EDF Cooking Contest--Pumpkin Challenge - Page 4

Mermade · #31 10-13-2007, 02:42 AM

El Sapo-- Sorry I put up my entree before yours. I had the same idea before you posted. I don't think it makes much difference. Your dish will likely be significantly different and you'll crush me with your superior plating and photography--you always do. Anyway, I thought this method worked great. There was no fear of burning what with the oil in the nuts and the addition of a bit of olive oil too to the mixture. I added the pepita-pistachio mixture after searing for obvious reasons--I didn't want to lose all that good stuff! Can't wait to see your dish!

Mermade · #32 10-13-2007, 03:16 AM

Pumpkin Pie 

I bet I'm the only one who thought up this one, am I right? Seriously though, I told you that my son hid all the pumpkins. He finally gave them up for cooking purposes, but to him that meant pumpkin pie. So, we made pumpkin pie. Here are the pumpkins, cleaned and halved. His hand is on the pumpkin. He helped me make the pie.

For the pie crust I used a family recipe from my mother-in-law. In fact, she pulled out a photo album from my own shelf to show me how my husband had copied down her crust recipe in his own handwriting when he was seven.

3 cups flour
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of shortening
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp vinegar
6 tablespoons of water

Sift flour into bowl. Add salt, butter and shortening and combine using a pastry blender. Add water and vinegar combine. Roll out on floured surface. This makes enough for 2 crusts. (We cut up the extra and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and baked until golden, which is pretty tasty.)

I'd never made this kind of crust before. Usually, I've made cold shortening crusts--where it is chilled and you have to work quickly and not work the dough too much. Anyway, this crust was really good. It was really flaky and very easy to work with.

For the pie filling...

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups cooked pumpkin (2 small baking pumpkins)
6 oz of evaporated milk
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of cloves
1 tsp of allspice (These are approximate. I don't measure these out.)
3/4 cup of milk
3 large eggs

I put the pumpkin halves in a pan with a little bit of water and put them in the oven at 375 degrees until they were tender.

I spooned out the pumpkin and pureed it in the food processor.

I put this in a sieve and let the pumpkin drain. Toss the excess liquid. Take a wooden spoon and force the pumpkin puree through the sieve. This makes it smooth.

Mix brown sugar, white sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Add the pumpkin puree and stir well. Add milk, evaporated milk. Lightly beat the eggs and then add those too. Mix until everything is incorporated.

Pour into the pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then reduce the temperature to 350 for 45 minutes or until a knife or tester comes out clean in the center. I used some extra pie dough to cut out maple leaves. I put these on the pie mid-way through baking.

Serve with homemade whipped cream.

ElSapo · #33 10-13-2007, 03:09 PM

I'll make two other posts giving some details on the two main dishes here, but I wanted to start with the finished product.

Amuse - Savory "pumpkin pie" ravioli. (With apologies to Mr. Diablo). Filled with a nutmeg-spiced mashed sweet potatoes, topped with cinnamon sour cream. I sliced the pumpkin thin with a cheese slicer and poached it. Seasoned and finished under the broiler....

Appetizer: Pumpkin arincini. I made pumpkin risotto (which was good in its own right), chilled it, formed into balls and deep fried. The sauce is a sweet & spicy pumpkin sauce...

Entree: Pumpkin-crusted beef, served with sweet potato-potato-pumpkin puree. The sauce is made with pumpkin ale and mushrooms....

Dessert: Butter poached pumpkin "gnocchi" served with a brown sugar and bourbon caramel sauce...

ElSapo · #34 10-13-2007, 03:17 PM

For the arincini:

I made a really thin pumpkin puree by blending chicken stock and roasted pumpkin. I then started my risotto as normal - onion, garlic, mushrooms, stock. When it was about 80% cooked I mixed in the pumpkin puree to bring it the rest of the way.

The result was really successful I think. The starches in the pumpkin broke down and made the risotto really creamy. This could have been an entree here, but I had my heart set on some deep-fried goodness.

Chill the risotto, form into balls, roll in flour and fry until golden brown.

The sauce - take some of that thin pumpkin puree and spice it up with honey, red pepper, salt, cinnamon.

ElSapo · #35 10-13-2007, 03:28 PM

For the beef:

I soaked the pumpkin seeds in salt water for a few hours, dried and roasted them. Ran them through the food processor until I had a sawdusty-like mix.

Beef was grilled to get a nice sear, rolled in the pumpkin "salt" and then coated in honey. Roasted to medium rare in the oven.

Interesting note: I watched the thermometer as I let the beef rest - it went up 7 additional degrees before stabilizing. So for those wondering about carry-over cooking, from the time I took it out of the oven it got 7-degrees hotter in the center of the beef in about 15-20 minutes. It went from about 125 or so to 132.

