Baked Rice with Pumpkin and Feta

This light and colorful rice dish is a perfect recipe for this pumpkin season. It comes from the Mediterranean cuisine. I found it in one of the Italian magazines which I brought from Italy. The dish is quite similar to risotto and calls for the risotto type of rice, preferably Carnaroli or Arborio. It is started as risotto, but because it is then baked in the oven, it does not require constant stirring. It is made with Feta cheese instead of Parmesan and finished with two garnishes—fried sage leaves and pine nuts. Sage adds extra flavor and aroma to the delicate taste of rice, pine nuts bring in some crunchiness to a smooth texture of the dish, so it is worth adding both to obtain that full and rich taste at the end.



Baked Rice with Pumpkin and Feta

Ingredients:
1 cup risotto rice (if available Carnaroli),
1 lb peeled and cut into small cubes pumpkin,
1 medium onion, chopped,
1/2 cup white wine,
2 and 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock,
1/2 cup Feta,
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (optional),
2 tbsp roasted pine nuts,
3/4 cup milk,
salt,
2 tbsp butter,
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,
12–16 sage leaves.

Preparation:
1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot. Add pumpkin cubes and fry for about 2–3 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.


2. Preheat oven to 325 F.
3. In the same frying pan heat another 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add onion and fry until transparent. Add rice and toast together for 1–2 minutes. Pour in wine, and let simmer until wine evaporates.
4. Add pumpkin and stock to rice, season with salt and bring to boil.
5. Transfer rice to a large baking dish and bake for 20–25 minutes.
6. In a medium bowl crumble Feta and mix with roasted pine nuts and hot pepper flakes if used.



7. In a small pot bring to boil 2 tbsp butter. Add washed and dried sage leaves and fry for 2 minutes.
8. Remove rice from the oven. Pour in milk and gently mix and bake for another 10–15 minutes.
9. Once again remove rice from oven and spread Feta crumbles on top. Bake for 5 minutes until Feta melts.
10. Remove rice from the oven, finish with melted butter and sage leaves and serve.

Savory Pumpkin and Feta Pie

Nothing makes me realize more vividly that another year has just past by than the mountains of orange pumpkins piling up in my local food stores. And each year I look for another recipe to use as much as possible of that giant Halloween pumpkin.

Unlike most other fruits and vegetables, which these days always grow at some point somewhere else, in a different climate zone, pumpkins are very seasonal. They appear in September and October and usually after Halloween it is hard to find them anymore. So, this pumpkin season, I would like to try two new pumpkin recipes.

The first idea, for a pumpkin and feta pie, comes from the Greek culinary tradition. It is similar to a classic spanakopita with the pumpkin filling replacing the spinach. However, in all the Greek recipes I found, dry mint was also added to the pumpkin-feta filling and, when I tried it for the first time, the taste of the mint was too dominant and overshadowed the delicate taste of the pumpkin, which is what I was hoping would give this pie its special character. So, when I was making it for the second time, I replaced the mint with a dash of dried thyme and I think this worked much better. But I also think that just a plain pumpkin-feta filling would work as well.



Savory Pumpkin and Feta Pie

Ingredients:
(For a 9-inch baking dish>
8-10 sheets filo dough,
2 lb peeled and grated pumpkin,
1 medium leek, washed well, sliced (or one large onion chopped),
3 medium eggs,
1 cup crumbled feta cheese,
1 cup milk,
1 tsp dried thyme,
1/3 cup olive oil,
ground pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and fry leeks until transparent. Set them aside.
3. On the same pan heat another 2 tbsp of oil and add grated pumpkin. Fry it for about 5 minutes until it softens.



4. Add leeks to the pan with the pumpkin filling, mix them in, and simmer for another 3 minutes.
5. Pour milk into a large bowl. Add eggs and beat together. Add crumbled Feta, pepper, and thyme (if used). Mix all the ingredients. Add fried pumpkin to the bowl and gently mix everything together.
6. Grease the baking dish with oil and spread the first filo sheet, so that its edges hang out over the dish. Brush in some olive oil on it and put another layer. Follow the same procedure with the remaining sheets.
7. Spread the pumpkin filling on top of the filo. Fold the overhanging pieces of the pastry in and brush them with olive oil.



8. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the filling is set and the filo becomes gold.

Pumpkin Pancakes--Savory or Sweet

Again, as always this season, I am left with a gigantic pumpkin from my porch that I have no heart to keep just for decoration and throw away after the first frost. So yesterday, to use this wonderful vegetable, I made pumpkin risotto for dinner. It was delicious but this dish just took care of two slices of my pumpkin.

