Posts Tagged ‘Pumpkins’

For the pastry:
170g plain flour
40g icing sugar
85g cold butter
1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt
40g crushed pecans

For the pie filling:
1 pumpkin or squash, peeled and cut into chunks
145g maple syrup
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp grated nutmeg
2 large eggs, beaten, plus 1 yolk
150ml double cream

Steam the pumpkin pieces until tender. Drain and then puree with a blender. Then put into a fine sieve over a bowl to drain any excess water. Leave for around an hour.

Now make your pastry. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the salt. Cube the butter then rub into the mixture with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Now stir in the icing sugar and the crushed pecans. Mix the egg yolk with 2 tbsp of cold water and add to the mixture, stirring with a knife until it forms a paste.

Bring together with your fingertips and roll into a ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes in clingfilm.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Once chilled, roll out the pastry on a floured surface to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use it to line a 20cm tart tin. Then cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes like this, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until pale golden.

Now to make the filling. Gently whisk the eggs and yolk in a large bowl.

Place the maple syrup, spices and cream in a pan and bring to simmer. Whisk. Then pour over the eggs and whisk again. Now add the 250g pureed pumpkin, whisking again to make sure everything is combined. It should form a creamy consistency.

Pour into the tart case and bake for 35-49 minutes, until the filling is set but still slightly wobbly in the centre. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before serving.

600g pumpkin, diced
400g parsnips, diced
170g lentils
1 red pepper, halved
1 tsp olive oil
1 small bunch fresh coriander
1 onion, diced
1 thumb ginger root, finely diced
1 ltr water
1 ltr vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 bunch of parsley

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the diced pumpkin on a baking tray. Roast for 15 minutes, then add the parsnip and peppers. Roast for a further 30 minutes until all the vegetables are soft.

In a large pot, heat the oil. Cook the spices for two minutes, stirring constantly, then add the onion and ginger and cook for two more minutes.

Add the water and lentils, cook until the lentils are soft (check instructions on the packet). Add the roasted vegetables and cook for ten more minutes. Then purée with a hand held blender, decorate with fennel seeds and parsley leaves, and serve immediately.

Our beautiful pumpkins and squashes are tasting great at the moment – the perfect warming meal in this cold weather. Find out why our Delica pumpkin is such a star…

Taste: Flavourful and sweet, the Delica is a round, medium sized pumpkin with dark green skin. The orange flesh caramelises when cooked in the oven and is a perfect starting point for superb risottos and delicious cakes. Delica pumpkins have a firm texture with less water than other varieties of pumpkin, their flesh is sweeter with a lovely nutty taste which makes them unique.

Region: Our Delica pumpkins come from the rich fields of the Padana plains surrounding Rovigo, in the Northen part of Italy.

Quality: We only choose the best Delica Pumpkins, so that we can make sure to deliver to your table all the precious minerals, vitamins and antioxidants that they contain.

Season: A typically autumn fruit, Delica Pumpkins are at their best in this period of the year and are usually available until mid winter.

Cost: We always let you know the price per kg so you can easily compare our prices, but bear in mind you’ll struggle to find such a high quality Delica Pumpkin anywhere else!

Buy Delica pumpkin online today!

With Halloween just gone and a mass of beautiful Autumn leaves at our feet, it’s time for some warming squash recipes, courtesy of The Dock Kitchen chef Stevie Parle and this weekend’s Telegraph…

Read the full article here or a snippet below:

“As autumn settles in, so the squash arrives in force. It is a fantastically versatile vegetable, and a staple of mine throughout the colder months. There are many varieties and they come in all shapes and sizes. Butternut squash are the easiest to find and cook with, so more often than not I settle for a butternut to make a simple, inexpensive supper at home. But I must admit I find them a little sweet and lacking in flavour.”

“I’ve recently been buying crown prince, a beautiful blue-grey squash, shaped much like a classic Hallowe’en pumpkin – you can buy them from www.natoora.co.uk under the name delica. Firm-fleshed and hard-skinned, they roast particularly well and have a savoury depth lacking in a butternut. Otherwise I try to find acorn squash. With its bright orange skin, it has similar flesh, though softer than a crown prince or a butternut so you don’t need to peel it until the end of the season when it becomes tougher. You can buy them in some supermarkets and most farmers’ markets.”

