Doce de abóbora

Doce de abóbor is a sweet pumpkin compote popular in Brazil & Portugal. It is available either as a firm, chewy sweet (much like the fruit cheese I've posted about), or more commonly as a thick, cinnamon scented preserve. It is usually served with fresh cheese as a dessert (it goes beautifully with quark or ricotta), but can also be added to cornbread or muffin batter or warmed and dolloped over ice cream. My favourite use for it is to spread it on toast - yum! You can also find Doce de abóbor com coco, which is pumpkin & coconut preserve. Whatever version you try, it's a great way to use up a cheap Halloween pumpkin and will give you a sweet, buttery jam that will be a happy companion to pancakes, waffles & toasted muffins. Using a well flavoured, dense textured winter squash like Crown Prince or Hubbard will give you deeply complex, rich flavour (not that I'm biased!). This is a fairly simple recipe, but don't be tempted to omit the water, it's there to keep everything from catching on the pan & burning.

Doce de Abóbor

1.6kg pumpkin or squash, peeled & cut into 2cm chunks (if you want to make Doce de abóbor com coco you'll need 800g pumpkin & 115g dessicated unsweetened coconut)
450g sugar (I use demerara)
200ml (just shy of 1 cup) water
1 cinnamon quill

Tip the water, pumpkin, sugar & cinnamon into a large pan & slowly bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft. If it needs a little assistance breaking down to a puree, mash with a fork, back of a spoon or potato masher (if using coconut, stir that in now). Simmer for 15 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened, but not stiff (think porridge consistency. As ususal). Spoon into clean, sterlised jars & store in the fridge once opened. Not that it'll last long.

The next post will be about something other than pumpkins, promise!

Porotos Granados

Porotos Granados is a hearty Chilean pumpkin & bean stew (the name comes from a Chilean bean called Cranberry bean in English packed full of flavour, and despite being a summer dish in its native land, its the perfect thing to eat in the colder month before we get into the seriously chuffing freezing weather. And yes, I'm rather fond of Chilean food these days, it's a cuisine that really appreciates its pumpkins & beans (there is a common saying in Chile eres mas chileno que los porotos - You're more Chilean than beans!). Cranberry beans aren't available in the UK (I've not found any yet, so they may have to join Anasazi beans on the long list of Fine-I'll-Grow-It-My-Bloody-Self vegetables*) so I usually use chickpeas or pinto beans but whatever you have available will work well too

Porotos Granados (serves 4)

750g winter squash (preferably a good, flavoursome variety like crown prince or kabocha, or good old butternut) peeled, deseeded & cut into 2cm-ish chunks
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 litre vegetable stock
400g can of chickpeas (or 100g dried beans soaked overnight)
200g french beans, cut into short lengths
200g sweetcorn
1 tsp smoked paprika
a handful of fresh oregano, chopped
salt & pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan & fry the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, pumpkin, paprika & half the oregano. Add the vegetable stock & simmer for 10 minutes. Add the beans, chickpeas & sweetcorn & simmer until pumpkin is tender (5 minutes or so). Season & stir in the rest of the oregano. Leave to stand a few minutes & serve.

Om nom nom!
Right-o, off to make some Doce de abóbora!

*Because cephalopodic gods forbid that I abandon a recipe just because the ingredients aren't available in this country!

Pastel de Choclo

Pastel de Choclo (which translates as 'Corn Pie') is Chiles favourite home cooked meal (according to Chilean internet site www.terra.cl), beating Porotos Granados (more on that tomorrow) and Empanadas. If you've ever tried it, you'll know why. Pastel de Choclo is real comfort food, a sort of Chilean version of shepherds pie. A rich stew (traditionally made with beef or chicken, but here I'm using chickpeas & winter squash) topped with a creamy mashed sweetcorn, like a richer, softer textured version of Tamale bake (but even more delicious!) They've been eating it in Chile & Peru since the 1800's, and it's about damn time we got in on the action too.