Today, I decided to make another pumpkin dish--pumpkin pancakes. I used my old Italian recipe for the zucchini pancakes, which I slightly changed, and the result came our very interesting. I threw to the batter a little bit of chopped rosemary, which is often paired with the pumpkin and adds extra flavor to its generally mildly sweet taste. I also seasoned the dough with salt and a bit of pepper.

But even then the pancakes were still so delicate that they could be served in a sweet version. So the first batch of them I served with a spicy yogurt sauce and the second batch I dusted with icing sugar and turned them into a wonderful sweet evening snack. Whatever version you prefer it is a very easy and nice dish to try and a great idea on how to utilize these huge fall pumpkins.



Pumpkin Pancakes
(Makes about 16 pancakes)

2 cups of pumpkins, peeled off and grated on a large-hole grater,
2 eggs,
1 cup self-rising flour,
1/4 cup whole milk,
a tsp of salt,
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves,
1/2 cup Greek yogurt,
1 tsp red chili pepper,
vegetable oil for frying,
icing sugar (optional).

Preparation:
1. Place eggs and milk in a medium bowl. Beat them together. Add flour and mix until smooth.
2. Add grated pumpkin and rosemary to the egg batter. Season with salt and mix.



3. Heat 2 tbsp of oil on a large, heavy duty frying pan. Pour a large tablespoon of the pumpkin batter in the oil (about 6 per batch) and fry on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side, until dark gold. Repeat with the rest of the batter.



5. To make sauce, place yogurt in a small bowl. Season with salt and mix with the chili flakes.
6. Serve the pancakes accompanied by the yogurt sauce or dusted with icing sugar.

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

Those who, like me, still have a Halloween pumpkin sitting on the front porch or keep its leftovers in a refrigerator, will find today another idea on how to use it: another soup.

There are many pumpkin soup versions and everyone has one's favorite. I like this one for two reasons-- it is easy and not sweet. I am not a big fan of pumpkin in a sweet version. The more spicy the pumpkin is the more I like it.

This particular soup however is rather delicate and only garlic and a little bit of nutmeg add the necessary yet not an overwhelming spiciness to its taste. Easy to make, this soup is a nice and warming fall dish.

Cream of Pumpkin Soup
(Serves eight)

Ingredients:
4 cups peeled and seeded pumpkin, cut into small cubes,
2 medium potatoes, peeled off and cut into small pieces,
one medium onion, chopped,
4 cups vegetable broth (or water),
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg,
1/2 tbsp cream,
2 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper to taste,
2 tbsp chopped parsley leaves,

Preparation:
1. Heat the oil in a large pot. Add onion and fry until transparent. Add potatoes and pumpkin. Cook them in oil for about 2 minutes stirring until the vegetables are coated with oil.

2. Add vegetable stock or water and cook for about 20 minutes, until vegetables are soft.
3. Puree the soup with an electric hand blender. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and garlic. Pour in cream and bring the soup to boil. Let it simmer for about a minute. Turn off the heat. Let it stand for another 5 minutes and serve hot, garnished with chopped parsley.

Sage Fried in Butter--To Top Fall Dishes

Even though I try to make my recipes as simple as possible and easy for everyone, I feel rather uncomfortable sharing such an obvious idea as my today's post. But it is worth talking about, as long as there is at least one person who has never tried fried sage leaves. They are absolutely lovely and worth trying especially if you happened to grow sage or have some spare sage leaves.

Sage is my favorite fall herb. I grow three large bushes of it in my garden and use for many seasonal recipes. When fresh, it is very aromatic and I like it just chopped, for instance added to meat sauces. Fried sage is crispy and still very fragrant and could provide a very intriguing finishing to many dishes. I particularly like it with all the pumpkin family vegetables, as a topping on some other vegetables, such as carrot or puréed potatoes, and of course on pasta and many Italian family noodles, like gnocchi. Try, experiment, and you cannot go wrong. If you ever wonder what to do with sage this may be the answer.

Sage Fried in Butter

Ingredients:
one stick of good quality, high fat content, butter (about 115 g),
a bunch of fresh sage, about 20-30 leaves,

Preparation:
1. Place butter in a small non stick pot. Heat it until it bubbles and turns slightly gold.
2. Add sage leaves to the hot butter and fry them turning them with a wooden fork, until they curl and become kind of dried and light brown in color.

