Autumn Means Pumpkin Soup

Today was our 7th wedding anniversary.  When I asked Amy what she wanted for dinner she asked for pumpkin soup.  While I was making it, I figured I might as well take some pictures and post something to my not-quite-yet-defunct food blog.  So here it is.

As one would suspect, pumpkin soup starts with...a pumpkin!

I cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the pulp and the seeds (to be roasted later) and trim off the stem.

 Rub it with canola oil and salt liberally, then into the oven it goes for about 60-70 minutes at 357 degrees Fahrenheit.  When it comes out it's a deep orange or brown color and very soft.

Once it is cool, scoop out the flesh and set it aside.

Next up are the aromatics.  Carrots, an onion and a few cloves of garlic.

Dice the carrots and the onion fairly small and mince the ginger.

Next, put a soup pot on the stove and heat it up.  Add a small amount of vegetable oil to keep things from sticking, then the onions and carrots go in over medium low heat.

The veggies cook slowly.  The goal is to soften them and drive out some of the moisture while avoiding browning.  This will take 10-12 minutes.

Once the carrots are soft, add the garlic.

Stir it in and cook until you smell the garlic, only 30-60 seconds.  Then add in the pumpkin, 3-4 cups of chicken stock and the following tied up in a cheese cloth:

• 2 tsp candied ginger
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 or so allspice berries

Increase the heat to medium and let the soup simmer, stirring occasionally until everything is very tender, about 30-45 minutes.

Once everything is completely softened, remove the cheesecloth bundle and puree the soup.  You can do this either with a food processor, or with an immersion blender until silky smooth.

Add 1 can (about 1 and 2/3 cups) coconut milk and stir it in, then season to taste.

Ladle the soup into a bowl and top with roasted pumpkin seeds.  I also floated a crostini in the center.

Ingredients

• 1 sugar pumpkin
• 3 carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp candied ginger
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 allspice berries
• 1 can coconut milk (1 and 2/3 cups)

Et Tu Que?

Barbeque, BBQ, que or simply Q; it all means the same thing. Cuts of meat cooked at a comparatively low temperature for long periods of time. The most common targets are beef brisket, chickens (whole or quartered) pork shoulder and of course ribs.

I picked up a rack of spare ribs at the store and made a dry rub

The rub has brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper and white pepper. It provides a ton of flavor and just a bit of sweetness.

After trimming the membrane off the back side of the ribs, I rubbed them generously with the dry rub.

Notice there's no mention of sauce here. Since we're cooking for a very long time, any sauce we put on now would either burn or cook right off of the ribs. There will be sauce, just not right now.

The meat is rubbed, the grill is set up, there's only one thing left to do. Add some wood. Every wood has a different flavor in its smoke. Hardwoods are the only choice for smoking unless you happen to enjoy turpentine. For the ribs I used hickory.

I added about 4 ounces to the smoker, and then on went the meat. A rack and a half of ribs and half a chicken.

I put the lid on the grill, adjusted the vents and placed the thermometer, then went into the kitchen to make some sides.

First some barbecue sauce for later.

And some cornbread.

After a long time in the smoker (and eventually wrapped in foil) I had this

Notice how the meat has pulled away from the bone. There's a nice bark on the outside of the ribs as well. I served them with the corn bread and honey butter, mom's cole slaw, and the bourbon barbecue sauce.

They were also good for breakfast the next morning:

And for dinner the following night

 

 

There's a Hummus Amongus

Hummus is a dip or spread in almost every Middle Eastern cuisine. At the most basic, it's a purée of cooked chick peas, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil. It is often flavored with garlic, herbs or other additions.

I made mine with dried chick peas. Preparing chick peas is the same as preparing any other dried legume. First, sort through the beans to make sure there're no foreign objects in them, then give them a good rinse.

Here are the dried beans:

After a 24 hour soak, they plump up and soften slightly.

The soak not only shortens the cooking time, but it also leeches out the oligosaccherides from the beans. Oligosaccherides are indigestible by humans, and are what cause the digestive distress associated with eating beans.

After the soak, rinse the beans again and put them in a large pot. Cover with water and bring to a simmer. While this was going on for this hummus, I put a few crushed cloves of garlic in a pan of olive oil over low heat.

While these cooked, I juiced a lemon and whisked the juice with some tahini. You can find tahini with the peanut butter in most stores. It is similar to peanut butter, but it's made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts.

I mixed tahini and the lemon juice in a bowl

Once the beans were tender, I poured off most of the liquid into a bowl, then added the garlic and oil to the beans. I puréed them with a stick blender briefly, then added the tahini and lemon mixture. Then I puréed again, adding some olive oil and some of the cooking water to get a good dipping texture.

 

 

Smoked Pulled Pork

This year for my birthday I received The Smokenator 1000!

While the name may scream 2AM infomercial, the smokenator is in fact an excellent product. It turns a Weber kettle grill into a fully functioning smoker. The setup is simple. The smokenator fits between the charcoal grate and the food grate on the weber.

As you can see, the smokenator consists of a 90 degree bent stainless steel sheet with 2 small holes for loading coals and hardwood and a larger hole to hold a water pan.

There's room for up to 60 coals in the area the smokenator covers, and you get anywhere from 5-7 hours of burn time on one full load of coals. To begin, the vents must be set to limit air flow. The bottom vent gets set so that at the largest opening, a regular #2 pencil fits through. The top vent is opened to about 5/16". The top vent is located opposite the water pan when the lid is on. This configuration draws the smoke across the target food.

48 unlit briquettes go in the smokenator chamber, then another 12 get lit in a chimney starter. Once the coals are lit, they go in the smokenator and need to be distributed evenly. Then I add a few chunks of hardwood. In this case, hickory.

