Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Bake

Adrian liked this so much he wanted me to teach him. It's really simple but requires some patient and waiting. I liked how the roasted pepper played into the sweetness of pumpkin and sweet potatoes. For ascetic reason, I asked Adrian to pluck a few basil leaves from Josh's. He wasn't sure which one to pluck from and I said "sniff and smell to pick the one you like." The basil leaves actually turned out to be a good compliment.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)

• 1/4 medium-sized pumpkin, seeded
  
• 1/4 large sweet potato, washed and dry
  
• 2 orange pepper
• 1 head garlic
  
• 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 2 Tablespoon fresh cream
• Spring onion, chopped
  
• sea salt and black pepper
• Parmesan cheese as topping

Preheat oven at 200C. Chop off head of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Place on a baking tray. Brush pumpkin, sweet potato and orange pepper with just enough olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap in individual aluminum foil. Bake in the oven for 60 minutes. You may need to check on the garlic and pepper so they don't burnt. The garlic is ready when the exposed heads are browned.

When the ingredients are cooled enough to handle, scoop flesh of pumpkin and sweet potato to a mixing bowl. Squeeze about 3 gloves of roasted garlic. Put all the ingredients, except spring onion and orange pepper, into the mixing bowl. Mash to blend.


Finely chop roasted pepper. Stir pepper and spring onions into the pumpkin mix. Divide and pour into two ramekin, or one baking dish. Top with more Parmesan cheese. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Pesto Cheesecake

I chopped up a bunch of basil and parsley with pecan nuts the other night to make pesto - what a delicious good way to preserving vegetables before they wilt. Cover it with enough olive oil and it just basically sit, fresh as it is, in the corner of refrigerator for a long enough time till I need it again. Usually I would leave out salt and lemon juice until just before using the pesto.

I scaled the recipe down to a 4" x 7" casserole dish, good enough for two persons. You may triple the volume and bake it in a 8" springform pan as you would with ordinary cheesecake. The recipe I found uses breadcrumbs as crust. I used the wheat biscuits left from whatever dessert I last made with. The crust was a tad to the sweet side, which turned out to be an interesting compliment to the savory cream cheese pesto layer. I also threw in some sun dried tomatoes because I was thinking they had been sitting in the fridge for a wee bit too long.

Adrian enjoyed this very much. Initially he was going to save a piece for next day. Then he kept picking at the crumbs. Eventually he devoured what's left of the picking with a cup of coffee.

I guess this dish is meant to be some Italian appetizer to serve over garlic bread or cracker. But why limit my imagination? I just happened to fry up some sunny-side up to supplement the nutritive profile of our Sunday breakfast. OH! Not the forget a bed of fresh from the farm organic lettuces, courtesy of my lovely friend, Pinnada :)

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces wheat biscuits, crushed
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 Tablespoon butter, room temperature
• 4oz cream cheese, soften
• 1/3 homemade ricotta cheese
• pinch of salt and cayenne pepper
• sun dried tomatoes, chopped
  
• 1/3 cup homemade pesto
• Pecan nuts

1. Preheat oven at 160C. Lightly grease a 4"x7" casserole dish.
2. Roll together biscuits, Parmesan and butter. Press to the bottom of prepared dish. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned.
3. Blend together cream cheese and ricotta until smooth and fluffy. Fold in sun dried tomatoes and pesto. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
   
4. Pour evenly over biscuit crust. Sprinkle with pecan nuts. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes - center should move just slightly when shaken.
5. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Loosen the edges with knife and transfer to individual serving plates.
   

Spicy Polenta Roasted Vegetable Pesto Terrine

Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)

• 1/2 cup organic polenta
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
• Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• Fresh thyme and oregano, minced
  
• Roasted vegetable pesto
• 1/2 cup goat cheese, grated

1. Grease baking dish. Preheat broiler at 180C.
   
2. Bring water, milk and sea salt to boil. Stir in polenta to cook. Remove from heat wheng liquid is fully absorbed.
   
3. Add Parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes and herbs. Stir to combine well.
4. Pour half the cooked polenta to the prepared baking dish. Smooth out to a even layer. Let cool slightly. (if you are going to make bake egg, bake the cooked polenta now.)
   
5. Top the bottom layer with pesto and grated goat cheese. Cover with the other half of cooked polenta. (or eggs) Smooth out and let cool.
   
6. Lightly brush the surface with olive oil. Broil for 10 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. (Broil until the eggs are cooked to desired consistency.)
   
