Autumn meal series Archives - Live & Explore

Autumn meal #2 – Pumpkin soup from the oven

Rick Hofmijster — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 19:04:13 +0000

Autumn meal series

In this ‘Autumn meal’ series I’m going to make a couple of dishes using local and seasonal ingredients. I’m no chef, in fact, far from it. Many of the ingredients I’ve never known about it’s existence. But that’s the challenge! Learn to cook, experience new flavors and, well, survive!

Ingredients (2 pers.)

450 g butternut squash
300 g Dutch carrot (or baby carrots)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red union
1 galic clove
½ orange
48 g hazelnuts
7 g chive
200 ml coconut milk
1 vegetable bouillon cube
300 ml tapwater
63 ml sour cream
salt/pepper

Kitchen equipment

blender
baking paper

Preparation time: +/- 30min
Oven time: 45min

In North Holland, the Netherlands, most trees have lost most of their leaves by now, causing the beautiful color pallet in many forest to slowly disappear. With it comes cold temperatures that will make us shiver during beautiful autumn forest walks. When back home, it’s time for a nice warm soup. This time, we are going to make pumpkin soup.

During this time of the year, the marked is flooded with pumpkins. In the USA pumpkins are mainly used for decoration during Halloween while the Canadians have a tradition of having pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving. Now here in the Netherlands, we are going to make a not so common served dish; pumpkin soup from the oven.

Surprisingly, even tough the name only mentions pumpkin, a good amount of Dutch carrots, cocos milk and other ingredients are added. In fact, in stead of the familiar pumpkin you see carved in the streets for decoration, we are actually using butternut squash.

Butternut squash

Butternut squash is a type of winter squash that grows on a vine. Winter squash is cultivated and eating in many places in the world. For obvious reasons. Due too it’s thick shell and nature, it preserves very well during winter.

Because butternut squash is a frost-tender plant, the seeds do not germinate in cold soil. Winter squash is harvested whenever the fruits have turned a deep, solid color and the skin is hard. Most winter squash is harvested in September or October in the Northern Hemisphere, before the danger of heavy frosts.

Butternut squash has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. When ripe, it turns increasingly deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. It is a good source of fiber, vitamin C, manganese, magnesium, and potassium; and it is an excellent source of vitamin A and vitamin E.

Source: Wikipedia

Dutch carrot

Dutch carrots are very common around the world and look like how people would generally describe a carrot; orange. But did you know carrots come in a variety of colors?

Carrots are a domesticated form of the wild carrot, Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia.

The roots contain high quantities of alpha- and beta-carotene, and are a good source of vitamin K and vitamin B6, but the belief that eating carrots improves night vision is a myth put forward by the British in World War II to mislead the enemy about their military capabilities.

Orange-colored carrots appeared in the Netherlands in the 17th century, which has been related to the fact that the Dutch flag at the time, the Prince’s Flag, included orange.

Source: Wikipedia

Preperation

So you are ready to give it a try? Head out to the grocery store or, even better, get some of the products form your local farmer or greengrocer. Be sure though what to look for and perhaps ask for advise on how the determine what’s ripe and what’s not. Doing this will be rewarded with an even more tasteful pumpkin soup!

step 1

Ingredients

450g butternut squash
300g dutch carrots
1 red union
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp oil
salt and pepper

Preparation: +/- 15 min
Duration: +/- 45 min

Heating the butternut squash and carrots

First things first, heat the oven to 220 °C. Halve the squash lengthwise and remove the seeds and the filamentous inside with a spoon. Next, cut the green of the carrots. Place the pumpkin and carrot on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place the unpeeled onions and cloves of garlic next to it. Bake for about 45 min. In the middle of the oven.

step 2

Ingredients

½ orange
48 g hazelnuts
7 g chive

Duration: +/- 15 min

Preparing the rest of the ingredients

Next up, peel the orange and use a sharp knife to remove the white membrane of the orange. Remove the a part of the skin of each wedge so you can easily separate the flesh from the skin using the knife. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan without oil or butter and roast the hazelnuts 3 min and let them cool on a plate. Chop the chives. Do the same with the hazelnuts and cut them coarsely.

step 3

Ingredients

all from step 1 & 2

Duration: +/- 10 min

Blend it all

When the oven is ready, let it rest for about 5 minutes to cool down. Next up, the messy part. Scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin with a spoon and place it in a blender. Peel the onion and garlic and add to the pumpkin. Pour half of the coconut milk and blend it. When done, pour into a saucepan.

