Pumpkin Payasam

A few weeks ago, I bought a small pumpkin to make creme brulee’. But I kept putting it off since I had to use cream. I thought maybe I would make Pumpkin Tapioca instead. From that sprung the idea of payasam. Here’s how I made it.

Ingredients:

4 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup tapioca
1/4 cup vermicelli
1/2 tsp cardamon, ground
1 tsp butter
2-3 tbsp cashews
2-3 tbsp golden raisins

Dry roast the vermicelli for 4-5 minutes till lightly golden.

In a large pot, bring the milk to boil. Add sugar, tapioca and and roasted vermicelli and continue to cook.

Meanwhile peel and chop pumpkin. Add some water to a pan and cook the pumpkin till it softens. Mash to paste with spatula or put it through a blender. Add to the milk and mix well. Continue cooking for a few minutes and remove from flame.

In a separate pan, add a tsp of butter and fry cashews and raisins and add to the payasam. Serve warm as dessert after lunch or dinner.

 

Pumpkin Cooked Two Ways South Indian Style

There was an unwritten rule my mother followed and I seem to have picked it up along the way…

Whenever she cooked a pulusu without dal (or lentils), she always cooked a curry or kura with lentils. A pulusu is a South Indian (from Andhra Pradesh) dish which is cooked with tamarind juice or yogurt to name a few. Being vegetarian, we relied heavily on lentils for our protein, so it makes sense that the kura was cooked with lentils.

Pumpkin Kura:
1/2 a small pumpkin
1 cup channa dal
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp channa dal for seasoning
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1-2 dry red chilli peppers
1 jalapeno sliced
curry leaves (optional)
chopped cilantro to garnish
pinch of turmeric
pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste
1-2 tsp oil

I usually like to cook my channa dal and chopped pumpkin  in a pressure cooker. But it should be easy enough to cook on stove top. Rinse, and chop half the pumpkin into 1 in cubes. Rinse and wash 1 cup channa dal. Cook the pumpkin and channa dal in 2 cups of water, adding more as needed or cook in a pressure cooker.

In a large pan, heat 1-2 tsp of oil. Add turmeric, asafoetida, channa dal, urad dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and dry red chillies. Fry till lightly golden. Add curry leaves and sliced jalapeno and fry for a few seconds. Add the cooked pumpkin and channa dal, salt to taste and continue cooking till all the moisture evaporates. Garnish with some chopped cilantro.

Pumkin pulusu
1/2 small pumpkin
1/2 medium onion
1/4 small bottlegourd
1 small sweet potato
1 roma tomato
1tsp urad dal
1 tsp channa dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1-2 dry red chillies
1 jalapeno sliced
a few curry leaves
1-2 tbsp jaggery powder ( 2 1 inch cubes or as desired)
1 cup tamarind juice or as desired
1 tbsp white rice powder
salt to taste
chopped cilantro to garnish
I usually like to chop my vegetables into 1in cubes and pressure cook, but you can also cook stove top with some water. I add onion, bottlegourd, sweet potato, and pumpkin and pressure cook.

Meanwhile, heat a large pan with a little oil. Add turmeric, asafoetida, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, channa dal, urad dal, red chillies and fry till lightly brown. Add curry leaves, sliced jalapeno, and fry lightly. Add cooked vegetables, tamarind juice, jaggary and continue boiling. Mix white rice flour in a bowl with some water and add to the mix. Add some chopped tomato and continue cooking for 10-20 minutes in low flame. Add salt to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve both with some warm rice. Enjoy!

Cranberry Pumpkin Loaf

This is the time of the year when cranberries and pumpkin proliferate grocery stories. While pumpkins are the rage in October with many new soup and pie recipes, cranberries take over in November.

Armed with some leftover pumpkin puree from the Whole Wheat Pumpkin Spice Muffin Mix I made a few days ago and fresh cranberries, I scoured the web for an interesting recipe that used both the ingredients. What I found looked delicious, as always I varied mine a little.

Here’s how I made my loaf:

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pumpkin seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×15 loaf pan.

In a large bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, and orange zest.

In a separate bowl or in the kitchen aid bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. Add vanilla essence, pumpkin puree and orange juice and continue beating on low speed or whisk by hand. Fold in the walnuts and cranberries and mix well. Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until the toothpick test passes.

Cool on the rack for 10 minutes, before removing from pan. Serve warm or cool with some spiced cider or herb tea. It’s fall after all.

And birthday week continues 🙂

A. Soup. A. Week. Haitian Pumpkin Soup

Continuing my A. Soup. A Week. theme, this week’s pick is Haitian Pumpkin Soup. When I saw this on Whole Foods recipes website, I thought it was perfect for my weekly soup regimen. Maybe I can also make this an ethnic challenge and cook soups from around the world!

Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin or butternut squash
1/2 small cabbage
2 carrots
1 turnip
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper
4-5 cloves
5 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 cup vermicelli
1/8 cup chopped parsley
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
a touch of nutmeg

Peel and cut pumpkin (or butternut squash) into large cubes. Wash whole peppers and stick cloves into them. In a large pot, add water, pumpkin cubes, jalapenos with cloves stuck in them, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, remove the jalapenos and either use a hand blender to process the pumpkin or process in a food processor in batches. Return back to the pot. Cut carrots, turnip and cabbage into chunks and add to the pot. Add lemon juice and nutmeg and continue cooking for ten minutes.

Add vermicelli and parsley and cook for another 8-10 minutes. The vermicelli should be just starting to soften and the soup starting to thicken. Be careful not to overcook. Remove and serve hot with a piece of bread.

Last week’s A. Soup. A Week. was Moroccan Red Lentil Soup.

Celebrate fall with Amaranth Pumpkin Loaf

If it’s fall, it’s gotta be pumpkin!

I have been itching to make this since I saw it. And as can be expected I made minor changes. Key one being to substitute 25% of white flour with amaranth flour. The final product ended up being moist and tasty. I took it in to work and it was gone in a couple of hours 🙂 Here’s how I made my pumpkin loaf.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
some pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together flour, amaranth flour, salt,baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, salt and ginger.

In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, oil, sugar and water.

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry. Add chopped walnuts and mix well.

Grease a loaf pan and add the batter. Sprinkle some pumpkin seeds and bake for 60-80 minutes.