Tuesday 29 October 2013

Peppino pumpkin


This is Peppino Pumpkin, carved by my own hands! Part of Peppino is now soup! 
I made the same recipe a few weeks ago and served it - amongst other delicious dishes - for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It was a complete hit! 


Here is what I used for the soup:
2 cloves of garlic
1 red onion
some ginger roots (I used 2 large ones)
1 glass of prosecco (or white wine)
1 large pumpkin (buy a Hokkaido one if you can get it, I did not find one here)
200 ml/1 cup coconut milk
1 red chili pepper 
extra vergin olive oil
salt
pepper

For the croutons:
bread of your choice, can be a day old
4-5 sage leaves
olive oil

Here is what I did for the soup I served our friends:
Other than cutting and carving the pumpkin, I put it in the oven on the highest temperature for about 15 minutes. Afterwards it's so easy to cut up! I could not find a Hokkaido pumpkin (you can eat the skin as well) so I had to cut the skin off and take out the insides of the vegetable. I then cut the flesh in pieces and put it aside. 


I finely chopped garlic, a red onion, two ginger roots and a chili pepper (minus the seeds) and fried everything in extra vergin olive oil. I added some prosecco and when it had mostly evaporated I added the pumpkin pieces, let them fry for just 1 minute before I added some heated vegetable broth. 


I let the pumpkin cook for about 40 minutes. I then puréed everything and finally added some coconut milk that I stirred in slowly. I added just a hint of salt and pepper.


Right before serving the soup I cut up some bread and fried it in olive oil and chopped sage leaves. 



Since my guests were all Italians, they added some grated grana padano cheese, but it is not necessary. You can also enjoy it completely vegan. Perfect soup for the season! 

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Feeling happy

Just wanna share my happiness with all of you!! May today make you smile!!