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Pumpkin and Ginger Soup

- Alex Prichard 2 Comments

Pumpkin & Ginger Soup

For Christmas Andy gave me a very cool book called The Flavour Thesaurus. The book goes through almost every ingredient you could imagine and covers obvious and less obvious food pairings.

I’ve read through it but haven’t had the time or opportunity to play around with some of the ideas. However, with half a butternut squash to turn into soup I turned to The Flavour Thesaurus in the hope that it would provide me with a more interesting idea than just chilli. And while I don’t think that pumpkin and ginger is exactly an out there or novel combination this was still a good way to do something I wouldn’t have normally.

Of course, it turns out I really can’t do anything without chilli, so we finished the soup with chilli oil which added a good kick and, surprisingly, the sesame oil added to the spice warmth of the dish. However, the following day (when I was eating leftovers for lunch) I added a teaspoon of sambal oelek – which was an even better idea!

As with all soups, this is ludicrously simple and quick. Serve hot, with crumpets.

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Pumpkin and Ginger Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • quarter of butternut squash (or pumpkin) ~ 300 g - peeled, seeded, diced
  • 1 large potato, peeled and diced
  • 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 500mL water
  • ½ pot of stock concentrate (vegetable or chicken)
  • (or ~ 500mL of stock)
  • chilli oil (to serve)

Instructions

  1. Heat some oil in a large saucepan and sweat down onion.
  2. When onion is soft, add pumpkin, potato and ginger, and cover with water or stock.
  3. Cook until the pumpkin and potato are soft.
  4. Blitz with stab mixer until smooth and adjust seasoning.
  5. Serve piping hot, topped with a little chilli oil if desired.
https://eatingadelaide.com/pumpkin-ginger-soup/

Beef Stew with Balsamic Vinegar and Capsicums

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Balsamic Beef Stew

Despite being ‘at home’ much of the time, I’m finding there’s less time for elaborate cooking. The amount of ‘help’ a toddler affords in the kitchen is somewhat minimal. Add to that some late finishes at work for Andy and various cooking television programs that need to be watched and it means that dinner needs to be pretty much indestructible.

Fortunately, winter is the season of ‘put on stove and forget’ and while we already have a decent stockpile of recipes it’s always good to try something new.

This beef stew recipe, from UK Delicious, fits the bill perfectly. It was almost a one pot effort and I’m sure that if you have a slow cooker you can adapt it easily. I also like it because I have this idea that you should always have at least three vegetables for dinner (not including potato) and this recipe has ALL THREE in the one pot. In fact, you could make it even healthier by adding a tin of tomatoes.

We found that the only thing that needed flavour-wise was a solid hit of salt and pepper. On the side, a big pile of creamy mash finished off the dish, but I think pasta or polenta would work just as well. Of course, you could serve some extra veggies on the side. You could add them to the pot, but I think it’s much tastier to have the different textures and ‘clean’ vegetable flavours that you get by serving them separately.

In theory this will serve six: you will need a lot of mash and sides if you are wanting to stretch it that far. A more conservative estimate is four.

Because there are very few steps in this, it is absolutely toddler proof. I had all manner of interruptions while making it and you would never have known.

Not quick, but very definitely easy!

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Beef Stew with Balsamic Vinegar and Capsicums

Ingredients

  • 500g chuck steak, diced, tossed in seasoned plain flour
  • 2 red onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 150mL red wine
  • 250g butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced
  • 1 large red capsicum (or 2 smaller ones) sliced
  • fresh thyme
  • 1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • 500mL beef stock

Instructions

  1. Heat some oil (I used canola) in a large casserole dish or pot and brown the steak. Do this in batches and set the meat aside.
  2. Add a little more oil if necessary and add the onion and garlic and cook to soften.
  3. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or so before adding the red wine. Allow this to bubble for a bit before adding the beef.
  4. Add the pumpkin, capsicum, thyme, vinegar, a good dash of Worcestershire sauce and the beef stock. Give it all a good stir and bring to a simmer.
  5. Reduce heat to low. Put the lid on and leave on the low heat for as long as you can.
  6. Prior to serving, adjust seasoning.
https://eatingadelaide.com/beef-stew-balsamic-vinegar-capsicums/

Tom Rim Prawns – With Tomato, Fish Sauce and Black pepper

- Alex Leave a comment

UntitledYet again I was too hungry to care about photography!

April has been a crazy month. Highs, lows, and flat out the whole way through. While we’ve actually done a fair bit of cooking, I’ve just not got around to writing any of it up. But, May is around the corner, and my calendar is starting to look slightly less scary, so hopefully this means it’s catch up time.

In addition to what seems like a billion recipes, there are also a few product reviews in the pipeline, so buckle your seat belts and bear with me while we try to catch up.

Let’s start with this easy prawn dish. As the mania of April subsides I find myself now enjoying a hefty head cold. I have lost my voice, but the majority of my complaints can be cured with cold and flu tablets. However, being a little poorly is always an excuse to eat as much spicy food as possible (well, it is in our house – in theory all the garlic, ginger and chilli will nuke whatever rogue bug it is).

Around Christmas time we are usually able to get hold of some snap frozen prawns, straight off the boat, at a good price. Last year, they arrived on Christmas Eve – provoking a little last minute menu stress. Andy and I are still working our way through our allocation of green prawns. We both love a good prawn curry and now the weather is cooling down, these seem to be making a very regular appearance on our meal plans.

I can’t recall the train of thought that led us to stumble upon this recipe for tom rim prawns. Quite a few tom rim recipes seem to be laced in sugar and almost all have the word “caramelised” in their English names. I’m not so hot on sugar in my savoury foods so when I found this variant, on Australian food blog The Toshes, with less emphasis on sugar and more on pepper and tomato, this was the one we rolled with.

Anyone who has any experience of what a genuine Tom Rim prawn dish looks and tastes like – please leave a comment!

This time round I got the glamour job (peeling the prawns) – complete with assistance from a curious cat. Andy actually did the cooking, and, just like me, made plenty of amendments. The finished product was served simply: on rice. There was enough sauce to go through the rice, the prawns were juicy and the whole thing was deliciously spicy.

As a bonus, it was also very quick to put together – if you forget about the 20 minutes or so peeling the prawns.

Absolutely recommended!

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Tom Rim Prawns – With Tomato, Fish Sauce and Black Pepper

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

  • vegetable oil
  • 10 green prawns, peeled and de-veined (as much as humanly possible)
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 4 tbsp fish sauce
  • chilli flakes to taste
  • approx 200 mL water
  • 1 tsp tomato paste
  • 1 fresh tomato
  • 1 spring onion, sliced
  • 3 tsp palm sugar
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • soy sauce (optional)
  • lemon juice (optional)
  • fresh coriander, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in wok and fry off garlic and chilli. Don't allow the garlic to take on much colour.
  2. Add tomato paste, sugar and prawn. Toss to coat the prawns.
  3. Then add fish sauce, black pepper, water and diced tomato.
  4. Increase the heat and cook the prawns. When the prawns are cooked, remove them from the sauce. Check the sauce for seasoning and chilli/pepper heat and adjust before reducing to the desired consistency. We opted for a splash of soy sauce and lemon juice at this point.
  5. To serve, place rice in bowls, top with prawns and sauce and finish with a garnish of fresh coriander.
https://eatingadelaide.com/tom-rim-prawns/