3. Drain the fried leaves on a colander.

Pumpkin and Lentil Tajine

Ever since I had this blog, I have been trying various ideas to turn the Halloween pumpkin into something tasty. I already have some good recipes that I like, but I have recently found a few new ones and I have been anxious to try them. One intrigued me so much that I bought an extra pumpkin last week to try this dish before the pumpkin sitting on my porch will be available for cooking.

This recipe, as you can tell from the title of this post, comes from the Moroccan cuisine. And I must say that preparing pumpkin with oriental spices is my favorite way to turn this rather sweet and bland vegetable into a dish that is zesty, flavorous, and even spicy.

Moroccan cuisine, and particularly tajines, are my latest culinary fascination. They can make a wonderful and rich one-dish meal. Since my daily home cuisine is most often vegetarian, especially the vegetable tajines sounded very appealing to me. Moreover, unlike the meat tajines, they do not require very long cooking.

Tajine is traditionally made in a special, conic-shaped ceramic pot with a lid, which is designed for slow cooking. But if you do not have a tajine pot, this dish could be made in a regular non-stick heavy duty pot. It can be made entirely on the stove, or fried first and then finished in an oven at low temperature until soft.

Pumpkin and Lentil Tajine
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 lb of pumpkin (already peeled off and cut into cubes),
1/2 cup green lentils,
4 cups vegetable broth,
1/2 cup olive oil,
1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced,
4 garlic cloves, chopped,
2 tsp paprika,
1 tsp turmeric,
1 tsp ground cumin,
1/4 tsp black pepper,
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper,
1/2 tsp salt,
2 tomatoes, cut into large cubes,
3 tbsp tomato paste,
1/4 cup raisins,
3 tbsp chopped flat leave parsley,
2 tbsp chopped cilantro.

Preparation:
1. Wash lentils and place them in a medium pot. Cover with broth and cook until lentil is tender but not soft. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy duty pan. Add onion, garlic and spices. Fry for about 2 minutes, until everything is mixed well and fragrant.
3. Add pumpkin cubes to the pot, mix well with spices, and cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and lentils together with the broth. Mix all the ingredients gently.

5. Scatter raisins on the top of the vegetables and reduce the heat to low.

6. Cook for about 20 minutes until pumpkin and lentils become soft. If you use a tajine pot, or any other oven-friendly pot, you can transfer it at this point to an oven and finish it there.
7. Sprinkle with parsley and cilantro on top and serve.

Marinated Pumpkin--Sweet and Sour Halloween Leftovers

I am sure that these days many, like me, ended up with at least one huge pumpkin sitting on the porch. And I have no doubt that those living in America probably have some family recipes for it. Well, ever since I moved to the US I have been intensively adapting pumpkins and everything from its family to my culinary repertoire. I think I am getting pretty good at that, considering that in Europe I have never been a pumpkin lover.

Around this time pumpkins are present in all farmers' markets and ordinary grocery stores. They are so beautifully shiny and orange that it is impossible to avoid them. So each year, I warm up to them more and more and try a new pumpkin recipe. Last month I posted a pumpkin dish coming from Afghanistan. Today, I would like to share another one, this time a very Polish recipe.

Pumpkins have always been cultivated in Poland. In my home I heard only about two pumpkin dishes: milk-pumpkin soup, that has never sounded appealing to me, and marinated pumpkin that my grandmother and my mother prepared for winter. That version of pumpkin I have always loved and I have not seen in any other cuisine.

In Poland, almost any fruit or vegetable used to be marinated for winter consumption, when fresh produce was very limited. One of them was a marinated pumpkin. I think that condiment could be very successful in the US, especially to accompany a Thanksgiving turkey. Traditionally, we served it with roasted meats and potatoes, most often roasted hams, pork loins, and poultry. So if you have never tried marinated sweet and sour pumpkin, here is the idea how to make a good of use of at least a part of that Halloween leftover sitting on your porch.

Marinated Pumpkin
(For a 750g or 24oz jar)

Ingredients:
1 lb of pumpkin, cut into small cubes,
1 cup, 5 percent acidity white vinegar,
1 cup sugar,
1/2 cup water,
6 cloves,
6 grains all spice,
2 bay leaves,

Preparation:
1. In a medium pot boil water with 2 tbsp of salt. Add pumpkin and boil for 2-5 minutes. The exact time will depend on how ripe or hard your pumpkin is and you need to check it with a fork every few minutes. Pumpkin should be cooked, but still pretty hard. Drain it on a colander.
2. To make a marinade put all the ingredients in a medium-sized pot and bring it to boil. Let it boil for about 3 minutes.
3. Transfer pumpkin pieces to a preserve jar, pour the marinade in, close the jar, and set it aside. Pumpkin is good already on a next day but if the jar is tightly closed, it can be kept for months.

