Kürbissuppe

This afternoon I had the perfect fall meal that always takes me back to Switzerland. Pumpkin Soup and Grilled Ham and Swiss Cheese is a great variation on the ever classic Tomato Soup and Grill Cheese. I made this Kürbissuppe with acron squash, which I'm pretty sure could still fit the title because Kürbis is a more general term than pumpkin meaning all squash (I just don't think Switzerland has the variety of squash we do, so they almost always use a culinary pumpkin.)

Kürbissuppe is very simple to make

Start with a mirepoix of 1/4 onion, 2 carrots and 1 small stock celery
Saute the mirepoix on low heat with a T butter (this is sometimes called sweating the vegetables)
Soften a medium to small pumpkin or squash in the microwave for a few minutes, this makes it easier to shell and cube, which is the next step
Add the cut squash to the mirepoix and add 2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock (adjust amount to cover all the veggies)
Boil together for about 20 minutes or until all vegetables are tender
Pour into a blender and blend until velvety smooth (that is the magic of the soup)
Return to pot and adjust seasoning (I only like to add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and ground rosemary. Unlike with most things I don't get adventurous with this soup and the seasoning. But you could try Cheyenne pepper for a little heat, paprika or I've seen German recipes that add ginger, if you are using fresh ginger add it before you blend the soup.)

Definitely finish it off with some cream or sour cream. And enjoy.

Homemade Bread and Jam

This just seems like the quintessential stay-at-home mom thing to do. I'm rather happy to find myself in the spot of the quintessential stay-at-home mom.

I used a dough recipe that replaces some of the flour with mash potatoes. It also has lots of sugar and eggs so it has a sweetbread quality that is great with jam. Although, I'm pleased with how it turned out I'm not totally satisfied that this should be "my" bread recipe. I think next time I'll try something lighter.

I Wish I Had Invited You Over

Sometimes my lunch turns out so good, I wish I had invited someone to share it with me. This Black Bean Hummus was just such a lunch. So I guess I'll just have to share via "the internets" and try to inspire you to try it on your own.

I've been a long time fan of do-it-yourself hummus. It satisfy all of my requirements for a perfect food: inexpensive, easy (I nearly always have the ingredients on hand), and healthy.

Any can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans will have the recipes on the back:

1 can of chickpeas with the juice, a garlic glove, salt,1 T olive oil, 1T lemon juice. Blend it all up in a food processor and service with fresh veggies and pita bread.

Today, I tried a little variation. Black bean hummus is just about the same, accept I added some cayenne pepper, black pepper, and olives. A recipe I saw recommended Greek olive, but I put in some green olives and it was very yummy. Overall, the black beans variety seems pretty open to interpretation. So, go give it a try!

A house of order . . .

The inspiration (for about $500):

My take(for about $50):

It even has a pull down cupboard that is set up to be a charging station.

North Shore Eats

In addition to amazing waves and sea turtles, Oahu's north shore has a pretty cool little main drag with fun resturtants and shops. We got some authentic Hawaiian style pizza at Pizza Bob's.

Yup, ham and pineapple, just like you would expect.

After that we stopped by Matsumoto's Shave Ice and got a couple larges with ice cream and azuki beans. Azuki beans are these crazy little red beans that have been boiled in sugar. This may sound weird, but it was really delicious.

Here is a sign that lists all the flavors; you can choose up to three. I went for coconut cream, raspberry and mango.

Hawaiian Luau and Plate Lunch

Josh and I had a great time in Hawaii. We will be posting more pics of the trip here. We had a great time kayaking, snorkeling, hiking and seeing the sights. But for me a big part of any trip is experiencing the food. So I'm going to post a bit about our food adventures.

For many, the first thing that comes to mind with Hawaiian Cuisine is a luau. We luaued at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The pièce de résistance was the kalua pork. Kalua means it has been cooked underground. At the PCC they make a big deal about pulling the pig out the steaming oven and parading it around. (It was great for effect, but I sort of doubt that was the same pig on the buffet.)

