Day 28 of 31 days of pumpkin and I am craving salad, people! So maybe you’ll call it a cheat, but I’m eating a salad with pumpkin seeds in it and calling it fair game. And what a delicious salad it is. I found it in this wonderful little book, Halloween Treats: recipes and crafts for the whole family, by Donata Maggipinto. Published in 1998, it’s currently out of print, but is available from Amazon sellers:
The cumin-scented vinaigrette lends an air of mystery to this salad. The flavors of autumn come together beautifully. Frankly, I’m just glad to be eating something green.
Oh, and a word about roasting pumpkin seeds. I did a post earlier this month where I roasted the seeds with a rich, spicy coating, but for the salad, I just tossed them with olive oil and a lot of salt and roasted them on a baking sheet for about 45 minutes, turning them every 15 minutes. These pumpkin seeds had sat out on the counter drying for about two days, which I think enhanced the flavor in the end.
Autum Salad with Tangerines, Avocado and Pumpkin Seeds Serves 6
Ingredients
For the dressing
2-3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp ground cumin
salt to taste
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
ground pepper to taste
2 medium heads red leaf lettuce, leaves separated, carefully rinsed, and dried
2 tangerines, peeled and sectioned
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
6 Tbsp roasted pumpkin seeds
Method
1. In the bottom of a large salad bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard, cumin, and salt and whisk to dissolve the salt. Add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking as you do so. Season with pepper.
2. Put the lettuce, tangerines, onion, avocado, and pumpkin seeds on top of the dressing in the bowl. If you are not serving the salad immediately, cover it with a damp kitchen towel and refrigerate until ready to serve. If you are serving the salad immediately, toss the greens lightly with the vinaigrette and serve.
Day 27 of 31 days of pumpkin and I have to say this recipe is a real highlight. How could it not be? I’ve taken a layman’s stab at a recipe in Claire Clark’s stunning book, Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts.
Who is Claire Clark, you ask? Why, she is simply one of the world’s greatest pastry chefs. Back in London after spending 4 years as head pastry chef of The French Laundry in Yountville, CA, she’s currently working on a project of her own which is set to open in the Spring 2010. Indulge is an amazing book, as is the French Laundry Cookbook itself.
The granola on top of the custard is literally one of the best tasting things I’ve ever put in my mouth and I’ve eaten at The French Laundry. Twice. That I can make this at home anytime I want is a true revelation. Now I’m thinking I should do a mega marathon, like cook through her entire book of 100 recipes in a year or something. Oh wait. That’s been done already.
Spice Pumpkin Custard w/ Orange Infused Granola
I read in the French Laundry Cookbook that Thomas Keller dictates that a liquid in his kitchen should never pass from one pot to another without first passing through a sieve. Claire Clark’s recipe reminded me of that today and the pumpkin custard passes through a sieve TWICE. I love it. It really makes a difference and is something I want to do more in my everyday cooking life.
Spice Pumpkin Custard w/ Orange Infused Granola
Spice Pumpkin Custard with Orange-Infused Granola Serves 6
This is my simplified version of Claire Clark’s recipe. She of course, uses real pumpkin in her version and has you boil it in milk and use some of the reserved milk. Yum. She also reports all of her measurements by weight. I’ve converted many of them here to volume measurements for ease of use, in case you don’t have a kitchen scale (I do and I was so happy to have it today). If you want the real Claire Clark recipe, you’ll have to buy the book.
Ingredients for the Custard
1/2 cup milk
13 oz canned puréed pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 medium eggs
2 1/4 oz caster sugar
1 1/4 oz dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Ingredients for the granola
1/2 cup demerara sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 oz dessicated coconut
3 oz pecan nuts, roughly chopped
3 oz slivered almonds
4.5 oz large rolled oats
2 Tbsp canola oil
grated zest of 2 oranges
Method for the Granola
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Put the sugar in a large pan with the honey, maple syrup, butter, and vanilla extract and bring slowly to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. I started out on very low heat, and as everything melted and dissolved, I increased it to medium-low heat.
2. Remove from the heat and add the coconut, pecan nuts, almonds and the oats. Mix well, and then quickly stir in the canola oil and orange zest. Work fast because the sugar starts to harden pretty quickly.
3. Turn out onto a rimmed baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or covered with a nonstick baking mat) and spread out evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown, turning frequently to ensure even coloring. Remove from the oven and, as the granola cools, break it up into pieces. After it cools, store the granola in an airtight container.
Method for the Custard
1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F and bring water to boil in a teakettle. In a large saucepan, whisk together the cream, eggs, and milk. Warm it up over very low heat. While it is warming, add the pumpkin purée by passing the canned pumpkin through a sieve on its way into the mixture. Then add the caster sugar, brown sugar, all of the spices and mix well. Stir over very low heat until sugars are dissolved. You’re only heating it to help the sugars dissolve. Remove from heat and whisk in the melted butter. Pass the mixture through a sieve again.
2. Divide evenly among 6 ramekins and lay them in a roasting pan. Place the roasting pan in the oven and then pour near boiling water into the pan until it reaches about 1/2 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set. The tops should spring back when you press lightly on them. Remove the dishes from the roasting pan and let cool, then transfer them to the refrigerator where they should chill completely. Serve with the granola sprinkled on top.
