Nothing about bridge today, just a few things about food as people have asked me for it.
We have a bit of a crisis at home: the members of the Cucurbita family are producing too much off-spring. Cucurbita is the generic name for the family of plants that include pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima hubbaridianna) and zucchini (Cucurbita pepo). The 2 zucchini plants must have produced a few dozen by now, and with the hot and relatively humid weather of the last days, they continue to grow. The pumpkin plant has produced 4 large pumpkins, with a few more to come as well.
I’ve tried various recipies for the pumpkins and zucchini’s, here are the ones that are the most popular with the family here.
Pumpkin Pasta
- Take 45 grams of egg white, 40 grams of regular yoghurt and 30 grams of vinigar. Put in
the blender and mix. Slowly add 200 grams of sunflower oil to it. This will set like a mayonaise, Add a few teaspoons of red curry. Put in a bottle, allow an hour to set. - Peel and remove the seeds from a pumpkin. Cut approximately 500g (for 4 regular eaters) in cubes of about 1 cm. Add a chopped onion, a few gloves of garlic, a red pepper, salt and a little oil. Mix. Put in a baking tray in the oven at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes. The pumpkin should roast, the oil is just avoid it from sticking to the bowl.
- Wash a handful of sage leaves and cut the steal. Then deep-fry them at 180 degrees for a few minutes untill crisp.
- In the same pan, fry a handful of pistachio nuts until crispy
- Crumble 200 grams of soft goat cheese. I used one from a small farm in Texel, but any will do.
- Cook 200 grams of pasta until al dente. I had farfalle lying around, there are little butterflies, but again any variation will do.
- By now, the pumpkin should be roasted and soft inside.
Time to plate up: put a layer of pasta on a plate, cover with a layer of pumpkin, then the cheese, nuts and finally the sage leaves. Put a bit of curry-creme on the side, giving a kick if one wants to.
Zucchini Pie with Blue Stilton
- Take a round baking tray, about 30 centimeters. Put in a layer of (ready made) puff pastry such that it covers the bottom and the edges. Put in the oven at 200 degrees until golden brown.
- In the meantime, prepare the filling. Cut a couple of zucchini’s into thin slices until you have enough to fill the tray. Fry a onion, glove of garlic and a chili pepper until soft. Add the zucchini and continue to fry until the zucchini becomes soft. Season with peper and za’atar (an spice mixture from the middle east, easily available at Turkish of Marrocan supermarkets) but do not add salt. The stilton already contains enough salt.
- Beat 2 or 3 eggs with a dash of cream. Crumble 200 grams of Stilton (and if you don’t have that, another blue cheese should be fine too).
- By now the bottom should be ready. Put about half the zucchini in, then a layer of cheese, then the rest of the zucchini, then the remaining cheese and finally the egg/cream mixture.
- Put in the oven at 200 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes, the pie is ready when the cream/egg is solid and it is golden brown.
Eat while it is still warm, though if a slice survives, you can eat that the next day cold for lunch too.