“My favourite are violini squash from Italy (also available from natoora). Sometimes called iron bark, they are huge, rough-skinned and violin-shaped with the most wonderful, deep flavour, and come into season in a few weeks.”

Read the rest of the article for some fantastic warming recipes – click here.

Stay out of the cold and close to your oven – now is the perfect time to stay in and cook up a storm!

It’s been one of the coldest weeks of recent times and we’re keeping warm by doing a good bit of cooking. Now is the perfect time to experiment with homemade soups, fuelling risottos and piping hot stews, so throw off your boots, give up your hat and scarf and defrost in front of a hot stove with our top 5 dishes to beat the BIG FREEZE…

1. Homemade Spiced Pumpkin Soup: Heat up in more ways than one with Jam and Clotted Cream’s delicious pumpkin soup. Spiced with mustard seeds, garam masala, turmeric and chilli powder it has some amazing flavours and will warm you up through and through!

2. Make your own Gnocchi: If you don’t fancy braving the fiercely cold winds and ice outside, spend the evening at home making your own gnocchi. With our step by step guide you’ll create some truly tasty nuggets, ready to take on your favourite flavours. Give it a go…

3. Veal Stew: Warm yet? If not, this nourishing stew will do the job! With the intense flavours of mushrooms and veal it is well worth a try…

4. Sticky Date Bars: Another of Jam and Clotted Cream’s delicious recipes, ready to give you a much needed energy boost! Munch on these as a snack, or serve warm with cream. Yum!

5. Mull it Over: Christmas might be over but there is definitely room for some hot (and of course alcoholic) drinks this Winter! Try our recipe for mulled wine – the perfect drink for these cold winter nights.

Thanks again to Beth at Jam and Clotted Cream for another delicious recipe using some of Natoora’s ingredients. This weekend try this quick and delicious mix of pumpkin, sage and chilli – a match made in pumpkin heaven! Beth used Violina Pumpkin for this one, a sweet variety which is well suited to the meaty flavour of sage and the fiery chillies.

Roast Pumpkin with Sage and Chilli, Courtesey of Beth at Jam and Clotted Cream

Ingredients

This recipe is really easy to prepare so you can sit back and relax while the pumpkin is baking. First preheat the oven to 200c. Layer the pumpkin slices and sage in a baking tray as shown and sprinkle with parmesan, sliced garlic and olive oil. Finally, give it a good twist of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes.

This recipe is from Beth of Jam and Clotted Cream, a superb food blog featuring some truly delicious recipes! Thanks Beth for letting us share this with Natoora blog reader’s! It’s a lightly spiced pumpkin soup, perfect for cold and wet evenings…

Spiced Pumpkin Soup, Image courtesy of Jam and Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
1 Pumpkin (1kg) – peeled and deseeded and cut into chunks
1.5 litres Chicken Stock
1 Large Onion
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Chili Powder

Place pumpkin chunks in large pan and cover with stock, bring to simmer and cook until pumpkin is tender.

Gently fry the onion and mustard seeds for 5 minutes, add spices and fry for a further minute.

Tip onion mix into pumpkin and stock. Turn off heat and let it cool. Blitz in a food processor until smooth.

It’s a great time to try pumpkin so give it a go and let us know how you get on. If you have any recipes you want to share, just drop us an email!

Serves 4

250g Pumpkin (you can use delica or violina, or even butternut squash if you prefer)
3 Shallots
A handful of Fresh Rosemary
180g Arborio Rice
Salt and Pepper
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 pint Stock (chicken or vegetable)
50g Butter
Parmesan for serving

First dice the pumpkin, and finely chop the shallots and rosemary. Heat the stock in a pan until almost boiling, then turn onto a very low heat. In another saucepan, sweat the shallots in the oil until soft and translucent. Add the rosemary and cook for a couple of minutes. Now add the rice and stir well to coat all the grains. Pour in a third of the stock and bring to a simmer. Leave cooking until almost all the stock is absorbed.

