Pumpkin and smoked paprika soup

Although the folks at Weather.com and Weather Channel have clearly lied about the temperatures and the humidity dropping, I'm still cooking as if it were fall for real. So pumpkin it is again, this time used to make soup. In the near future, if it ever does cool off I want to make pumpkin risotto and pumpkin ravioli, but for now soup it is because this one is great served both hot or cold.

Either way it's incredibly easy to make and the results are definitely worth it if you like a nice combination of sweet and smoky flavors like I do.

PUMPKIN AND SMOKED PAPRIKA SOUP

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 carrots
1 onion
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 quart good quality chicken stock (or veegtable stock if you want to make it completely vegetarian)
Salt and pepper
1 15-ounce can pumpkin

Chop vegetables and heat oil in a dutch oven casserole. When oil is warm add chopped vegetables, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook everything on medium high heat for about 10 minutes.

Add paprika and garlic and toast for a minute, stirring vigorously.

Process soup with an immersion blender or in a regular blender, then put the pureed vegetables back in the casserole. Add remaining broth, pumpkin, and more salt, eppper and paprika if you'd like. Warm, stirring frequently , for about 10 minutes.

Tuscan cannellini salad

This has been quite a week and I'm mighty glad that it's almost over. Of course I still have to deal with today and of course today will be the busiest of all days, but I'm trying to stay positive and collected. Really. Last night I was leaving the newsroom at around 6:30 when I suddenly remembered that downstairs they were hosting something along the lines of the first annual health fair, a quick screening that can reduce the monthly medical insurance payment. After making sure that they wouldn't force me to take a flu shot (I seriously rather have the flu), I filled a million forms with my information and off I went to get the first part of my screening done. In a little less than 20 minutes they poked my finger for blood, weighted me (I had boots on, but the nurse mercifully subtracted 3 pounds to the total), calculated my BMI, my cholesterol levels and my blood pressure. Then I was sent off to sit down with a head nurse "to discuss my health problems and find solutions together." Well, apparently I have none. My blood pressure is on the low side, my bad cholesterol is low while my good one is high, my BMI is on the low portion of the normal range and so is my body fat percentage. In other words, the head nurse had nothing to talk to me about and when she assumed out loud that I must have a hell of an exercise routine I didn't dare tell her that I've never set foot in a gym. But when I got home and it was time to decide what to make as a side dish to my fennel crusted pork tenderloin, I decided to do the healthy thing. I put away the instant mashed potatoes and I made this Tuscan bean salad from scratch. So much healthier and much more satisfying!

TUSCAN CANNELLINI SALAD

1 can cannellini beans
1 bayleaf
Salt and pepper
1 tomato, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
A bunch of basil

In a small pot gently heat up the cannellini with salt, pepper, bayleaf and a little water. Cook for about 20 minutes, until most water has evaporated. Place beans in a bowl and let them cool down.

When the beans are warm but not too hot anymore add tomato, onion, garlic and olives.

Whisk together oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and pour over salad. Mix gently with a wooden spoon and sprinkle with freshly chopped basil.

Pumpkin bread

Happy first day of October, everyone! I was pleased to find out that this morning the temperature was below 75F and the humidity was almost gone. I'm sure it's just a tease and we will get some more gross, over 90 degrees days, but it's a start. It's a remainder that in less than 4 weeks summer will be gone for good, even in Florida. To celebrate the beginning of my favorite season I made pumpkin bread, an obvious choice, I agree, but see... I've been itching to make it since the middle of July, so I couldn't resist anymore. Eating the first slice with coffee was the highlight of a day that is already turning out to be a pain, so I'm exceptionally glad that I've baked it.

PUMPKIN BREAD

8 ounces all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil or applesauce
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/3 cup water
1/2 can pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine flour, baking powder, bakind soda, salt and spices in a bowl.

Place sugar, oil, milk, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add water and pumpkin, and beat at low speed until blended.

Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Spoon batter in a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yellow onion jam

Yes, another onion jam recipe. Two in the same day. I haven't lost my mind, but I happened to have all these onions, and after the first one turned out to be so delicious, I thought I'd make a second one with yellow onions. The recipe is pretty similar to the first one, but believe me when I say that they taste quite different. This one we've had with pork tenderloin and I have to say it complimented the meat more than nicely.

SWEET ONION JAM:

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups vertically sliced onion
1 cup sliced shallots
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 cup dry vermouth
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, shallots, and sugar to pan. Sauté 12 minutes or until golden. Stir in vermouth, raisins, and vinegar; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until liquid almost evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

Red onion jam

I know, you can barely see the onion jam in this picture -but it doesn't look overly pretty by itself believe me. After celebrating my birthday with lots and lots of wine I woke up this morning not feeling so hot. And when I don't feel too well, the only thing that cures me is a yummy brunch or breakfast of bagel with smoked salmon. Don't ask me why, but it never fails to make me feel better. This morning was no different. I had recently bought one of those delicious smoked salmons from Costco and I thought, what better way to have it than with capers, tomatoes and red onion?

