pumpkin

Autumn, falling leaves and vibrant colours

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The last thing published was some half year ago. I was gone for a while, trying to finish my studies. I was too close to quit, but just couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s when a friend whom I haven’t seen for ages told me “you’ll make it, but you’ll really have to work your ass off this summer.”

I gave up all my hobbies (and of course accidentially got into some new ones) and finished my both masters. I did it. I was happy, but there was a bitter taste of that feeling of time lost. Winter turned into spring, spring into summer, summer into fall. I suddenly had no memory of things that happened in between. I did not feel, I did not see the beauty of the change. I was lost.

Few days ago I was walking down the street and realized that trees have dropped all of the leaves. Looking at the gray misty sky, I felt a soft, colourful, leafy carpet under my feet. I made a deep breath. I could smell winter. And I realized I started to feel myself again.

pumpkin-potato-soup

Sweet potato and pumpkin soup

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4):

  • 1 sweet potato (400g aprox.)
  • 1 big hokkaido squash
  • 2 big shallots
  • 500 ml milk
  • 150 ml cooking cream
  • water or vegetable stock as needed
  • salt, pepper
  • oil for baking
  • nutmeg
  • 400g oyster mushrooms
  • half garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 200g tofu (I used ginger carrot tofu from I Like Tofu)
  • 100g buckwheat noodles
  • fresh parsley
  • pink peppercorns

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven at 220ºC. Wash, peel and cut sweet potato, squash and shallots. Transfer on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and oil. Bake until soft (aprox. 40 mins).
  2. When baked, combine all the vegetables, milk and cream and blend until smooth and creamy. If needed, add some water or vegetable stock (depending on the thickness you prefer). Transfer on stove and heat up by stiring. Add some nutmeg, ground pepper and salt, if needed.
  3. Meanwhile, cut tofu and mushrooms. Heat some oil in two seperate pans. Stir fry both separately. Add some salt, pepper and chopped garlic to the mushrooms.
  4. Heat the water and cook the noodles.
  5. Serve the soup in a bowl, topping it with some noodles, mushrooms and tofu. Sprinkle with pink peppercorns and fres parsley leaves.

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Colours of fall

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Fall. In full colours.
I gaze upon the sky.
Bright blue sky. Red, orange and yellow.
That’s what I see. Smiling.
A cold breeze spinning around the fallen leaves.
Sea marshes.
A reflection on the surface.
Calm. And free.
Far away from this world. 
Magic.

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This fall seems different. I’ve never seen it in such beautiful colours. Or maybe I just wasn’t looking… The light, the smells, the last fruits of the nature before the winter, the cosiness and warm, strong, colourful food.  Earth. Pumpkins and grapes, reflecting its colors in the sky.

pumpkin focaccia

Pumpkin focaccia
Ingredients

dough:

  • 500 g spelt flour
  • 300 g pumpkin puree
  • salt
  • 2 Tbsp oil
  • 20 g fresh yeast
  • 50 ml milk
  • 1 tsp agave syrup
  • 8 g salt
  • 10 Tbsp pumpkin seed oil

to garnish:

Focaccia with grapes, mozzarella and rosemary 

  • grapes
  • 1 mozzarella
  • fresh rosemary

Focaccia with sage, feta and pecans

  • fresh sage
  • 100 g feta
  • 2 handfuls of pecans

Preparation:

  1. Cut pumpkin in bigger pieces. Use hokkaido or butternut. Remove the seeds. Sprinkle with some oil and salt. Bake at 200°C until soften (around 30 – 40 min).
  2. Let cool the pumpkins. Remove the skins and puree using a hand blender.
  3. Prepare yeast: mix 20 g fresh yeast, 50 ml warm milk and tablespoon of agave syrup. Let double in volume.
  4. In a big bowl mix flour and salt. Add yeast and 300 g pumpkin puree. Mix and knead. Gradually mix in 6 Tbsp of pumpkin seed oil. The dough for focaccia should be very soft and not firm. Let rise.
  5. When doubled in volume, gradually mix in another 4 Tbsp of pumpkin seed oil while kneeding.
  6. Divide the dough in smaller parts. Add some neutral oil, like sunflower, to the baking sheet. Using your fingertips flatten the dough to aprox 1 cm thick. Testo razdelimo na več manjših kosov. Z oljem namažemo papir za peko ali pekač. Garnish. Let rise.
  7. Preheat oven to 230°C. Leave in the baking tray so it gets warm. Take it out of the oven and place on focaccias on baking sheets. Bake 10 – 15 min at
    230°C.

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Oven baked orange pistachio donuts

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Since I remember, working with materials, transforming the mass and creating new shapes was my thing. Probably that’s why I was so hooked by ceramics. I was doing it for quite some time and enjoyed it a lot. I always liked that magic feeling when you get to transform your idea into something concrete, real, into a form that has a new meaning… But at a certain moment I actually stopped doing that. That was a mistake, but I haven’t yet said the final word! That’s for sure.

Maybe that is why I like working with dough so much. I actually didn’t realize this until I got myself a new oven. Yes, I’ve had it for two weeks or so now 🙂 Dough is an absolutely amazing thing! It all begins with a messy sticky shapeless something, but then you fight it, you stretch it, you knead and eventually you get a nice and soft shiny ball. Not to mention the final result… 🙂

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Mardi gras and carnival time in Slovenia are somehow special. Actually, the only time I did not celebrate it was when I was in France. We always do masks and there is a huge party. Oh yes, and donuts.