The potato/pumpkin mix is about 1/4 sweet potato, 1/4 potato and 1/2 pumpkin.

The sauce - I bought two kinds of pumpkin beers to try for this sauce, but one was the clear winner. The "Cottonwood Pumpkin Spices Ale" actually tasted like pumpkin. The Dogfish "Punkin Ale" was a spiced brown ale, and a good one, but very little of what I think of as "pumpkin" flavor.

I sauteed mushrooms and onion in some butter, added a 1/2 cup stock and 3/4 cup of the ale. Let this simmer, strained it and then thickened it with a blonde roux. It was a little thick, so I loosened it up with a little more of the ale.

If you compare the two beers, the Cottonwood is on the left...

Xaston · #36 10-13-2007, 05:24 PM

WOW. An absolute slam dunk. Best 2+2 Iron Chef entry I can remember in a while, especially given a fairly unusual ingredient.

Aside from the front/left piece, the beef looks like it is perhaps a little too done, but that's the only flaw I'm seeing. Were you happy with the doneness?

ElSapo · #37 10-13-2007, 05:44 PM

[ QUOTE ]
WOW. An absolute slam dunk. Best 2+2 Iron Chef entry I can remember in a while, especially given a fairly unusual ingredient.

Aside from the front/left piece, the beef looks like it is perhaps a little too done, but that's the only flaw I'm seeing. Were you happy with the doneness?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it was less overdone and more just not a good piece of meat.

I agree with you on the appearance, absolutely. But I think it wasn't the best piece of meat. It may have been a little old, if that can affect it.

Or, I overcooked it. Entirely possible. But it never got higher than 132 degrees on my thermometer (which could be innacurate) ...

I didn't spend much on the meat. On sale, and a cheaper cut. So it's tough to tell. But your criticism is spot on, it does look overcooked.

SamIAm · #38 10-14-2007, 12:46 AM

I'll follow El Sapo's lead, and post all my final pics together, then post the details. (I'll also copy his slick black borders. Everything looks artier with a black border. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

[b]Breakfast: Pumpkin Muffins

Drink: Pumpkin Ginger Ale

Appetizer: Pumpkin Hummus with Pumpkin Chips

Side: Pumpkin Gratin

Main: Pumpkin Gnocchi & Side Salad w/ Pumpkin Seed Oil Dressing

Dessert: Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pumpkin Seed Brittle

SamIAm · #39 10-14-2007, 01:09 AM

Appetizer: Pumpkin Hummus w/ Pumpkin Chips & Pita

I had cool ideas about making a pumpkinseed pita, but eventually went with store bought. Sorry.

I used a mandolin on the thinnest setting to slice the pumpkin. Then I used a cookie cutter to cut disks.

I wanted to make potato chips out of pumpkin. Potatoes = starch; pumpkin = starch. Right? So fry those disks.

Wrong. You get soggy, nasty pumpkin. Instead I layered them on a cooling rack in the oven and baked them till they got crisp. (No pics of that. Sorry.)

For the actual hummus, start with a bunch of scrap pumpkin from the previous cookie cutting. (These are actually from the gratin, to be posted.)

Chop it up a little and roast for 15 minutes at 350.

2 T Tahini
1 Lemon
1 Garlic Clove
1lb roasted Pumpkin
Cumin
Olive Oil
Salt

I didn't measure much, but hummus is always to taste. Juice the lemon and dump everything in a food processor. Then process the food.

Plate with store bought pita because you're a coward. (And ran out of time as guests arrived. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

SamIAm · #40 10-14-2007, 01:24 AM

Side: Pumpkin Gratin w/ Leeks & Chevre

I got this idea from Bon Appetit. This was actually the first thing I used the mandolin on.

2 Pie Pumpkins
2 Leeks
Sage
Chevre
Butter
1/2 C Hazelnuts

I cut the pumpkin in quarters, then cut the quarters into roughly straight hunks (pictured right). Then I cut them into slices with the mandolin set on the thickest setting (left).

Do the cookie cutter trick again, this time with a much smaller disk.

Toss the disks in olive oil and salt. Roast in a sheet pan for half an hour at 350.

Coarsely chop the leeks. Mince the sage. Sweat with the sage in 3 T of butter.

Roast, hull, and chop the hazelnuts. Butter the sides of a baking dish, and layer with (leek, cheese, pumpkin, leek, cheese, pumpkin, hazelnuts). (I only used half the cheese pictured below.)

You've seen hazelnuts before; I just really liked this picture. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pour in the cream and bake at 325 for 40 minutes.

It's a shame this wasn't such a photogenic dish, because it tasted great. (Goat cheese makes everything taste better. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]) It might have been my favorite from the list.

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