Fall Party Dinner: Pumpkin Soup, Latkes, and Applesauce and Apple Pie

Last weekend we went apple-picking with a bunch of friends and oh my gosh, the apples were so much better than you can get in the store. Our favorites were the macintosh. we made about 1/4 of them into applesauce, another 1/4 into apple pie, used a few in a salad and a few in the soup, and then covered the rest in caramel. We also got a few little pumpkins, which I spent an absurd amount of time hollowing out to make ugly little soup bowls for some simple yet delicious improvised pumpkin soup. Gabe said the soup was his new favorite soup and the applesauce was the best he ever tasted. These latkes were also the best I have ever made. The only low point in the meal I would say was the pie, which was great, but not the best it could be - we overmixed the crust and made it a bit tough, and there was a bit too much cardamom in the filling and not enough salt in the topping. Don't repeat our mistakes!

Pumpkin-Apple Soup

2-3 smallish pumpkins, peeled and cube

~3 medium apples, cubed

~1 medium onion, chopped

~1 cloves garlic, minced

~1 thumb-sized piece ginger, minced

Cinnamon and curry powder

vegetable broth

a bit of half and half, yogurt, or cream

Heat your oven up to 450. Put the pumpkin cubes on a baking sheet with some olive oil and roast until soft. Meanwhile, heat some butter in a pot and saute your onions with a pinch of brown sugar on medium until they get translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, salt and pepper, and a bit of curry powder and cinnamon to taste (I went low on the spice to not overpower the mild pumpkin taste), and keep cooking until the onions are browned. Once the squash is ready, toss it in, plus a few cups of vegetable broth. Puree it all together, add more broth if necessary, and adjust the seasoning. Stir in your cream or yogurt to taste, and enjoy! I served it with some cinnamon-maple yogurt and lots of toasted bread.

The Best Latkes

each of the following ingredients are per person. one baking potato will feed one person as a main course fo sho, and make probably too much for a side... but there's really no such thing as too many latkes.

1 baking potato, grated

1 small onion, grated

1/3 cup flour

1 egg

tsp salt

pepper to taste

Lots of oil to fry

Mix your grated potato and onion in either a cloth (cheese cloth or old t-shirt) or a colander. Press/squeeze as hard as you can to get out all of the water. If you have time, let it sit for a half hour or more and then squeeze it again.

Once you are satisfied with the dryness of your potatoes, add in the flour, egg, salt, and pepper.

Heat up a good amount of oil in a pan - you want the latkes to be well lubricated but not submerged (a few tbs should do it). Drop small hunks of dough into the pan and press them flat. Fry on both sides until brown and crispy, then transfer to a paper towel to blot off the oil. After that you can keep them in a warm oven while you cook the rest. Serve with ketchup, sour cream, and/or delicious homemade applesauce. Enjoy!

Applesauce

3-4 lbs excellent quality apples, partially peeled and diced*
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup+ brown sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
cinnamon to taste (cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, etc. also welcome, but don't kill the apple taste with too much spice.)

*if you have a food processor, go ahead and leave some/all of the peel on. i think it adds a nice bitter tartness and it's easier. but if you're going to mash 'em by hand, take off all of the peels.

Put all of the ingredients in a pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes until all of the apples are soft but not disintegrated. Puree in a food processor/blender or mash with a potato masher or fork. Adjust the salt, sugar, lemon, and cinnamon. You can eat it right then, but I'm pretty sure applesauce is like soup and gets better if you refrigerate it and then reheat it.

This will make about 2 cups.

Collard Onion, & Black Bean Enchiladas w/ Tomatillo Salsa

soooo good. these enchiladas were a lot prettier than the ones we made last time - our skills are improving! also totally delicious. i've never used tomatillos before and i was pretty scared of them - they're all sticky and weird and look like eggplants on the inside and taste kind of like grapes - but it turns out they make awesome salsa! they have this great fruity acidity that makes it so you don't have to add any extra lime juice or vinegar to the salsa. very cool.

Collard Onion, & Black Bean Enchiladas w/ Tomatillo Salsa

~10 pretty small tomatillos, washed and cored

2 big cloves garlic

1 - 2 jalapenos, to taste

handful of cilantro leaves (optional or replace with parsley if you're cilantrophobic)

~ 1 cup crema or sour cream

1 bunch collards (or swiss chard), sliced into thin enchilada-length ribbons

2 medium onion, sliced into enchilada-length strips

~1 tsp cumin seeds or ground cumin

~1 cup cooked black beans (dried have better texture than canned and are cheaper)

~8 tortillas

~1 cup shredded cheese

Make the salsa: puree the tomatillos, garlic, and jalapenos (you can chop by hand if you have no pureeing tool but it's gonna be a whole lot of work. you want everything as finely chopped as possible). Adjust the flavor - it might need a bit of sugar, acid, or more heat - but don't add salt cause there will be a lot in the vegies and cheese. put it in a pot and simmer it until it gets pretty darn thick. stir in the sour cream or crema.

preheat to 375.