7. Cut into individual serving sizes to serve.
   

Persimmon Salads

Once we walked pass the Japanese food fest area in front of Gourmet Market at Paragon. We saw this beautiful looking Japanese persimmon that costs 210 BHT EACH. Inside Gourmet Market the nationality-unknown persimmons are costing 29 BHT EACH. Why are Japanese fruits so unaffordable?

Anyway, I have always liked persimmons. My father used to teach us how to identify seedless persimmons. Something about the shape and size of the fruit that I can't quite remember and never get to verify. I also like them dried. I used to keep a jar of them and take one whenever I leave the house. Hence, it's shocking to hear that the man of my life is not all that into persimmons. And you know what I was going to do the moment I found out about that.

Here's a couple of persimmons recipes that I tried.

Pinto Beans, Persimmons and Avocado Salad
I boiled up a whole lot of pinto beans the other day for Refried Beans, hence the use of pinto beans instead of other varieties. I imagine black beans, chickpeas, and split peas would do just as well. The avocado was a little bit too ripe - they didn't hold the shape, looking mushy. Something is missing in the dressing but i just can't figure it out. Honey, maybe?

Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)

• Cooked pinto beans
• 1 avocado, cubed
  
• 1/2 persimmon, cubed
• 1 Tablespoon green onion, sliced
• sea salt
  
• extra virgin olive oil
• cumin
• Tabasco sauce
  
• lemon juice and zest

1. In a mixing bowl, toss together olive oil, cumin, Tabasco and lemon juice. Stir in the beans and let them absorb the dressing.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together avocado and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and salt.
3. Add persimmons, green onions and avocado to the beans. Toss gently to combine. Season with salt if needed.
   

Persimmon Salad with Ginger-Maple Vinaigrette
We totally approved of this recipe - it blends the sweetness of maple syrup, tartness of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice, and ginger spice into a complex, pleasant gustatory experience. It felt Asian, perhaps because of the use of ginger. It also reminded me of a ginger chicken dish that my grandmother used to make. Or was it the carnivorous remnant inside of me that's speaking?

Although it's optional, the Parmesan cup is very easy to make, and a savory pleasure to behold. Depending on your serving size, you can use anything from 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan for an individual serving, as I did. Sprinkle some ground black pepper and flatten them over a piece parchment paper. Bake in 120C oven until golden in color. Quickly mold it into cup.

Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)

• Pure sesame oil
  
• Extra virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Ginger, Minced
• 1 tbsp Shallot, Diced
• 1/2 tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
• 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice and Zest
• 1/2 Persimmon, cubed
  
• Rocket leaves
  
• Sea salt and Pepper

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together lemon juice, cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Macerate onions for at least 10 minutes.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil over medium heat. Fry ginger until soft.
   
3. Transfer ginger to onion mixture. Add the rest of the dressing ingredient. Toss in rocket leaves and persimmons.

Corn Polenta and Broccoli Cheddar Bake

This recipe is the synergy of Cheesy Cheddar Corn Polenta and Twice Baked Potato with Broccoli and Cheddar. It didn't take me much time to whip it up since I was using leftover polenta from the Cheesy Cheddar Corn Polenta.

I started with broiling the polenta. As it broiled, I cooked the broccoli as I did with Twice Baked Potato with Broccoli and Cheddar. To make this more breakfast-sy I added an extra step:

• In a separate bowl, lightly beat one egg with one 1 tablespoon of buttermilk (lemon juice + milk). Fold cooked broccoli over egg mixture.

Once the polenta top turned golden in color, I sprinkled it with chopped basil leaves. This was followed by broccoli-egg mixture and grated cheddar cheese. I also added chopped fresh thyme and rosemary, and grated Parmesan over the top.

Parmesan Polenta with Chili-roasted Mushroom

I have been wanting to make this savory polenta since the day I bought the polenta. For some reasons I kept getting sidetracked by the sweet polenta recipes:

• Polenta and Ricotta Cake
• Polenta Lemon Muffins with Homemade Lemon Curd

Anyway here it is. It's better than I thought it would be. Parmesan goes very well with the otherwise bland polenta. I must also credit it to the chili-roasted mushrooms: It started with the inspiration coming from chili-roasted tomatoes that I made last night and the bottle of chili oil that I whisked up months ago for Hummus on Fire. Last but not least: my latest discovery of egg frying trick.