I loaded up my plate with a bit of everything on the buffet (I passed on the raw salmon, although the Asian family at our table couldn't get enough). The purple thing on the top is a roll made with taro, called poi in Hawaiian. It was a bit sweeter than a regular roll and very good. My favorite thing was to pair a piece of barbequed chicken and a bit of fresh pineapple. It was heavenly.

As it grew dark at the PCC they lit these magicial tiki torches. I really think everything tastes better by tiki light.

There was a fairly good selection of desserts. My favorite were the little white squares of coconut pudding. I had seen a recipe for it in a travel magizine and wished I could try some, so I was pretty excited to see it on the dessert buffet. The recipe seems so simple. Although I haven't tried to make any yet, I thought I would share.

Ingredients
• 2 14-ounce cans coconut milk
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cornstarch
• ground cinnamon for dusting or toasted coconut flakes

In a saucepan, combine the coconut milk with the sugar and salt. Bring to a full boil and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In a bowl, combine the cornstarch with ¾ cup of water and, with a whisk, mix well into a slurry.
Immediately pour the slurry into the saucepan and cook, continuously whisking until the mixture thickens into a pudding, about 2 minutes.
Remove from the heat.
Pour the mixture through a colander.
Transfer the strained pudding into a nonstick 12"x6" deep dish or any other fun shape.
Smooth out the surface, and set aside to cool.
Refrigerate to completely set, about 2 hours.
Dust the surface with ground cinnamon or toasted coconut, slice, and serve.

This isn't from our luau but, I thought it was an inspirational presentation. The pudding could easily be poured into a tea cup or small bowl and chilled to create this fun shape.

After the luau, plate lunch is probably the most notable Hawaiian fare. Plate lunch consists of a couple scoops of rice, a couple scoops of macroni salad and a load of meat. This lunch came with fried shrimp, mahi mahi and barbeque chicken. I've become quite a fan of Hawaiian seafood, esspecially mahi mahi. Here's a picture of the weird little guy.

Josh opted for the teriyaki beef. Also note the Waialua Root Beer. We found this at a shop on the North Shore, the shop keeper explained that the soda is made with natural cane sugar from Maui, Big Island vanilla, and honey from Kauai. It tasted so good we had to go back and get some to bring home.

Mise en Place

I am very committed to the idea of mise en place while cooking. Mise en place is a French phrase that literally means "put in place" and is used in the culinary world as having everything in place ready for cooking. It also requires cleaning as you cook, so you don't end up with a huge mess at the end. My mother will cite this as the biggest difference in my pre and post culinary school cooking habits.

However, I have noticed a significant decrease in my mise en place as a result of having a toddler in the kitchen. Ainslie really loves to help out. The other day she helped by combining the contents of all the cansiters on my table. So now my flour and sugar have oatmeal sprinkled in which adds an unexcepted texture to any dish.

At a resturant in Rome in the pre-canister mixing days.

Tonight we had California Pizza Kitchen style pizza for dinner. I love how pizza has become this dynamic new forum for creative combinations. I was very inspired by some of the pizza combination we had in Rome. My favorite was this amazing arugula topped pizza. Arugula is a salad green that looks a lot like the leaves that grow on a dandy lion. It has a wonderful nutty/peppery taste. I'm not really sure where to buy it but I just read online that it is easy to grow at home so I might just give that a try.

This is what I did tonight:

Make a simple dough

• 1 cup warm water


• 2 Tbs yeast


• pinch sugar
  

Combine and allow yeast to grow for a few minutes, then add

• pinch salt


• 1/2 oil


• addd flour until it forms a nice dough

Roll out the pizza and cook,

• Add sauce, cheese and bacon,

Broil until toasted

I topped the pizza with a salad I made with spinach, tomates, cumcumber, red onion, fresh basil and tossed with ranch dressing. It was very yummy.