Once all of that setup is complete, the food goes on. I rubbed a 9 pound pork shoulder with salt, pepper, garlic powder, brown sugar, bay leaf and paprika.

The pork went on the grill.

Time to lid up. The shoulder smoked for a good 7 hours. During this time, I refilled the water pan every hour and added chunks of hickory to keep the smoke rolling.

 

When cooking a large piece of meat like this at a relatively low temperatures (I kept the temp around 225-235 degrees by altering the top vent) the meat will heat to a certain point and then 'stall'. In this case, the pork shoulder got to 140 degrees and then just stayed there for a few hours. During this time, the water in the meat is being pushed out. When it reaches the surface, the water evaporates, and the evaporation cools the meat slightly, just like sweating regulates our body temperature when we get too hot. Also during this time, the collagen in the meat, which makes it very tough and chewy, is broken down and becomes gelatin. That's what makes slow cooked meats so 'finger lickin'.

After its time on the smoker, the pork looked like this

It was getting cold out, so i wrapped the shoulder in foil and finished it in a 250 degree oven.

After it reached 185 degrees, I took it out and let it rest for an hour or so, to let the juices in the meat redistribute, and then I pulled it. The 9 pound pork shoulder yielded a good 6 or so pounds of meat. It had a red smoke ring, lots of smoky flavor, and made delicious sandwiches.

 

 

Dinner? Sounds SOUP-er

This is one of our favorite fall and winter time soups. It's evolved over time from a thick, cream based soup to a stock based soup with just a touch of cream at the end to smooth it out.

We start, as many good dishes do, with bacon.

I render the bacon down until it is brown and crispy. I use a thick cut bacon, and in this case applewood smoked. Very tasty.

After the bacon has cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon, and we're left with lots of little brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. The French call this 'fond' and it is packed with flavors you can't get any other way.

You know how good it feels to dip into a nice hot jacuzzi on a cool night? I'm sure the chopped onion and minced garlic feel the same way about searing hot bacon grease.

 

After the onions are soft, the cubed up potatoes go in, along with 4 cups of chicken stock.

The potatoes simmer in the chicken stock. In the mean time, heat some olive oil in a sauté pan. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add a bag of frozen corn. Fresh would be best but it's not available often, so I typically use frozen.

Sauté the corn until it takes on a bit of color. As it cooks, the starches in the corn will be converted to sugar, and the corn will also get a slight nutty flavor.

Sprinkle the corn with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and just a touch of cayenne pepper.

When the potatoes are fork tender, add the corn into the pot and remove the pot from the heat. Add shredded cheddar cheese, half of the rendered bacon! A handful of chopped chives, and a cup of cream.

 

Ladle into serving bowls, garnish with more cheese, bacon and chives. Serve with a hearty multigrain bread for dipping.

 

Potato Corn Chowder

Ingredients

6 russet potatoes, cubed

4 oz bacon cubed or cut into pieces, divided

6oz cheddar cheese, shredded plus more for garnish

1 onion, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chopped chives plus more for garnish

1 bag (10 oz) frozen corn

2 tsp smoked paprika

Cayenne pepper to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

If I were Italian

If I were an Italian man, this would be called  Gianduja-Stracciatella.  Fortunately, Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream with Chocolate Ribbon is easier to say.  Well, for me anyway.  It was pretty labor intensive, but well worth it for the amount of flavor packed into it.

There's a cream of toasted hazelnuts, home made milk chocolate ganache, and a dark chocolate "ribbon" created by drizzling melted chocolate into the churning ice cream at the very last minute.

One neat thing I learned was that if you don't have whole milk, you can substitute 1.5 tablespoons of heavy cream and add skim milk to make 1 cup of whole milk.

The Muffin Man

If you go to your local coffee shop and order a muffin, you'll more than likely get a giant, sugary confection that closely resembles a cupcake without any frosting.  There is (or at least should be) a big difference between a muffin and a cupcake though.  A cupcake should be sweeter and lighter than a muffin.  Muffins are more dense, less sweet, and chewier.

The method for making the two are completely different as well.  A muffin is really a quickbread.  A cupcake is a cake that long, long ago would've been baked in an earthenware mug on the side of the hearth.

Anyway, the other night we had chocolate chip muffins.

The muffin method involves mixing all of your dry ingredients in one bowl and all of the wet ingredients in another.

For the dry goods  in our muffins, we mix All purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

For the wet goods, we have Sugar, oil, egg, egg yolk and yogurt.

When I mix the wet goods, I start with the egg and egg yolk.  I whisk them together until everything is homogenous, then I whisk in the sugar to form a paste.  Then the oil gets drizzled in and then finally the yogurt.  When all is said and done, everything is nicely incorporated and evenly distributed.  Whisking the eggs first gives us plenty of emulsifiers.

Next, as with our pancakes earlier, we add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Then our mix-ins...in this case the chocolate chips go for a dip.

Mix everything just to combine.  Don't overwork the flour or you'll produce excess gluten and the muffins will be way too tough and chewy.  Some lumps are OK.  They'll bake out.

Using a disher to fill the pan will ensure that we get even amounts of batter in each cup.  This means that all of the muffins will cook evenly.  No tiny burnt muffins or big, uncooked muffins to be had!

As a test, I sprinkled just a bit of sugar over 3 of the muffins (the three on the left in the picture above) before they went into the oven.

After they came out, they looked like this

The exterior is crusty, the inside is dense and just dry enough to justify slathering on some butter!

Ingredients (dry)
303 g All purpose Flour
10 g baking powder
6 g baking soda
pinch of kosher salt

Ingredients (wet)
105 g sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup chocolate chips