Squash, chanterelle and sage flatbread / pizza

My lab hosted a pumpkin themed happy hour on Friday, and it was out of control. We ran a pumpkin carving competition, delivering pumpkins to each lab / group (17 in total) a week in advance and then fanning a wildfire of competing posters from different groups advertising why you should vote for them (in homage to the upcoming election). Then on Friday we made a feast of pumpkin based food, decorated the department in orange and black, ran the ballots for the competition and awarded the trophies (gold-painted gourds on pedestals). The food making was epic: I hacked up 11 butternut squashes with a crappy knife and I've got a blister to prove it. Everything we made contained something squash: pumpkin bruschetta (baguette slices with a smear of baked squash, plus some combination of goat cheese, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, fresh coriander and seasoning), 'squashamole' (dip made with mashed baked squash, lime juice, chopped red onion, ground cumin, chopped coriander and seasoning) with hexagonal multigrain chips (Paul's special request / invention), roasted butternut squash and tofu chunks with rosemary / sage, wild and brown rice mix with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander, roasted squash seeds with cajun spice, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-white chocolate muffins. We bought the baguettes and the pumpkin pies but we made pretty much everything else from scratch.

So, I couldn't imagine eating another squash after all that, what with the blister and the overexposure. But a lazy Sunday rolled around and S popped up wondering what was for lunch, and I remembered an idea I had of using baked squash instead of tomato sauce on pizza... And also that I had a tub of baked squash left over from happy hour in the fridge, plus a batch of bread mix, the last of the chanterelles and some rosemary and sage from Andrea's yard - seemed like an irresistible plan!

2 orange-sized chunks of dough
1-2 cups of baked squash (peel removed)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 small onion, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 black salty olives, pits removed, torn into quarters
3/4 cup chanterelles, checked for imperfections and torn into large pieces (sliced chestnut mushrooms would be a decent out-of-season substitute)
1 tsp chopped sage leaves
1 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
semolina / corn meal for lining the baking trays
(optional cheese - S is still eating his way through the cheese mountain his mum left behind, so he put some brie and parmesan on his bits)

Heat the oven to 450F. Roll or stretch out the dough as thin as you can - try to get down to ~2 mm thick.  Move the pizza base to a baking tray pre-sprinkled with semolina or coarse corn meal (this quantity is for 2 pizzas).

Mash the baked squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Smear the bases with the squash mixture, making an uneven covering 2-3 mm thick. Scatter the onion, garlic, olives, chanterelles and herbs over the top, and season / drizzle a wee drop more olive oil over the top.

Put the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes / until the crust is crisp and starting to brown around the edges and the toppings are cooked. Remove, let cool for a minute and then eat.


This was a very successful experiment all round. It was a lovely, rich, colourful pizza topping combination that tasted great, and the base came out really crisp. The high speed bread mix worked great as pizza base (which is brilliant news - that stuff is super useful); lining the trays with semolina / cornmeal was much better than using flour; and the squash made a wonderful, very seasonal sauce (less wet than tomato although still moist, perhaps this contributed to the crispness).

Beetroot seed cake

I'd bookmarked this cake a while back, then ended up with some eggs (beautiful multi-coloured ones, thanks to D+K's tempura making), and was daydreaming about making it when along came Alvin with a bag of beetroot among this week's bounty.

'Frankenstorm' Sandy is due to hit us tomorrow, in fact today already felt wild and stormy - the winds are rising and squalling, and showers are whipping our apartment building - so I am getting apprehensive about what tomorrow might have in store for us. I've moved all my plants down off the roof and filled all the large plastic bottles I can find with water. S was concerned we might run out of food: this cake should, as well as satisfying my love of beetroot and nagging urge to follow that recipe, keep us going in the event of mishap.

For the cake:
butter or oil, for greasing
225g/8oz self-raising flour (used plain, plus 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
(1/2 tsp ground ginger)
180ml/6¼fl oz sunflower oil (used veg oil)
225g/8oz light muscovado sugar (used a mixture of brown and granulated)
3 eggs, separated (used 2 large eggs plus 1 tbsp linseed / 2.5 tbsp hot water mix)
150g/5oz raw beetroot, peeled
juice of half a lemon
75g/3oz sultanas or raisins (used golden raisins)
75g/3oz mixed seeds (such as sunflower, pumpkin and linseed) (used golden linseed, pumpkin seed and poppy seeds)

For the icing:
8 tablespoons icing sugar
 a little lemon juice or orange blossom water
poppy seeds, to garnish

Heat the oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a rectangular loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 7cm/8in x 4in x 3in), and line the base with baking paper.

Mix together with a fork the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger.

In a separate bowl, beat the oil and sugar until well combined, then mix in the linseed mixture, followed by the egg yolks one by one. Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold it into the egg mixture, then add the lemon juice, sultanas / raisins and the assorted seeds, and mix. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Beat the egg whites until light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the cake mixture, using a large metal spoon (a wooden one will knock the air out). Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after thirty minutes. Test with a skewer for doneness. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good twenty minutes before turning out of its tin onto a wire cooling rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice or orange blossom water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake and drizzle slowly down the sides (about three teaspoonfuls), stirring to remove any lumps. Drizzle it over the cake and scatter with the poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.