If you don't have cream, use 1 Cup milk to 1 Cup water. I ran out of milk hence the use of cream.

Ingredients:
(2 main servings)

• 1/2 C uncooked organic polenta
• 1/2 C cream
• 1 1/2 C water
• salt and pepper
  
• Mushrooms, cut into bite-sized chunks
  
• Splash of dried chili-infused olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/2 C Parmesan cheese, shaved
• Chives, chopped
  
• 2 Eggs

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Coat chopped mushrooms with chili oil, sea salt, black pepper and paprika. Roast in oven for 15 minutes.
3. In a saucepan, mix together polenta, cream, water, salt and pepper. Bring it to boiling over medium heat, turn to low heat and let cook over cracked lid.
4. In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of butter over medium heat until sizzling. Crack the eggs over. When egg whites set, pour a couple tablespoons of water over and cover with lid. Remove when egg yolks are cooked to desired doneness.
5. Stir Parmesan into cooked polenta and spoon into individual serving plates. Top it with chili roasted mushrooms, fried egg and garnish with chives.
   

Pumpkin Risotto

This is a special dish. Why? Because it's rice. If you knew me at all, you'd have known I'm a non-rice, non-noodle, non-pasta person. Just run through my cooking list and see if you find anything of that.

Allow me to digress. So I'm a virgin cooking rice, not to mention Italian rice. I remember years ago, I was invited to a friend's dinner at home. He cooked risotto. It was bad. Apart from the fact that he messed up the risotto, he got a real honest (nasty) review from my self-proclaimed-food-aficionado ex-boyfriend. I felt sorry for the cook, and the arborio rice. Anyway because of that I didn't think much of risotto since.

Why am I making risotto now? I don't know. Can be because I had a good one at Govinda's last week. Or maybe because the creaminess of risotto would go well with the Fig with Goat Cheese Appetizer. Perhaps just to make it an Italian night since I'm making Panna Cotta.

Let me digress, again. Unknowingly, I bought a saffron-infused arborio rice. Hence the color. It smells good. I kind of messed up a few things/ steps:

1. I added garlic because the recipe calls for garlic chives, which tastes more like garlic than chive, only milder. That should suffice?
   
2. Unfortunately, the maid threw away the chives that I'd been "growing" in a 1/2-full drinking glass. On last thought, I sprinkled some thyme leaves as a form of replacement. It worked.
3. I forgot to add apple cider (to replace dry white wine in the recipe) and only added it at the very last ladle of broth to the rice.

Below is my version of the original. If you are in doubt, go here for safety check. I won't hold you on that. I have to say though, I may not be risotto expert, but this recipe of MINE is good.

Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)

3 - 4 cups miso broth
2 tablespoon + 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup pumpkin, cubed
1/2 onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, minced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup apple cider juice
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Fresh thymes

1. Heat broth in a medium saucepan and keep warm over medium heat.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a separate pan. Sautee onion, garlic and pumpkins until onion is translucent.
   
3. Add rice to onion- pumpkin. Stirring to coat for 1 - 2 minutes. Add apple cider. Cook, stirring constantly until cider has been absorbed by the rice or evaporated. Add a few ladles of broth, just enough to barely cover rice. Cook over medium heat until broth has been absorbed. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a little bit of broth at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed, until the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite, about 15 to 20 minutes.
4. During the last minutes of cooking, add remaining tablespoon of butter, 3 tablespoons Parmesan, and chives. At this point the rice should have a creamy consistency. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve with remaining grated Parmesan and top with thyme leaves.
   

Pesto for Arm Strength

I like to put my arms to test and keep them toned. Hence, I often subject myself to task, such as chopping, that may have been unnecessary. However, not so for pesto. Chopping all the ingredients by hand produces pesto with minuscule flecks of basil, and definition between ingredients. It's also more flavorful and pop in the mouth creating a sort of gastronomic satisfaction that you don't get from blended one - which forms a moist homogenized paste with little to no definition between ingredients.

I have used to same recipe for rocket and parsley pesto. Apparently there are a lot of vegetables you can 'pesto' with, such as broccoli. Before serving, I scoop just enough portion out from the small bowl and season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

Ingredients:
1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
3/4 cup Parmesan, grated
A few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Start chopping the garlic along with about some of the basil leaves. Keep adding and chopping the rest of the basil leaves until they become a fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" - see the photo up above. Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl and cover with a bit of olive oil for storing.

Makes about 1 cup.