Day 26 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to one of my all-time-favorite desserts: pound cake. I love old recipes. This one is so simple. A pound of each: butter, sugar, flour, eggs. The rest is embellishment. And for me, I can’t enjoy a piece of pound cake without a cup of tea to go with it. I don’t know why exactly. It just completes the tableau somehow.
In my pumpkin version (which is a half-pound cake actually), I simply added 1/2 cup of pumpkin purée and upped the flour content by 1/4 cup. The pumpkin spiced flavor is subtle, but definitely there. I am glad it still tastes like pound cake. I worried it might somehow come out tasting like Pumpkin Bread, but not-to-worry. This pound cake recipe has four times as much butter and more than three times as many eggs as my Pumpkin Bread Recipe. It’s bound to be its own thing.
Pumpkin Pound Cake
Pumpkin Pound Cake Yields 1 loaf
Ingredients
1/2 lb butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/2 cup canned puréed pumpkin
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and spray a 9 x 5 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. With an electric or stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and continue mixing until fluffy. Now add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating each of them in completely. Add in the pumpkin and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.
4. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add in the dry ingredients in three batches, mixing by hand to incorporate each addition completely.
5. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks appear. Fold the egg whites gently, but thoroughly into the batter. Transfer batter to the prepared baking pan and bake for about 1 1/4 hours. Let it cool completely before you slice it.
Day 25 of 31 days of pumpkin and we return to the fondue concept and get it right, with a little help from Ruth Reichl, God Bless her. She was interviewed by Terry Gross for Fresh Air on NPR on October 14, 2009. I was deep into this pumpkin project and in the kitchen, in fact, when I heard Ruth Reichl start to describe this mouth-watering concoction. I immediately added it to the cue and now the day has finally come when I get to taste it and share my version of her recipe with you.
If you want to hear the exact moment that Ruth describes this dish in her interview, advance to 9:13 when you click on the NPR audio link.
Day 24 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to a fun, easy video recipe provided by the Karo Company, the corn syrup makers. The clever trick here is baking the cheesecakes in muffin tins lined with paper and lined with gingersnap cookies. Mini-crusts for mini cheesecakes. Genius.
I feel guilty using corn syrup since I read Michael Pollan’s books, but I wasn’t sure how to substitute my way out of it here. If you have an idea, please share it in the comments section. In the end, I figured one recipe a year can’t be all that bad. Right?
Day 23 of 31 days of pumpkin and let me tell you, there are a lot of pumpkin bread recipes out there. This one is the best. I’m not lyin’. The difference between this one and some of the other good ones? It’s made with 100% real butter baby. Not canola oil, not vegetable oil. Butter. Melted. It’s got all the sugar and twice the fat, but if you’re going to eat a piece of Pumpkin Bread, why do it any other way?
Since this recipe yields two loaves, I decided to throw 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into one of them. Love it. Until I tasted this Pumpkin Bread, I thought Starbucks® really had something. They got nothin’.
Day 22 of 31 days of pumpkin and I am really moving out of my comfort zone now. I’ve never made gnocchi before, or any fresh pasta for that matter, but I was inspired by a beautiful cookbook I have, A16 Food + Wine, the cookbook for the restaurant A16 in the Marina district of San Francisco. It’s called A16 after the highway in Italy between Naples and Canosa. The book is a beautifully designed and photographed tome that I am just getting into, but when I spotted a recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi, I thought, “I could put pumpkin in that,” and that’s what I did. And it worked.
Choosing the sauce to go with pumpkin gnocchi was a no-brainer: it has to be a sage cream sauce. Pumpkin and sage, they’re like Abbot and Costello, Brad and Angelina, Click and Clack (you know, the Tappit brothers).
Day 21 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to the venerable cutout cookie. These are so much fun to make with your kids. It’s like PlayDo you can really eat. These cookies are not overly sweet, which leaves room for you to utterly coat them with sugar, whether it be with India Tree Sparkling sugar, like I did, or a decadent icing. I just discovered that Amazon.com carries a full line of India Tree Sparkling Sugar, so I’m planning to stock up now for all of the cookie baking that’s going to happen in early December.
The most important thing to keep in mind when trying to roll out and cut out the cookies, is that the dough has to be really cold. In a very short time, the dough warms up and becomes sticky and gooey. It’s impossible to work with when it gets like that, so just wrap it back up in plastic and put it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Day 20 of 31 days of pumpkin and I’m heading into new territory again. I’m really not a bread baker, but I wanted to do a recipe with yeast before the month was over so I hunted around and cherry picked different parts from several existing recipes to make my perfect Pumpkin Yeast Rolls. The result is a slightly sweet, light and airy roll with definite pumpkin flavor. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me now that I can confidently add bread baking to my repertoire. I know I’m late to the bread making party, but better late than never.
Day 19 of 31 days of pumpkin and it’s time for more cheese. This time, let’s just have it straight up, shall we?
I’ll be honest. I had never made fondue before and this time was not exactly a 5 star success. But if you avoid my mistakes, yours will come out perfectly. The flavor of this fondue was great, but the consistency was not quite creamy enough. Can you tell in the photo? So, I’m going to spend time in this post explaining what can go wrong when making a fondue and how to avoid it.
Are you with me?
My tagline is “We risk disaster, so you don’t have to,” for a reason.
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and that recipe is reprinted on the 