Serve with all roasted meats and cold cuts.

Spicy Afghan Pumpkin--First in the Season

My Afghan friend brought me this dish a couple of years ago, when our kids were still riding horses together. She often spoiled me with her national dishes bringing me on Friday afternoons some samples of what she was preparing for dinner. It happened to be during the Ramadan and this one was of the many dishes she prepared for the evening meal that day.

Until I met her, kebabs was all I knew from the Afghan cuisine. When I started to meet her regularly, I tried a new Afghan dish almost every Friday. These were often simple, vegetable dishes but I was always surprised how good they were. They were less spicy than Indian dishes but they always had a very strong aroma, which made me feel hungry long before dinner time. From those times I added many Afghan dishes to my diet. And even my fastidious younger son likes some of them, particularly if they are accompanied by a big amount of yogurt sauce and a fresh flat bread.

Yesterday I got my first pumpkin this season. Not too big and not for decoration only. First of all of course I took many pictures of it. Later on I used a half of it to make my family's favorite pumpkin risotto. And I used the other half to try this Afghan pumpkin recipe. I made a whole large dish and it was more than enough for a dinner. It was spicy but not hot. It also had a sweet and sour taste underneath, as it is served with the yogurt sauce, whose sourness compliments the sweetness of the pumpkin.

Spicy Afghan Pumpkin

Ingredients:
About 4 lb (2 kilograms) of pumpkin,
1 large onion, finely chopped,
4-6 garlic cloves,
about an inch (two and half centimeters) of fresh ginger, peeled off and grated,
1 tsp turmeric,
1 tbsp ground coriander,
2 tbsp sugar,
olive oil for frying,
salt, pepper,
a pinch of chili pepper,
1 cup of European or Greek Yogurt,
1 garlic.

Preparation:
1. Cut the pumpkin into thick slices, peel it off, and remove seeds. Cut pumpkin into smaller squares.

2. In a large frying pan heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add about a half of pumpkin pieces and fry on both sides until they turn brown. Transfer to an oven proof dish. Follow with the other half, adding more oil.

3 Preheat oven to 400F.
4. On the same frying pan that you used to fry the pumpkin, heat extra 2-3 tbsp of oil. Add chopped onion, ginger, and garlic, and fry until onion becomes transparent. Then add turmeric, coriander, salt, and pepper, and cook for another 1-2 minutes. When spices are cooked, add about a cup of water to make the sauce.
5. Sprinkle the top of the pumpkin with sugar and chili and pour the sauce over. Cover and bake the pumpkin for about 30-40 minutes, until it becomes soft (check it with a fork). At that point, remove the cover and let water evaporate to make the sauce thicker.

Serve warm with the yogurt sauce on top and Middle Eastern breads.

Pumpkin Risotto--Halloween Leftovers

Now, when the kids' excitement is gone, we are left with pounds of candy and pumpkins still sitting on the porch. This is the once-a-year occasion when I have a pumpkin at home and can experiment with it. I have already exceeded my own expectations and posted two recipes from the pumpkin family--Squash Gnocchi and Curried Pumpkin Soup also made from Butternut Squash, which could be enough tribute to the most popular ingredient in the American cuisine, but I still have that orange, scary face looking at me from the porch. And the more I look at it the more tempted I am to cook my first truly pumpkin dish--Pumpkin Risotto. I completely forgot about it, when writing the post about my pumpkin shyness. But then, I found this recipe when I browsed in my old recipes notebook.

Years ago, I had a wonderful and delicious pumpkin dish--it was a pumpkin risotto, made by Alessandra, an Italian friend who now lives in Paris. Not only it was the best pumpkin dish I have ever eaten, but also one of the best risottos I have ever had. It was a cold and rainy February day in Paris and with a bunch of friends but we were lucky to be invited to her place for dinner. We were all tired, cold, and hungry and this smooth and warm dish with a glass of a good red wine was the best that we could have dreamed off that night. Later I obtained from her that recipe but, until now, never tried to make it myself.

Risotto like pasta can be made almost with anything. The basic preparation steps are are more or less the same, and just the additional ingredients and the finishing make a difference. I will stick to Alessandra's recipe though as the Italian family recipe is the best reference.