Cut the carrot into pieces, put the orange and the rest of the coconut milk into the blender and blend it as well. When done, add this to the pureed pumpkin in the saucepan.

step 4

Ingredients

300 ml tapwater
sour cream
vegetable bouillon cube

Duration: +/- 10 min

Finishing the soup

Add the vegetable bouillon cube and water and heat it up. Let it boil and cook for about 2 minutes. Season with pepper and salt. As a finishing touch, serve the soup with a spoonful of sour cream and sprinkle with the hazelnuts and chives.

Preparation:

Taste:

Overall:

The verdict

While it’s rather easy to prepare, it does take it’s time. Knowing the little tricks on how to cut and peel helps a lot. But most of all, if you don’t have a proper blender, it can become quite of a mess. With my kitchen skills, there was pumpkin all over the place.

I never tasted pumpkin soup, or at least, not that I remember. This makes the first sip a bit scary as I had no idea what to expect. Surprisingly it tasted really, really good. It’s sweet taste offset by a very balanced bitterness made it delicious.

Proof of that is I guess that after a few sips, I ate it all in no time without even noticing it. To me, that’s a very good sign. You should be surprised and delighted about the meal in the first few bites, but after that you should be able to continue conversation without being reminded of the food with each bite.

This means I really recommend this meal, especially if you have never eaten it. I doubt there will be many seriously disliking this dish. Preparation can be a bit messy though and a perfect dish does not exist. For that reason, it’s a 4 out of 5.

The post Autumn meal #2 – Pumpkin soup from the oven appeared first on Live & Explore.

Autumn meal #1 – Steak, sprouts from the oven, fried onion and parsnip puree

Rick Hofmijster — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 13:48:01 +0000

Autumn meal series

Ingredients (2 pers.)

2 steaks of 150g (roe, deer or beef)
500g sprouts
400g parsnip
1 galic bulb
2 red unions
olive oil
curcuma spices
salt/pepper

Preparation time: +/- 60min

It’s autumn in North Holland, which means summer has come to an end, the weather is getting colder and the days shorter. It also means a lot of seasonal fruits and vegetables are ready for consumption, so in this meal, we’ll have a look at sprouts and parsnip

We start of with a dish for 2 persons that includes a nice steak, sprouts from the oven, fried unions and parsnip puree. Rather safe, everybody likes a good steak and the fried unions can cover up the potential horrible taste of the sprouts and parsnip puree?! Before we start in the kitchen, let’s first have a look at the seasonal ingredients. What is it? Where do they come from? What are they like? All questions that came to my mind when I first saw the list of ingredients.

Sprouts

Forerunners to modern sprouts were likely cultivated in Ancient Rome. The first written reference dates back to 1587 and sprouts enjoyed popularity in the southern parts of the Netherlands during the 16th century, spreading throughout the cooler parts of Northern Europe.

Sprouts are a cultivar group of the same species as cabbage, in the same family as broccoli and kale. Containing excellent levens of vitamin C, K and moderate amounts of B vitamins, such as folic acid and vitamin B6, spouts are a healthy choice. Essential minerals and dietary fiber exists in lesser amounts.

Sprouts grow on stalks, are sown between February and mid-April and are harvested from August up to March. Sprouts can withstand -15 deg Celsius temperature and in fact, some say they taste better after a good frost!

Source: Wikipedia

Parsnip

Parsnip is native to Eurasia and has been used as a vegetable since antiquity. Cultivated by the Romans, it was used as a sweetener before the arrival of cane sugar in Europe.

Usually cooked, parsnip can also be eaten raw. It’s high in vitamins and minerals, especially potassium. Also containing antioxidants and dietary fiber it’s a healthy vegetable to eat.

Parsnip is a biennial plant usually grown as annual. If unharvested, in the second year it will produce it’s flowering stem with small yellow flowers. It’s not all nice though, handling the stems and foliage can cause a skin rash…

Seeds are usually planted early spring and the harvest begins late fall after the first frost. The frost will cause some of the starches in the root to be converted into sugars, giving them a sweeter taste.