Now add that delicious pumpkin and a little more of the stock and again simmer until the stock is absorbed. Continue to add a little stock at a time, until the pumpkin is soft and the rice is al dente. The texture should be loose and creamy – you might need more or less stock to get it to this consistency. When ready, stir in the butter and season well. Serve and sprinkle over grated parmesan.

With Natoora this halloween you can create bewitching treats with our delicious seasonal produce. Of course we have the traditional pumpkins, but these are much better for making soups and risottos than carving faces into (see our recipe below for ideas!). So why not also try some of our more dastardly produce, like intense black cabbage, crimson bull’s blood lettuce, chevrot ashes goat’s cheese and bull’s heart tomatoes.

For a traditional halloween treat, explore our range of apples – brilliant at this time of year and even better covered in toffee!

Happy Eating!

Pumpkin and Mushroom Ravioli

Serves 6

For the Filling and Sage Butter

1kg Pumpkin (you can use delica or violina, or even butternut squash if you prefer)
75g French Chanterelles
150g Pleurottes
200g Ricotta
1 Clove of Garlic
Salt and Pepper
3 tbsp Olive Oil
50g Butter
1 beaten Egg
1 bunch Sage Leaves
175g Butter
Parmesan

For the Pasta Dough

250g ‘00′ Flour
250g Fine Semolina
7 eggs

First peel and dice the pumpkin into medium sized chunks. This doesn’t have to be neat. (You can also reserve the seeds and use to roast with vanilla and butter or paprika). Roast the pumpkin in a medium to high oven with 2 tbsp olive oil for around 30 minutes until soft yet firm.

Slice the mushrooms and heat 1 tbsp oil in a heavy pan. Cook the mushrooms for a couple of minutes, then add roughly chopped garlic and butter. Remove from the heat and place in a bowl to cool.

When the pumpkin has cooked, mash gently and place with the mushrooms. Season and mix thoroughly. When cool, add the ricotta, season again if necessary and mix.

For the pasta, place the flour in a large bowl and add the semolina. Mix together with your hands, then make a well in the centre. Lightly beat the eggs and pour into the well. Mix well with a wooden spoon and then turn out onto a clean, floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic and wrap in cling film. Let it rest for half an hour in the fridge.

Pumpkins. They tend to get a bit of raw deal. Even in fairytales they are used as nothing more than a mode of transport for that pesky Cinderella. Perhaps she should have walked to ball and enjoyed gallons of pumpkin soup afterwards instead. In the real world they are hacked into grotesque faces and stuffed with a candle for Halloween. I bet pumpkins dread October 31st.

Thankfully, we have over a month until pumpkin doomsday, so it’s time to stop (or at least delay) this abuse and give them the love and attention they deserve…by pulsing them into a soup, or hacking them up for pies.

This week we have two unusual varieties to tempt you – the Delica and the Violina. The Delica has a very orange flesh, which holds well during cooking, so it’s perfect for roasting. Try it with rosemary, runny honey and plenty of salt and pepper. The Violina pumpkin is sweeter with a more yellow flesh. This type is perfect for pasta fillings and even for cakes and muffins. Which brings me to this amazing recipe!

Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 12-15

125g Cooked Pumpkin (peel and remove seeds* and soft flesh then boil small pieces for 25 minutes)
225g Caster Sugar
150ml Sunflower Oil
2 Eggs
Pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Vanilla Pod
75g Chopped Walnuts
225g Self Raising Flour
150ml Soured Cream or Crème Fraîche

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, 350F or 180C. In a large bowl, mix together the flour (sifted), ginger, cinnamon, salt, vanilla (scrape out the seeds) and the bicarbonate of soda. Combine well.

Pour the oil into a separate bowl and add the soured cream, eggs and sugar. Beat well until smooth. Add the pumpkin and mix or blend. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture. Add the walnuts and stir well.

Pour into muffin tins or greased cases and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until firm and risen.

Optional: Once cooled, sprinkle the muffins with vanilla sugar or top with frosting. Enjoy!

*Don’t waste the seeds! Roast the seeds in butter, cinnamon and vanilla, turning regularly for around 30 minutes.