Only I didn't have any red onion, the reason being that I had just used all the ones I have to make a red onion jam. Sounds a little weird, I know, but obviously this is a different kind of jam, one that goes together well with crackers and cheeses as an accompaniment to wine. It turns out, it also goes very well with smoked salmon on a lightly toasted bagel. Canning the jam was kind of a pain and I'm seriously thinking of investing some money and buy a pressure canner but, for now, you can find instructions on how to can here.

RED ONION JAM:

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large red onions, thinly sliced
10 ounces brown sugar
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Salt and pepper
A pinch of herbs de Provance

Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven, add the onions, raisins and coriander. Cook until onions are soft, about 10 minutes.
Add all the other ingredients, season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about an hour or until most liquid evaporates.

Brussels sprouts for dummies

It's my birthday. I turn 29 today and -apparently- your 29th birthday is "the golden birthday", something I never knew until today at least 10 people mentioned it on Facebook. I thought it was going to be a cool birthday because I'm turning 29 on the 29th of the 9th month of the 9th year of the millennium. Yes, I do have too much time on my hands and spend an alarmingly large part of my day musing about stuff that is completely useless. So last night I decided to make something different, something that would surprise most people that know me when they see this post: Brussels sprouts. Why, you ask? Because in my entire life I've never eaten them, short of one little piece once, many years ago, just to determine that they were a horrible, wretched vegetable that I would never eat again.

But of course the good guys at the co-op had other palns in mind. They delivered me a truckload of Brussels sprouts and -after parking them in the fridge for a while- I decided that last night would be the night. A few hours before my golden birthday I thought, why not? So I made them, following a Christmas recipe from Cooking Light, and guess what? They turned out delicious. Either that or I'm getting so old I'm starting to like old people food -you decide.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PECANS
5 cups sliced Brussels sprouts
2 medium onions, vertically sliced
1 large shallot, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
3/4 cup chicken stock
A pinch of thyme
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

In a large skillet melt the butter and sautee the onions and shallots. Add the Brussels sprouts and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sautee for a few minutes (about 4 or 5), add sugar, thyme and chicken stock. Stir, cover and simmer for a couple of minutes or until tender. Top with toasted pecans and serve.

Roasted chicken with onions and potatoes

In my never ending effort to be thrifty (so that I have enough money to buy shoes and travel) I have discovered how much cheaper it is to buy whole chickens instead of precut parts. I know, I know, probably I should have known that, but I didn't -plus, I always thought that roasting a chicken would be some kind of a pain in the ass, so I never bothered. Well, I discovered that although it is a little labor intensive in the beginning, once you are done you can relax and drink wine while the bird is in the oven, a prospective I always like on Friday nights when I'm tired and don't feel like dancing around the kitchen paying attention to what is going on on the stove. So I've started to make roasted chicken and after a few times I made it using different recipes and approaches I have to say that the poulet roti recipe in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook is by far the best. I added some potatoes and onions to the recipe to have a super easy, no fuss side dish ready at the exact same time as the chicken -it was an extremly satisfying dinner and I can now say that I have a bomb-proof recipe to roast a chicken. I'm pretty proud of myself.

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ONIONS AND POTATOES

1 young roasting chicken, about 4 pounds
Salt and pepper
2 rosemary sprigs
1 lemon, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons softened butter
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon honey
2 pounds yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into wedges
1 cup white wine

Preheat oven to 375F.

Remove giblets from chicken cavity. Wash the cavity and let dry. Season the cavity with abundant salt and pepper, place the lemon, rosemary sprigs and chopped celery in it.

Now, the trussing of the chicken... I use Anthony Bourdain's trick to truss the chicken, a trick he explains in his hilarious cookbook from Les Halles. Here's what he says: "Okay... now, I'm not going to try and explain how to truss a chicken with twine - as much fun as that is. Here's a shortcut instead. First: lie on your back on the floor, put your knees together, and draw them both up to your chest with your arms. Press them against your chest. You should look pretty funny down there - but that's exactly the position I want you to put your chicken in. Knees up, ass out. Undignified, but effective. Now, take a paring knife and just below the end of the chicken's legs (approximately below where your heels would be), poke a small hole on each side, and tuck the leg carefully inside,pinioning the legs in a position approximately what you just did on the floor. Try not to tear the skin, okay?"

On to the next step. Mix the softened butter with the chopped herbs and season it with salt and pepper. Gently insert your fingers in between the skin and the breast and rub the butter mixture on both sides of the bird so that the butter is trapped underneath the skin. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of butter for later use.

Season the bird with salt and pepper, being careful not to miss any spots. Place it in an oven proof casserole and place onions and potatoes around it. Pour wine in the casserole and distribute the reserved butter on the vegetables.

Cook at 375F for 30 minutes, turning the casserole occasionally so that the bird cooks evenly.

Cranck up the oven to 450F and cook for another 20-25 minutes. Let the chicken rest for ten minutes before serving.