Source: Wikipedia

Preperation

So you are ready to give it a try? Head out to the grocery store or, even better, get some of the products form your local farmer! Also, this recipe is put together in it’s most logic and fastest order, so just follow the step plan and all will be ready at the same time.

Before we begin the actual cooking, if you have it stored in the fridge, take out the steaks and let it get to room temperature. This usually takes about 30 min. If you take them out now, you can start preparing the meal as it will take about 30 min before we even start with the steak. How clever!

step 1

Ingredients

500g sprouts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp curcuma
pepper

Preparation: +/- 10 min
Duration: +/- 55 min

Sprouts from the oven

First things first, heat the oven to 200 °C. Clean the sprouts with water and cut the bigger sprouts into half’s. Take out a bowl and mix the sprouts with the olive oil, the curcuma spices and pepper.

Place baking paper in a baking dish and spread the sprouts evenly. Put a sheet of baking paper on top of the baking dish and bake the sprouts in the oven for about 45 minutes.

step 2

Ingredients

400g parsnip
1 galic bulb
1 tsp olive oil

Preparation: +/- 10 min
Duration: +/- 25 min

Parsnip puree

Peel the parsnips and cut into pieces. You can start this straight after you put the sprouts in the oven. After the sprouts have been in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, boil the parsnip and the garlic bulb tender in about 15 minutes using a little bit of water. Once boiled, puree the vegetables in a blender and add a dash of olive oil.

While you can boil the parsnip straight after putting the sprouts in the oven, I recommend to wait a little so it’s all ready at the same time, making sure you eat warm parsnip puree.

step 3

Ingredients

1-2 red unions
2-4 tbsp olive oil
salt

Duration: +/- 20 min

Fried unions

This is probably the most easy part of this recipe. All you have to do is peel the unions and cut them into rings. Add the oil in the pan and fry the unions with a pinch of salt. Bake the unions on a low fire for about 15 minutes while stirring frequently.

While at it, continue with step 4 to have all parts of the dish ready in the same time.

step 4

Ingredients

2 steaks of 150 g
3-4 tbsp olive oil
pepper and salt

Duration: +/- 10 min

Steak (roe, deer or beef)

There are many ways to prepare a steak, but in order to get a nice, tender and full of flavor steak, there a a few fundamentals. First and foremost, do not use a anti-sticking pan. Before doing anything else with the steaks, dry them using a piece of kitchen paper or clean towel. Also, put your stove on 8 out of 10 when adding the oil. In this way the oil can evenly melt.

Next, put a good layer of salt and pepper on one side of each steak. Once the oil is melted, put your stove on it’s max heat and lay down the steaks with the spiced sides down. Now you can add the salt and pepper on side of the steaks facing you.

Leave the steaks in the pan but keep moving them. Usually after a minute or 2 you can turn the steaks over. Regular check if the steaks are still ‘soft’ by pressing the meat with your thumb. As a reference, make a circle with your index finger and thumb and press the ball on the palm side of your thumb. Steaks with the same soft texture will be rare. If you make a circle with your little finger and thumb and press the ball of thumb, you will find that steaks with the same firm feeling will be well done.

Preparation:

Taste:

Overall:

The verdict

This dish is rather simple to prepare but the sprouts take some time in the oven. Let’s face it, the steak and fried unions are liked by almost everybody. While in my case I had the steaks for a bit to long in the pan, making them a ‘well done’ (I prefer rare or medium done), they still tasted good.

The scary part, the sprouts. They tasted like, well… I guess you need to like the taste of spouts. There is a taste, there sure is, but I didn’t like it much. I was able to eat a few sprouts before it really became too much… No more sprouts for me.

The parsnip puree then. This was surprisingly fine. It’s like potato puree but sweeter. I would describe it as if it had a bit of a lemon/citrus taste over it. I could definitely eat it again, though I’m not blown away by the ‘amazing’ taste.

All in all, this meal won’t let anyone starving, but especially the sprouts are for those few sprout lovers. Preparing it was not too hard which is the reason I’ll give this dish a 3 out of 5.

The post Autumn meal #1 – Steak, sprouts from the oven, fried onion and parsnip puree appeared first on Live & Explore.