Sautee the vegies: heat up some oil on medium-high and saute your onions until they get translucent. add the collards, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste, and cook until everything is soft and the collards have lost most of their bitterness. Add the black beans and cook another minute or so until the onions are getting deliciously browned.

pour a little bit of the sauce in the bottom of a deep baking dish (a brownie pan works well). cut all of your tortillas in half. Dip each half tortilla in the warm sauce to soften it up, shake off the excess, and then place a bit of vegetable mixture and a bit of cheese near one end and roll it up tight like a sleeping bag (don't fold the edges in like a burrito). aim to have at least a little bit of cheese left at the end. place them all neatly lined up in the dish. when you're done, pour the rest of the sauce over the top and then sprinkle the rest of the cheese over that.

bake the whole for about 20 minutes, then put it under the broiler until the cheese on top gets bubbly and brown. let it cool a little and enjoy!

what do we eat the other 20 days?

so we only blog like 10 posts on a good month. what do we eat the rest of the time?

stuff that fails

e.g. recent attempt at vegetarian onion soup that was more like boring onion gloop with delicious cheese-bread on top

stuff that is a close variant on something we've posted before

e.g. cous-cous with vegetables and tahini sauce, vegetable curry with different vegetables, tomato soup made slightly differently

stuff that is too mundane to need a recipe for

e.g. omelettes, burritos, baked potatoes, pasta w/ various additions, stir fries, constant breads w/ hummus or cheese

Pad Thai w/ Tofu & Vegetables

In terms of flavor, this turned out better than the restaurant version! Less overwhelmingly sweet, and with a really good depth of flavor despite the relatively simple flavorings. The only problem was the texture - we made the mistake of using extra-firm tofu and these really thick spaghetti-shaped rice noodles, which i undercooked slightly... resulting in pad thai that took a LOT of chewing. next time i'll use firm tofu and invest in some of the thin, flat rice noodles that you're supposed to use. When you make this you can omit the vegies and sub in shrimps or chickens for the tofus if you want (i assume you can marinate meat in the same liquid as you marinate tofu? i have no idea how meat works.)

Pad Thai w/ Tofu & Vegetables

1 block firm tofu, drained and cubed

8 oz flat rice noodles

~1/2 cup soy sauce

~1/4 cup dark brown sugar

juice of 1 - 2 limes (to taste)

2 big garlic cloves, minced

1 squirt sriracha

~ 5 scallions

~2 large eggs

~1 cup vegies of your choice - i used broccoli and carrots, cabbage would be good too

a bunch of cilantro

1/2 c peanuts, crushed up

Dry the tofu using this super cool, no-pressing method: put all of your cubes in a single layer in a non-stick pan and put it on medium heat. press em a little to sizzle out all of the water. flip em when they're golden and do the same on the other side. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, lime juice, garlic, and sriracha (a food processor makes this very easy), put the tofu in a plastic bag or bowl, and cover with the sauce. Soak for about an hour.

Either soak or boil your rice noodles until they're mostly done but not soft.

Heat up a little bit of butter in a big, deep pan or wok. mince the white parts of your scallions and toss them in. once they get fragrant, turn the heat down a bit and add your eggs. scramble them with the scallions until no longer liquid but still soft. scrape em out of the pan and add a bit of oil, turning the heat back up. toss in your veggies, stir-fry until soft, and move them out of the plan. add a bit more oil in necessary. drain the tofu cubes - save the sauce! - and fry them until crispy. take them out. now toss in your noodles, plus the sauce and 1/2 of the peanuts, and cook until the noodles absorb some of the sauce and are soft. add the eggs, tofu, and vegies back in and cook another minute.

Garnish with the green parts of the scallions, extra peanuts, and the cilantro. Enjoy!

Vagina Cupcakes, Penis Butterscotch Blondies

Butterscotch blondies

1 cup of butter, melted

2 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar

2 egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Pinch of salt

2 cup of all-purpose flour

2/3 cup of butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a brownie dish with baking parchment and butter it.

Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract and whisk.

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mix it all together. Stir in the butterscotch chips.

Pour into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. Cut into squares (or penises) and serve.