to meet "every month," Five Course Foodies' schedules got crazy. Alas! Beautiful Bonnie suggested an impromptu dinner to celebrate Mabon while incorporating Jocelyn's suggested fall theme, Pumpkin. And, oh boy, did we enjoy tons of pumpkin!

Bonni, Chelsea, and Chris just moved from their apartments into a beautiful early-twentieth century craftsmen home. It is a wonderful place, welcoming and warming to the heart, soul, and mind, with books everywhere, an Italian-inspired kitchen. It's also a cheerful yellow! Added to this, they now have a backyard with a great deck! Now that it's finally cool outside, a picnic at sunset seemed fitting. In this spirit, we dined outside.

I, Nikki, prepared our first course. Honestly, I have never cooked with anything pumpkin. I have a can of Libby's Pumpkin whatever-it-is, but decided since I could find pie pumpkins at the market, why the heck not make my own pumpkin puree? So, I roasted two 3lb suckers and experimented with their bright yellow-orange guts. After a few failed experiments, I opted to make Pumpkin Butter along with Pumpkin Ale Bread. Suffice it to say, the buttery crust and moist interior of the bread - made with Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale - beautifully complimented the creamy deliciousness lathed onto it. Yes, pumpkin butter. How pumpkin pie should taste (and I totally winged it!). Jocelyn aptly paired it with Newcastle's Werewolf Blood Red Ale. It suited everything we ate rather well. 

I dreamt about Chelsea's Curry Pumpkin Soup for several nights consecutively. This we enjoyed as our second course. By Jove... It was magnificent. Although wonderful on its own, she garnished the luscious pumpkin-curry goodness with a dollop of sour cream, sauteed onions, crispy bacon, and, to top it off, a Parmesan crisp. Seriously scrumptious. Chelsea concocted this from a melody of spices and pumpkin puree in her newest toy, a dutch oven. I took a tub of it home. And it was glorious. There's a reason why Chelsea won "Best Themed Dish" (well, I tied with her, but since I dreamt about her soup instead of my pumpkin butter, she surely deserves the title). Around this time, Jocelyn presented the best mulled wine I have ever tasted, fittingly served in a stoneware cup with a slice of orange. If only there was more... It was my favorite drink of the whole night, because really, what's better than a cup of warm, spicy alcoholic yumminess on a cool fall evening outside on the deck with great friends? Nothing. Except a nekid Viggo Mortensen wearing the silver winged crown of Gondor and his victory beard...

For our third course, Bonni spoiled us all with Cappallacci di Zucca - Pumpkin Raviolis - on a bed of spicy marinara sauce with a drizzle of crispy sage-butter, topped with Parmesan shavings. You would not believe the delightful texture of these! And, who would have thought about using wonton wrappers for the pasta? well, maybe Martha Stewart. It's a good thing. The combination of the creamy pumpkin and ricotta with the crispy sage made my head want to explode. Oh, and not to mention the brilliant red and perfectly seasoned marinara sauce. Pumpkin and tomato? My life is forever changed. These good things were my favorite of the night, clearly, given my many superlatives. But I was not alone in my enthusiasm for Bonni's creative culinary skillz and evocation of our pumpkin theme: she won "Best Overall Dish"! 

Have you ever seen a de-boned chicken? With every single bone removed??? It's unfortunate that we didn't take the time to capture the stunning image of such a magnificent beauty. Perhaps we were too busy nomming! But, really, can you blame us? For our fourth course, Chris inspired awe in all of us with his whole, de-boned chicken, packed with beer bread stuffing (Beer bread? great minds think alike!), cranberries, and jalepeños. He brined it, marinated it, de-boned it, stuffed it, seasoned it, and roasted it. Chris loves us. Or is it his competitive spirit that motivated this dish? Maybe both. But mostly love. Why, do you ask? Because Chris is a vegetarian. He didn't even taste this delicious poultry carcass. Fine. More for me. 

Jocelyn delighted us with many liquid victuals, including a beer that tasted a lot like scotch (will edit later with exact details...), as well as a marvelous dessert martini mixed with milk and a Puerto Rican liqueur. She fittingly served this surprisingly refreshing concoction with cookies that Nicole made: Pumpkin chocolate chip! Somewhat ginger-like and with just the right amount of chocolate chips (which, in my book, means lots! as it should be), as our final fifth course, Nicole's cookies finished the night on a properly sweet pumpkin note. 

Fall doesn't normally feel like itself until Halloween for me, and then especially with Thanksgiving. It's a shame that in Southern California we don't have the pleasure of visually watching the seasons morph, with leaves changing colors and falling. That doesn't happen until it's officially winter. Celebrating Mabon / Autumnal Equinox rung in fall as it should always be - commemorating the customs of old, relishing moments with friends, and feasting on food made with love. Every meal should be like this. -Nikki