Pastel de Choclo (serves 4)
500g winter squash (I like butternut or crown prince), peeled, deseeded & cut into 1cm-ish chunks
2 onions, finely chopped
1 carrot, sliced
2 tbs vegetable oil
500ml passata
400g (1 can) chickpeas
2 tbs raisins
handful of sliced green olives
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp oregano
salt & pepper

Topping
3 cups sweetcorn (thawed if frozen)
3 tbs cornflour
100ml milk (or non dairy milk to keep it vegan)
1 tsp basil
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. If you have a good sized cazuela, use it. If not, a deep ovenproof dish works fine too. You can also divide it into 4 individual dishes too.
Heat the oil in a large pan & fry the onion until translucent. Add the carrot & squash & cook for 5 minutes. Add the herbs, chickpeas, passata, olives, raisins & cook until the squash is tender. Season & pour into the baking dish.
To make the sweetcorn topping, put all the ingredients into a blender & pulse until you get a coarse mix that's somewhere between hummus & porridge. Spoon over the squash mixture, making sure to seal all the edges & bake for 45 minutes, or until the sweetcorn topping is golden & the tomato sauce bubbling up around the edges.

If you must serve it with something, fried plantains & green beans are happy companions.
Once you've tried it, experiment with different fillings! Mushrooms & beans in a mole sauce is pretty heavenly, as is seitan & pinto beans. A few chopped hard boiled eggs in there will go down well too.

Om nom nom!

Kudzu? You do!

Do what? remind me of the babe*

I went bumbling around Tai Sun, the Oriental wholesale store tucked away in an industrial estate in Doncaster the other week (if you're ever in the area, track it down, it's well worth a visit), mostly to stock up on jars of stuff, congee & kimchee, and dissuade MikeyFox from buying sushi rice by the 25kg sack, when I spotted this mystery tuber.

The nice lady there called it 'Yam bean', which could be any of a dozen different root veg (bless you, Linnaeus, for having the whole biomial nomenclature idea. Even if you were a bit of a perv), after some lengthly googling, it turned out to be Kudzu root.
Kudzu root (Pueraria lobata) is most famous for being The Vine that Ate the South (though I know it best as the cover of the first REM album Murmur). It was introduced from Japan to the USA in 1876, and now is reputed to cover 3 million hectares of the Southeastern area. Ouch.
But the young leaves & roots are edible. In China it's used to make slow cooked soups, usually with pork or chicken.
So I decided to make Sancocho.

Sancocho is a traditional Latin American soup that varies from country to country (in Panama it's made with chicken & yam, in El Salvador it's made with tripe & other leftover bits of cow. In the Canary islands it's made with fish. So huzzah, a recipe that allows for some rejiggering). If you don't have any kudzu root, then yam, sweet cassava, eddoes or taro root are all good. Or you can use potato. If you don't have any plantain, you can make it without, but I really recommend trying it with. It's also a delightfully easy recipe, you just throw everything in the pot & then go potter around the garden for half an hour.

Sancocho (Vegetable & Plantain soup) serves 4-6, depending on how gluttonous you feel.

1tbs vegetable oil
2tbs annatto seed, crushed (or annatto oil. Or achiote paste)
1 red chilli, chopped
1 leek, sliced thinly
1 red onion, sliced thinly
2 tsp oregano
1tsp cumin
1 kudzu root (or 1 sweet cassava, 3 eddoes, or 250g of yam or waxy potato)
1 carrot, sliced
500g butternut squash, peeled & roughly chopped (depending on how big you like your chunks)
1 plantain, sliced
2 corn of the cob, cut into thick slices (you could use frozen sweetcorn, but I really recommend trying this. If you get a bag of frozen corn cob pieces, you can use them too)
1 ltr vegetable stock
1 tbs tomato puree (or 2 ripe tomatoes)
sprig of fresh thyme
juice of 1 lime
bunch of coriander, chopped

In a large pot, heat the oil & add leeks, onions, chilli & annatto & fry until the onion becomes translucent (4 or 5 minutes). Add herbs, vegetables & stock, leaving only the lime & coriander. Bring to the boil & simmer for 30-40 minutes (less if you're cooking potato. Check after 15 minutes, and simmer until tender, but not a collapsing mess). Stir occasionally. If it looks a little dry, add more stock. Remove from heat & stir in the coriander & lime, and add salt & pepper to taste.
Serve in bowls, making sure there's a few chunks of corn in there)

You can serve with boiled white rice, or add some chunks of seitan, TVP or cooked chickpeas, but I like it just as it is.
Inspired by, but not entirely based on, Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan. If you don't own it, then get thee to a bookshop & buy it!

Om nom nom!

*Ah, Labyrinth. You were an awesome film. Even with David Bowie & his mad hair & Disturbingly Tight Trousers.