Pumpkin Risotto
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Arborio rice,
2 cups grated pumpkin,
4-6 cups vegetable or chicken stock,
2/3 cup white dry wine,
6-8 shallots or 1 large onion,
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and extra for finishing,
2 tbsp oil,
4 tbsp butter,
2 tbsp chopped parsley,
2 tbsp crème fraîche or sour cream,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Heat the vegetable stock in a pot and keep it hot while preparing risotto.
2. In a frying pan melt butter and oil. Add chopped onion and cook for about 3 minutes until soft and transparent.
3. Peel the pumpkin, grate it at a grater with large holes, add it to the fried onion, and cook together for about 5 minutes.
4. Add rice, stir it together, and cook until the rice becomes almost toasted.
5. Pour in wine and cook until it is absorbed.
6. Add the first cup of the hot stock to rice and cook until the rice becomes dry.
7. Repeat by adding the stock cup by cup, waiting until each portion gets absorbed. After you use 4 cups of liquid try if the rice is soft, but still al dente. If you still feel that the grains of rice are hard inside add another one or two cups of stock and cook for a little longer. The whole process should take 30-40 minutes.
8. When the risotto has the desirable softness turn off the heat. Add Parmesan and crème fraîche, stir, cover the pot, and let it stand aside for 5 minutes.
9. Serve with freshly shredded Parmesan and pepper on top.

I happen to have in my refrigerator some truffle butter brought from France--you can buy it at the Paris airport. I put a teaspoon of it on each portion, which made this simple risotto more festive and sophisticated.

Squash Gnocchi with Fried Sage--Halloween is Coming!

I am getting more and more nervous every day seeing pumpkins popping up everywhere.

When I came to America, almost from the first day, I met new qualities of life, which I embraced right away and forever--almost 300 sunny days a year in DC, smiling people (even though many Europeans may consider that superficial), 24 hour grocery stores and store return policy, the inclusive school system, and the great international diversity within the local community, just to name a few. But there is one aspect of living here that I have never really accepted--the American cuisine with its two main ingredients--the turkey and the pumpkin.

I know that as my son is getting excited about Halloween and pumpkin carving, he will eventually ask if I shared any pumpkin recipes on my blog, which I have not. I have tried a home-made pumpkin pie years ago just to discover that it was not my kind of dessert. Too bland. It could be a comfort food, but only for those who grew up here, I suppose. Back home, we ate pumpkins preserved in vinegar, as meat accompaniment, or in a sweet soup with milk and noodles, which I never liked either.

But I don't want to get in trouble with my American kids and the majority of my readers. Once in a while I try to make something new with pumpkins or their family members, hoping to be able to acquire some of the local taste. In this vein, last July, I made squash gnocchi.

I bought two squashes--acorn and butternut. At that time they were not local for sure. I used them to make the gnocchi and topped them with fried sage from my garden. They turned out to be a great hit. The sweetness of the squash was not overwhelmingly dominant and the crispy and aromatic sage helped to bring out the nuttiness of the squash. Since my family loves pasta and dumplings of any kind, this dish had a great chance to match our taste to begin with, but the result exceeded my expectation as the gnocchi disappeared in the blink of an eye.

We will certainly make them again this fall and again we will not have enough of them, especially that beautiful locally grown acorn and butternut squashes can now be found everywhere.

Squash Gnocchi with Fried Sage
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 Acorn and 1 Butternut Squash about 1 pound altogether,
1 1/2 cup flour,
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese plus extra for garnish,
20 leaves of sage,
1 stick (about 100g) of butter,
salt and freshly ground pepper.

Preparation:

Sage fried in butter
1. Cut sage leaves into strips,
2. Melt butter in a small pan and add sage leaves.
3. Fry the sage until it becomes darker and crispy.

Gnocchi
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cut squash in slices, remove seeds, and arrange on the well-oiled baking tin.
3. Bake until soft, for about 30-40 min.
4. Cool down, remove skin, and scoop up the flesh.
5. Using an electric blender turn the cooked squash into a purée.
6. Add flour and make a dough. If it is too sticky add a little more flour.
7. Make the dough into a long roll and cut it diagonally into small pieces,1/2 inch long--see picture.

8. Boil a pot of water with 1 tbsp of salt and drop the gnocchi in it.
9. Wait until they rise to the surface and, from that moment, cook them for another 3-4 minutes.
10. Drain the gnocchi on a colander, put them on a plate.
11. Serve them with the fried sage leaves and the butter in which the sage was fried, shredded Parmesan, and freshly ground pepper.