I had Gareth and Penny and Ben over for dinner Saturday and cooked a pumpkin-spinach risotto from a recipe in the newspaper. The mega quick recipe for that is:
Peel and cut 500 g pumpkin (I know, tiresome), prepare your risotto-rice as usual (oil, onions, garlic, wine, rice, vege stock), around 12 minutes before the rice is ready, add pumpkin (tricky, my rice was a bit too soft in the end before the pumpkin was soft enough). When all done stir in 100 g spinach (either fresh & sliced in strips, or defrosted from frozen), fresh parsley, and some cheese, if you’re into blue cheese, that’s what the recipe said, otherwise parmesan. Serve with salad made by your guests and a wonderful NZ chardonnay.
(By the way, this was the first dinner party I hosted, and apart from a chronic cutlery-deficiency, it went well. And very proud of myself not to wait till the last months in NZ to start inviting people for dinner...)
But I had bought too much pumpkin (thinking I would need a kilo for the risotto), so today was pumpkin soup. Partially because then at least I wouldn’t have to peel the pumpkin or cut it very finely because it would all be mashed up anyways. Usually my pumpkin soup is a bit bland and boring and needs more cream than pumpkin. Today I proceeded as normal, cooked the pumpkin (with peel and in big pieces), cooked 2 large potatoes, pureed that, fried an onion and garlic, and then I thought “hmm, still have some wine left, let’s add it”. Then vege stock, the pureed pumpkin and potatoes, salt, pepper, some herbs, let simmer for a while and finally of course a good dollop of cream. I added some more wine in between too… And it tastes wonderful! The wine definitely was the missing ingredient all that time.
It was delicate only once, cooking soup in earthquake country, when a 4.5 hit. Quickly turned off the heat and ran away. The thing with the quakes >4 is that they take a while and it feels as if they will grow into something big and nasty, so you jump into survival mode, while simultaneously worrying about everyday things such as your soup falling off the stove.
And it occurred to me that pumpkin is all in season again up North, but I should be cooking spring things. Bit weird that the newspaper gave this recipe, but since there are still plenty pumpkins around, why not.
Ben wasn’t really into the risotto, but loved the muffin and ice-cream for desert. He also loved running through the house and trying on all my shoes.
Hmm. Just tried to stuff the pumpkin soup into the freezer. In my freezer are the following home cooked meals taking up a lot of space:
- Thai green beef curry with rice
- Chili sin carne con maiz
- potatoe-leek-tomato casserole
- Risotto (2x)
- Pasta with tomato sauce
- Muffins
On the one hand it is great that I have been cooking so much the last weeks and have plenty of choice every day for a quick and healthy meal. On the other hand, in the not so unlikely event of a power outing, I will have to invite a lot of people for cold dinner.
- Thai green beef curry with rice
- Chili sin carne con maiz
- potatoe-leek-tomato casserole
- Risotto (2x)
- Pasta with tomato sauce
- Muffins
On the one hand it is great that I have been cooking so much the last weeks and have plenty of choice every day for a quick and healthy meal. On the other hand, in the not so unlikely event of a power outing, I will have to invite a lot of people for cold dinner.
