winter squash – Goboroot.com

Good Pumpkin Bread & Things from Our Pantry

It’s been a month since we came back from the exciting/ emotional trip to Japan, and things have been going back to normal. That means, for us, scavenging food from our garden, cold storage and kitchen pantry (and the occasional visit to a local grocery store). Although we enjoy challenging eating in this way, I felt that it was really a luxury not to plan a meal, not to gather ingredients from our household, and not to cook: the entire process and ritual. While we were traveling, we ate street food, decadent pastries, traditional meals that my family prepared plus enjoyed some delicious dishes at izakayas and a couple of restaurants.

One of my favourite snacks during the trip was a skewer of grilled chicken liver yakitori finished with teriyaki sauce, enjoyed while browsing the city streets. I also munched on a variety of salads with seafood, meat or grains that I could pick up at the food section at decent department stores. These experiences opened my eyes to creating new recipes with unusual ingredient combinations. As for those dishes that I have longed for but could not manage to eat during this trip, I will try to replicate them and introduce them to you in the near future. For now, here are some examples of what we’ve been eating recently.

Good Pumpkin Bread

Originally this recipe was given to me by a very beautiful person while I was studying at horticulture school. She loved nature and good, healthy food as much as I do. Upon tasting her bread, I demanded a copy of the recipe and she kindly shared it with me. I modified it slightly, and the bread got even better! This is why I now grow certain varieties of winter squashes. The key to this particular bread is to use creamy, nutty, sweet and flavourful squashes like Red Kuri or Marina Di Chioggia, but not those sugar pumpkins that you carve for Halloween.

Makes 2 of 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans

3 cups sugar

1 cup grape seed oil

4 eggs

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup spelt flour

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

2 cups pureed pumpkin from 1 large pumpkin (or winter squash)

½ cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

3 tablespoons rolled oats

Handful of pecans

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon water

Whipping cream for serving

Preheat the oven to 350C. Cut pumpkin in half. Remove seeds. Place them cut side up on a baking sheet and roast until tender, for about 30 minutes. Remove meat from the skin and puree in a food processor or blender (our dogs love the roasted skins!). If the puree feels too dense, add 1 or 2 tablespoons water to loosen it. Let cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a bowl. Mix the sugar, oil, and eggs in another large bowl.

Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients while slowly adding in the water to create batter. Finally, add in the pumpkin and vanilla, and stir to combine completely.

Pour the batter into greased pans. Top with the rolled oats and pecans. Bake in the centre rack of the oven until an inserted skewer comes out clean, for about 1 hour. If the pecans become too dark, cover with a piece of tin foil to prevent them from burning.

Cool completely on a rack. In the meantime, make icing. Combine the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir until bubbly. Pour onto the top of the bread.

If you have extras, they freeze beautifully. Thaw at room temperature when ready to eat.

Serve with a dollop of whipping cream.

Rhubarb Jam

If you read last year’s post “Rhubarb bars,” you may remember that I introduced the jam recipe there. Now is the time to enjoy the hard work of gardening and preserving from the growing season. I sit at the breakfast table, pour some tea, enjoy the view of my winter garden, savour the richly smeared condiment on toasts and, of course, contemplate another year of garden planning.

Beet Juice

We go through a lot of root vegetables, such as beets, carrots, and potatoes from our cold storage. In particular, we like to turn the beets and carrots, among other ingredients, into fresh juice. It looks like we have enough to make it to this year’s harvest. Recipe can be found here.

Sprouts

This is our source of raw food during winter months. There are always a couple of bottles sprouting on our windowsill. They provide a great texture and flavour for sandwiches, noodle soups, salads and fresh juices.

