Pumpkin Pasta with Walnuts and Lemon

This unusual dish caught my eye because of the combination of ingredients I wouldn't have thought went together: walnuts, pumpkin, cream, sage, and citrus zest. I can perhaps imagine putting three of these things together (pumpkin, cream, and sage, maybe; or walnuts, pumpkin, and sage) but all of them at once sounded delicious.

Combinations like this characterise Yottam Ottolenghi's recipes for me. They are unexpected puzzle pieces that you suddenly know will fit together perfectly into an incredible dish.

Pumpkin and Sage Pasta

I was at the Singapore National Museum last week and I saw these watches on display. They are designed by Hanson Ho and Matteo Colella. The placard said that the watches explore "the relationship between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of time." The hour, minute, and second hands are all the same length. This "allows for both the absolute and arbitrary reading of time, catering to the needs of the various contexts and situations."

Butternut Squash with Beans and Pumpkin Seeds

"You mean you really don't eat out?" my colleague asked. We were having drinks after a work conference and I confessed I hadn't eaten at any of the restaurants he had been praising.

"I like to cook," I replied. It's true, I prefer to come home and cook rather than eat out--the vast majority of the time. This is not typical Hong Kong behaviour.

"But where do you get ideas for what to make?" he countered.

Thanksgiving Ideas

All the Americans around me are getting excited for Thanksgiving this week! Here are a few ideas for Thanksgiving dinner.

• Winter squash bread pudding (pictured above)

weekend links #10

food links:
--Beating sugar addiction (from Gwenyth Paltrow).
--"Man fights off robber with squash" (from AOL News). Veggie to the rescue!
--Why vegan cooking is actually not very scary. Actually a lot of things you already cook are vegan (from Cheap Healthy Good).
--The only food article I've read recently that mentions the Bible: about eating still live food (from The Guardian).
--Photographing ugly food (from the New York Times).
--Ideas for holiday desserts for diabetics (from The Kitchn).
--The best 25 cookbooks of 2010 to give as gifts this Christmas (from the Observer Food Monthly).

recipe links:
--Scrambled egg muffins (from Eat. Drink. Smile.). Make a batch on the weekend and keep them in the fridge for weekday breakfasts. Clever idea.
--Nova Scotian carrot bread is on my to-bake list (from Suzie the Foodie).

off-topic links:
--A website that makes sticky notes for your blog. Snazzy (if a bit kitsch)!
--I found a Hong Kong organic vegetable box program, from local farms! Wow, now I just need to do the comparison shopping.

Easy (and Quick) Chicken Dhansak

Ever noticed how a lot of stew or curry recipes finish with the instruction "simmer for 30/60/90 minutes"? On a busy weeknight, I just don't seem to have time for a long cooking stew recipe. But I've discovered there are two easy ways to speed up a recipe such as this chicken dhansak, a tasty Persian curry.

There are two reasons to simmer at the end of the recipe. One is to thoroughly cook the meat or other ingredients, so that it finishes meltingly tender. This is the case for a lamb stew or beef bourguignon. The second reason is to meld the flavours together as, for example, with chilli con carne. With chicken dhansak, both of these reasons come into play. Although the chicken cooks quickly, the lentils and winter squash need a long simmer to be cooked. And the flavours need to mix and deepen over time.

weekend links #8

food links:
--A new food blog to follow: Adventures in Local Food, by the Food Action Committee in Halifax, my home town. It's really just two lovely food lovers sharing ideas... check it out! Learn more about canning or read the recipe for Chocolate Sauerkraut Cupcakes--really!

recipe links:
--Now that is a clever ideas! Homemade "hot pockets" like we used to eat as teenagers (from The Vegetarian Family Table).
--I must try frozen banana yogurt. I keep seeing it everywhere. (This time it's on Sarah Wilson.)
--Pumpkin granola (from Two Peas and Their Pod). There are times when you find yourself with way too much cooked butternut squash. This is for that time.

off-topic links:
--Making your own facial scrubs from kitchen ingredients (from The Kitchn).

winter squash bread pudding

"I've become a tad obsessive about collecting winter squash recipes, believing secretly that our family could live on them indefinitely if the world as we know it should end. My favourite so far is white beans with thyme served in a baked hubbard-squash half.... With stuff like this around, who needs iceberg lettuce?"
--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

How true it is. Winter squashes are hardy, tasty, versatile vegetables. (Iceberg lettuce, on the other hand, is a miserable excuse for a vegetable. I have never posted a single recipe for it.) Winter squash makes wonderful smooth, blended soup, risotto, or even scones. Or this delicious bread pudding.

butternut squash and parsnip soup

I have been spending lots of time with Pari lately. I have been convincing her to cook more of her own food and she has been convincing me to exercise with her. It's a lovely symbiotic relationship. When she was over recently we cooked this soup since it was so easy and fast. And the time it saved us gave us lots of time to read our fitness magazines. Did we do any exercise? Maybe, if you count flicking pages and going back for seconds. At least the soup was healthy and delicious.

Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup
serves 4

2 parsnips (400 g), peeled and chopped
1 butternut squash (400 g), peeled and chopped
a thumb-size piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
500 ml vegetable stock
1/2 c cream or milk (or more, if you like)
pinch of mixed spice or nutmeg

Put the squash, parsnip, ginger, and stock in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.
Puree using an immersion blender (or by transferring to a blender in batches).
Add the cream or milk, stir, and serve, garnished with spice or nutmeg.

butternut squash and celery risotto

I have made risotto often in the past. It's a beautiful, comforting supper. A few months ago I quoted Nigel Slater talking about how calming it is to cook a risotto, stirring while it bubbles away on the stove.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf. Making the chicken stock was part of the challenge as well, which I think is the perfect thing to have going in the slow cooker on the weekend.

Butternut Squash and Celery Risotto
serves 2

2 T olive oil
2 stalks (about 100 g) celery, finely chopped
1 c (100 g) arborio rice
2 T white wine
500 ml to 750 ml chicken (or vegetable) stock, hot
1 1/2 c (100 g) grated butternut squash
1/3 c (50 g) grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large pan and then gently saute the celery until tender, about 8 minutes.
Add the rice and stir to coat all the grains.
Add the wine and stir until it is nearly absorbed.
Have the stock in a pot, keeping hot. Add a couple of ladles of stock to the risotto and stir from time to time. When the stock is nearly absorbed, add another couple of ladles.
Continue to add hot stock, stirring. After about three additions, add the grated squash.
Continue adding stock a couple of ladlefuls at a time. Taste the rice occasionally. Aim for the rice to be soft on the outside and have a slight bite on the inside.
Add the parmesan cheese and stir. Season well with sea salt and pepper. Then remove the risotto from the heat and cover. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

I learned two valuable things about risotto by using the Daring Cooks recipe. First, risotto can take less stirring than I am used to. In the past, the recipes I have used said, "stirring constantly," which I now see is not really necessary. This really takes the pressure off and turns risotto-making into the relaxing task Nigel described.

Secondly, risotto is a delicious base which can take any number of flavours. It's a great way to eat any number of vegetables. In this risotto I used one of my favourite "sneaking veg in" tricks: grating it makes it seem like a garnish, when actually there is a fair amount of veg there.

squash scones

Scones (or tea biscuits as we Canadians call them) are a perfect partner for soup, stew or chilli. Earlier this week it seemed like it was time for making leek and potato soup; it's such a reassuring, warm bowl of food for the windy, dark nights we have been having recently. And I had been reading The Urban Spork, a new-to-me food blog, when this recipe for sweet potato biscuits caught my imagination.


I had some leftover boiled squash cubes from dinner the night before. While the soup was bubbling away I pureed the squash with a fork. Like all good tea biscuits, there are not very many ingredients or steps. Just mix them up, cut them out, and into the oven they go. When I make biscuits and no one is watching (or I am not taking photos) I don't even bother with cutting out circles. I just press the dough onto the baking sheet and score it into rectangles with a knife. When they are cooked we just break them apart into scones. At the end of this meal, however, Ant declared that he liked them circular and that's how he would expect his scones from now on!

Squash Scones
makes 20 scones
adapted from The Urban Spork

1 c plain flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
6 T (85 g) butter, cut into small cubes + 1 T melted butter
3/4 c cooked squash, cooled and pureed
1/3 c milk
1 t lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 425 F/215 C.
Whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
Add the butter with two knives (or a pastry cutter) until crumbly.
In a small bowl, mix the squash puree, milk, and lemon juice.
Stir the squash mixture into the dry ingredients.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently just until a dough forms. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles. Reuse the scraps to make as many circles as possible.
Lay scones on a baking tray and brush the tops with melted butter.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Serve warm with butter.

a new meat!

Well, almost new. Ant's Nan sent him a box full of beef for his birthday this summer. (Beef! I ask you.) It was delivered by courier straight from the Scottish highlands. It's from the same beef farm that provides beef to the Queen's household. Tonight we ate our first two steaks--one sirloin steak and one fillet steak. I am not a big beef fan and I have been scared about cooking it since it arrived. But Ant says the reason I always make nasty beef is because I do not start with a good enough cut of meat. Well, these are the best pieces of beef I have ever laid eyes on.


We cooked baby potatoes and roasted parsnips, carrots, onions, and squash to go with the steaks. We deglazed the pan with some mushrooms and let the beef rest before plating up.


It was delicious. Even I, who don't really like beef, must admit that is was amazing.

But I also must add that the roasted vegetables were the best part of the meal.