Fall vegetables "strudel"

Regardless of the fact that it's hot and humid out -in fact the weather is grosser than what it was in August!- I have decided that fall is here and that I should therefore start cooking my favorite "cold weather" foods. This summer has been particularly brutal, one of the hottest on record, and both my body and my mind have been put through a lot of heat related stress. Although I might have to wait for another 4 weeks to see any real changes temperature wise, to keep what is left of my mental sanity I need to convince myself that the worst is indeed over and that soon I'll be wearing sweaters and making stews.

Hence today's recipe, a quick way to use some good fall vegetables like sweet potatoes and chard (which, now that I think of it, I'm not sure it's a fall vegetable. But, oh well, you get the point!). I first saw a version of this recipe on the cookbook "The Silver Spoon", a more than 50 year old bible of Italian cooking. My grandma use to have it in her kitchen and when they finally translated in English a couple of years ago I bought it immediately so that I could have a copy here in Florida as well. They describe it as an appetizer, but really you can serve it also as a side dish or as a light vegetarian meal. I also saw a version of this recipe on one of my favorite blogs -Il cavoletto di Bruxelles- and in that case the strudel was made with pumpkin and spinach and topped with sesame seeds, but still, very similar.

To make a long story short, I started making this savory strudel last year, after making one too many savory pies and being bored by them. It's versatile, it's easy and with store bought pie crust is so quick to make you'll find yourself making it over and over again.

VEGETABLE STRUDEL

1 large sweet potato
1 bunch swiss chard (about 12 ounces)
1 large shallot
4 ounces good quality mozzarella
1 store-bought round pastry dough (such as Pillsbury)
1 egg
Fennel seeds

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet. Slice the shallot and sautee it in the oil until tender. In the mean time wash and chop chard. Add to skillet and cook with shallot until wilted, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Quickly boil the sweet potato until crisp tender. Peel and cut into cubes. Add to chard mixture. Also cut the mozzarella into small cubes.

Lay the pastry dough on a cookie sheet covered with cooking spray. Lay half of the mozzarella cubes int eh central portion of it. Top with chard and sweet potato mixture and one more lauyer of mozzarella.

Fold dough over filling and close the two short edges by pinching the dough together. Gently flip it so it lays seam-side down on the cookie sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with fennel seeds.

Cook in 375F oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Potato and porcini bake

Ah, the first day of autumn. It reminds me that somewhere, in some faraway lands, the leaves are changing colors and the air is getting crisp at night. Sweaters are being warn and in the kitchen cooks start to prepare different meals, fall meals. Fall has always been my favorite season and I miss it dearly. A heat index of 95F at 11 a.m... are you kidding me? This is not fall!
Unfortunately I can't ignore the high temperatures and high humidity and just wear those boots and jackets I'm longing for, but what I can do is start cooking my favorite fall meals and patiently wait for the cooler weather to make its appearance.
So to celebrate the beginning of fall I made a dish my mom made all the time when porcini mushrooms were in season, a simple but delicious bake that makes a great side for grilled meats. Porcini are a little expensive, but they are well worth the money -and dry porcini work great too!

POTATO AND PORCINI BAKE
Serves 4

1 pound fresh porcini mushrooms (or 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms)
1 pound potatoes
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon marjoram
1/2 tablespoon parsley
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

If using dried mushroom soak in warm water for about 30 minutes before using.

Heat up a swirl of olive oil in a large pan, add mushrooms and herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook on medium heat until mushroom are tender. Coarsely chop and set aside.

Using a mandolin slicer, slice potatoes to a potato chip like thinness. Grease an oven proof casserole and make a first layer of potatoes, slightly overlapping them. Season with salt and pepper. Make a second lyer of mushroom mixture. Then a layer of potatoes, season with salt and pepper. And so on. Finish with a layer of potatoes. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Cook in 375F oven for about 30 minutes or until golden.

Savory yogurt crustless pie

This is a last minute response to Faith's "Secret ingredient" challenge posted on her blog, Thought 4 Food. Her ingredient of choice was yogurt and after thinking about it for a few days, I remembered a recipe my mom used to make back in Italy, a savory yogurt and cheese "pie" she served cut into squares as an appetizer. It's a simple recipe where the flavor of the yogurt shines together with the sharpness and saltiness of good cheeses -Emmethal and pecorino romano. It goes well with cold cuts such as pancetta and prosciutto or with jams like jalapeno or red pepper jellies. And the best thing about it is that is good both hot, warm or cold.

SAVORY YOGURT PIE:
8 ouces plain yogurt
4 ounces all-purpose flour
1 cup grated pecorino romano
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
Salt and pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup meted butter
Cooking spray
Breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 375F.

Lightly cover an 8-inch spring form pan with cooking spray. Toss a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs in it, to cover evenly.

In a medium bowl mix yogurt, flour, grated cheeses, yeast, butter, eggs, salt and pepper, stirring well to mix.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs.

Back in preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm or cold.