Gluten Free Bread “The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread” by My New Roots

Learning about this intriguingly named bread recipe actually made me run to a local organic store to pick up a bag of psyllium seed husks! The rest of ingredients are always at the read in my pantry. And the result? Yes, the bread changed my life! I feel lighter, healthier and more energetic after eating it. Sarah, the recipe creator, also has so many other amazingly sounding recipes that you may want to try, so I posted a link to her site above. While this bread has about as many calories as my beloved French baguettes, it’s also packed with more protein and nutrients, making it a much healthier choice all around.. My favourite way of eating Sarah’s bread is to smear goat cheese on a toasted slice and drizzle maple syrup over top. It is unstoppably good! Oh, but I can’t live without that crust of French baguette once in a while.

Plum Schnapps

After baking many plum upside-down cakes last August, I bottled the rest of the Japanese “Beauty” plums with vodka from our front yard. Six months later, I filtered and tasted the batch. It still seems young, so I’ll let it mature a little longer. Nonetheless, the schnapps burst with flavour like summer in my mouth on a winter evening.

Peperoncino Pasta

I’m not much of a pasta person, unless we’re talking about the delectable dishes that my Italian chef sister makes with tons of seafood. Another exception to the rule is this spicy peperoncino pasta! I remember the days when I looked forward to this pasta dish, served at a family owned café in the Yokohama vicinity, especially after long autumn motorcycle rides. Life is funny–I never ever imagined that I would no longer be riding a motorcycle and instead spend my time growing my own chili peppers in the Vancouver countryside. The heat of chili peppers and garlicky goodness melt together and wrap each individual pasta noodle in a fabulously oily sauce. This is a perfect pasta dish to help warm you up (and may eventually make you steam emerge from your head!). Oh, try not to rub your face while dealing with these peppers like I once absentmindedly did. It hurts for a long time! I miss motorcycling dearly and cherish even the memory of stuffing thick newspapers inside my leather jacket to keep myself warm while commuting on the highway in winter!

Peperoncino Pasta

Serves 2

200g spaghettini pasta noodles

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 garlic cloves, sliced

4 red chili peppers, seeds removed and sliced

Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add PLENTY of salt. Cook pasta to just before al dente. Reserve some cooking liquid.

In the meantime, sauté the garlic and peppers with oil in a large skillet on low heat. Be patient and take time to infuse the oil, about 12 minutes. When the garlic turns golden and soft, add ¼ to ⅓ cup pasta water to create pasta sauce. Stir the pasta noodles into the sauce, making sure to coat all over. Finish cooking the pasta noodles in the sauce for a couple of minutes. Serve hot and adjust the taste with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Kabocha with Quinoa

Autumn is really about cooking with wisely stored summer goodies; anything from frozen corn, dried herbs and hazelnuts to just harvested winter squash. This is a delicately flavoured dish where the sweetness of autumn fruits meets the warm savouriness of herbs and vegetables. The dish is simple yet possesses an entertaining visual appeal. Kabocha’s nutty dense meat completes this plate as a main dish, keeping you fulfilled and satisfied, while the lightness of the quinoa salad helps balance the meal.

I have been trying for quite a while to create a super healthy yet fulfilling treat to settle into the new season, and with this recipe, I am confident that I have achieved one of many delicious winter dishes yet to come!

If you are interested in storing herbs for winter use, I recommend a magazine, KINFOLK for its herb drying section and beautiful photography.

Stuffed Kabocha with Quinoa

Serves 2

2 small kabocha (or buttercup squash)

½ cup red quinoa

1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 small knob of ginger, finely chopped

½ onion, cut into ½ inch pieces

1 small carrot, cut into ½ inch pieces

½ rib celery, cut into ½ inch pieces

2 scallions, cut into ½ inch long pieces

2 sprigs thyme

½ small apple, cut into ½ inch pieces

½ cup thawed corn

1/3 cup raisins

A small handful of roasted hazelnuts and pecans

A dash of nutmeg

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly ground

1 teaspoon butter

Rinse the outside of the kabochas well, cut the tops off and spoon the seeds out. Save the tops as lids for roasting.

Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer to remove the saponin, and drain well. Bring the stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the quinoa and salt. Lower the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for about 12 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large pan, sauté the garlic, ginger, onion, carrot, celery and scallions with the butter and vegetable oil over medium heat until the vegetables are softened. Add 1 sprig of thyme plus the apple, corn, raisins, and nuts; continue to sauté for the next 5 minutes. Adjust the flavour with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add the cooked quinoa and cheese, and stir well.

Stuff the kabochas with the quinoa mixture, put the kabocha tops back on, place in a large oven-proof pan or on a baking sheet, and roast for about 1 hour.

When the kabocha is soft, it is done. Open the lids of the kabochas, and place ½ teaspoon butter inside each. Then, scatter the rest of the thyme leaves on top of the quinoa for decoration. Serve immediately.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

I was inspired when I saw this recipe by Crispy Bits and Burnt Ends on Noshing with the Nolands. I had just been looking for a way to rescue our badly bruised and scratched pumpkin after rolling it on a steep gravel road at a local pumpkin (technically winter squash) rolling contest. We didn’t win the prize but were amazed how fast, straight and far it rolled from the shoot!

I have been collecting seeds from pumpkins I have grown over the last three years, and now some of my pumpkins have started becoming somewhat strange looking and less sweet to taste. If you have a goal to save seeds, don’t be greedy like me planting kabocha, Uchiki red kuri, Marina Di Chioggia and so on in one garden. I would recommend that you grow one cultivar or type from each species so as to prevent them from cross-pollinating, which ends up producing seeds whose traits are unknown to us. A good idea would be to pick one cultivar “Marina Di Chioggia” from Cucurbita maxima, delicata from Cucurbita pepo and butternut squash from Cucurbita moschata; that way you will be able to harvest pure seeds to grow during the next season. If you have planted mish mash this summer, then the seeds from those fruits are not suited for saving but make great snacks when roasted with spices!

Thankfully, I received inspiration in the nick of time and decided to turn my glorious leftover pumpkin (the one from the pure seed back, not from the abovementioned Frankenseeds) into doughnuts. We had these doughnuts in the darkness of evening after coming back from a long, soggy walk with our two dogs. They didn’t seem to like this much rain. Since it was Halloween night, we saw groups of poor kids out and about in costumes hidden under their raincoats. As we reached home and dried off, we were looking forward to welcoming the next morning, rain or shine, because we knew that the rest of doughnuts were awaiting us for breakfast. It would be a nice way to start another otherwise miserable rainy day.

As a side note, besides beating the autumn rain blues with the power of delicious doughnuts, I have also picked up some beautiful handspun linen from Heather Ross; I absolutely love its colour and cloud-like texture that suddenly brought some much-needed sunshine to my soul and to our table. What is your pick-me-up for your soul on wet, cold, dark, gray, rainy days?

Pumpkin Doughnuts

My grandma, my twin sister and I used to make shredded carrot and parsley doughnuts together in her kitchen as part of my grandma’s effort to introduce us to vegetables at a very young age. This time, I used a homegrown pumpkin and froze the rest in a single portion for soup, lasagne, croquettes, bread, buns, dog cookies and so forth.

Yields about 2 ½ dozen with a 2.5 inch doughnut cutter

1 pumpkin or winter squash to extract ¾ cup puree

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon cardamom

2 tablespoons butter, softened

½ cup white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup milk, room temperature

Grape seed or canola oil

Extra sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut a pumpkin in half, discard the seeds and roast on a baking sheet until soft, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool and spoon out the meat. Puree when the pumpkin is completely cooled.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and spices all together.

Cream the butter and add sugar gradually until fluffy. Add the egg and combine well. Add vanilla, milk and pumpkin and stir until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture.

Heat the oil over medium low heat to reach 370F. The oil’s height should be around 1 ½ inches in a deep skillet. In the meantime, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to ½ inch thickness and cut out rings. Transfer to a floured baking sheet.

Fry the doughnuts until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Rest the doughnuts on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Make sure the oil temperature stays the same before adding another batch.

Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Adapted from Crispy Bits and Burnt Ends