So this is how I got myself into this business. I haven’t really eaten donuts for quite some time now. My gran, who makes like the best ones ever (!!!), lives a bit too far away to have them fresh, and a day old, well, they’re not quite the same anymore.

I wanted to make a healthier version of her recipe which goes like this:

500 g flour
5 egg yolks
50 g sugar
50 g butter
40 g fresh yeast
1,5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp spiced rum
peel of 1 organic lemon
1 vanilla sugar
250 – 300 ml milk
oil for frying
apricot jam for filling
icing sugar for garnish

After preparing the dough, which is pretty much the same as described in my recipe, make 60 g balls and let rise. Heat the oil at 60ºc – 70ºc. Fry 3 mins on one side with the lid on, than turn the donuts and fry another 3 mins with the lid off. Warm up the apricot jam and fill the donuts using a confectionery bag or a syringe with a long nozzle.

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I did not want to fry them, so I tried the oven option. The donuts turned out just great, but had more of a brioche texture. But as far as the taste goes, I got it right. And filling them with clementine jam was like heaven!

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Ingredients:

dough

  • 200 g white flour T400
  • 125 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 110 g pumpkin puree (from hokkaido)
  • 20 g fresh yeast
  • 25 g agave syrup
  • 50 g soft butter
  • 30 – 50 ml milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1,5 Tbsp spiced rum
  • 3 egg yolks
  • peel of ½ organic lemon
  • 1/3 tsp salt

garnish

  • 100 g dark chocolate (70%)
  • 1 tsp butter
  • unsalted pistachios
  • peel of 2 organic oranges
  • clementine or orange jam

Preparation:

  1. Cut pumpkin in half, drizzle with some neutral oil and bake at 200°C 30-40 min or until softened. Let cool and puree using a hand blender.
  2. Prepare the yeast: mix 20 ml warm milk, 1 tsp of agave syrup and yeast.
  3. In a large bowl mix the two flours and salt.
  4. Using a hand mixer, mix softened butter at the highest speed, than gradually add agave syrup and egg yolks. In the end, add lemon peel, vanilla extract and rum.
  5. Pour the egg mixture, pumpkin puree and yeast into the flours. Mix with a wooden spatula until combined. Add more milk if needed.
  6. When ingredients well combined, start kneading. The dough should be firm, but flexible. Add more flour or milk if needed. The starch needs some time to get activated, so in this first phase the dough will be pretty sticky. It should start getting the right texture after 8 mins of kneading. If it still is too sticky and too soft, add little flour. Flour your work surface and now knead as you would any other dough. In the end you should get a firm and silky ball of dough.
  7. Let rise and when it doubles in size knead once more. Form small balls of 40 g each and let rise. Turn once while rising.
  8. Preheat oven at 180°c (classic heating up+down) and bake 20 – 30 min.
  9. Using a confectionary bag or a syringe with a long nozzle fill the donuts with a warm jam as soon as you get them out of the oven.
  10. Melt the chocolate and the butter over a double boiler. Pour over the donuts and sprinkle with some crushed pistachios and orange peel.

Pumpkin tiramisu

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Leaves changing their colors. The wonderful smell of trees, mushrooms and fallen leaves. Sun. And sunglasses on. Almost as if it was still summer. L’été indien they call it in Canada. The last sunny days before the fall strikes with its grayish mists.

Tiramisu. One of my favorites. In line with the season. On a sunny terrace. Warm and spicy. And a glass of red vine to finish. The ultimate dessert for last warm days of fall.

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Where s’the catch? Pumpkin puree.

It will give the tiramisu lovely warm color and flavor. Plus, since my recipe is without egg it will bind the whole thing, add a hint of sweetness and help to reduce fat content.

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First thing that comes to my mind when I think of fall are warm wooden flavors. To spice it up a bit, use cookies like speculoos or this lovely Balance almond cookies by Klingele. They’re made without sugar and remind me a lot of speculoos, so they’re just perfect.

And the ultimate ingredient? Cognac. To give it a punch. And a lovely caramel flavor.

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Ingredients:

makes 3 – 4 single servings

  • 300 g mascarpone (you can also replace it with 1/3 of ricotta, best using Galbani)
  • 200 g pumpkin puree
  • 14 tsp strong espresso
  • 6 tsp spiced rum
  • 10 tsp cognac
  • sweeten according to taste (it depends on the sweetness of the pumpkin)
  • hokkaido pumpkin
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • pinch of salt
  • Balance almond cookies or speculoos
  • 2 Tbsp 100% cocoa powder

Preparation:

  1. Preheat owen at 180ºc. Cut pumpkin and remove seeds. Grease the pan with coconut oil. Sprinkle with salt. Slow roast until softened, between 40 – 60 mins (depends on the size).
  2. Cool the pumpkin, remove the skins and puree using a hand blender.
  3. Make some strong espresso. Set aside and let cool.
  4. Mix mascarpone (and ricotta, if using), pumpkin puree, espresso, rum and cognac as follows. Sweeten according to taste.
  5. The best is to make individual portions: layer of cookies, than layer of cream (making at least two layers of each).
  6. Let cool in the fridge for couple of hours.
  7. Sprinkle with bitter cocoa powder just before serving.