It's quite lovely: bejewelled with deep pink beetroot, golden raisins, emerald pumpkin seeds... They taste great together too - layers of sweet earthiness. Only thing is, it is a little greasy (another time try less oil / a little more linseed mixture, beetroot, lemon or milk). During the assembly process I kept thinking it was going wrong as it often seemed unfamiliar in texture and consistency, but it came out ok. Might be good with orange zest+juice instead of the lemon juice. I iced half and left the rest un-iced (it makes a big loaf cake, a half quantity would be loads for just us in non emergency situations), both were good. I usually wouldn't bother icing a cake like this but fancied trying the orange blossom water. I've generally found orange blossom water perfumey and hard to work with, but here it actually works out being quite pleasant.

Roasted turnips with turnip greens

Another delivery from Alvin, another vegetable I rarely buy. This time a bunch of cute little white turnips, doing their best to disguise themselves as ping pong balls to escape being cooked. I didn't have much idea what to do with them, so decided to roast the turnips and saute the greens, with plenty of garlic and rosemary, then see how it all went together.

1 bunch of small white turnips, greens and roots separated
5 cloves garlic
olive oil
water
salt and pepper
small bunch of rosemary
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 350F. Wash the roots, top and tail them, chop into wedges (or leave whole, depending on the size), and arrange in a baking dish.  Add 3 whole garlic cloves (unpeeled) and 4 sprigs of rosemary. Pour over about 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp water, season and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the turnips are soft and savoury.

Meanwhile, wash and roughly chop the greens, and peel and chop the remaining garlic. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic until just starting to brown. Add the greens, cover, and saute until wilted. Season.

When the turnip roots are done, remove them from the oven and add the balsamic vinegar to the pan, tossing to deglaze. Remove the skins from the garlic and any twiggy bits of the rosemary. Allow to cool, then toss together with the greens, checking for seasoning and oil / vinegar.


The greens were surprisingly good: very tender and tasty, slightly peppery. The turnip roots I may have overcooked a little, as I mixed them with some beetroot that might have needed a bit longer. Came out tasting fine, just a bit squishy. I tasted some turnip root raw and it was very good - kohlrabi-like crunch and juiciness and colour - would perhaps have made a good salad, lightly pickled / with coriander and chilli.

Chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms

We went to the woods at the weekend, and found so so many mushrooms. Starting with some slimy boletes as soon as we left the car park, and moving on to add chanterelle after chanterelle as soon as we left the path, followed by what we think were two varieties of hedgehog mushroom (wish I had a better picture of these).

By the time we got back to the car we had a weighty bag of hedgehogs, plus two bulging bags of delicate chanterelles. D had collected and eaten both from the same spot before, so we had little doubt about their identification and awesomeness. This haul outstrips any other mushroom hunting trip I ever made, many times over.

We mainly consulted this book, which is wonderful. The author is incredibly knowledgeable and it's bursting with personality and tips about every aspect of mushroom hunting, preparation, growing and eating. All the recommended mushroom varieties are given scores at the back for how good they are when prepared to eat in different ways. Hedgehogs scored highly for tempura, so we decided to burden K with the responsibility of her heritage and put her in charge of hedgehog tempura, while D+S concentrated on cleaning mushrooms with a paintbrush and I sauteed some chanterelles (they scored high in the saute category). We also set up the dehydrator to dry out some of both kinds of mushrooms for future use.


Sauteed chanterelles

1 tbsp olive oil
4 large handfuls fresh chanterelles, larger ones torn in two
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped curly parsley
knob of butter
slug of (German) white wine
salt+pepper

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the garlic. Cook until starting to brown then add in the cleaned chanterelles. Saute over a medium heat until they release their liquid, then continue to saute until they absorb it again. Add the herbs and cook for a few more minutes. Finally, add the butter and white wine and cook until melted / evaporated, and taste for seasoning.

We ate them with gnocchi, they were yummy - quite delicate and fragrant (almost fruity?).  These chanterelles are beautiful mushrooms, and really held their shape and texture despite looking so frail.

For second batch (yes, we had that many), I sauteed an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil until well softened and golden brown, then added a mixture of hedgehogs and chanterelles, cooked until the liquid reabsorbed, then added some chopped chives and seasoning, and a knob of butter to deglaze the pan. And ate it with spaetzle (which go wonderfully well with sauteed mushrooms).  I think I liked this latter version better.


Powdered dried chanterelles / hedgehog mushrooms

The book recommended powdering both kinds of mushroom when dry as they apparently do not reconstitute well (I'd imagine they just go a bit floppy and slimy).

Fill the dehydrator with cleaned mushrooms and set to 110-125C. Leave overnight or for approx 4 hours, until the mushrooms are completely dried. The chanterelles dried out quite easily and evenly as they are quite thin and delicate all over; the hedgehogs are thicker and did not dry quite as quickly / evenly. For powdering, I think it is important that the mushrooms are very thoroughly dried. When completely dry, transfer the mushrooms to a clean spice/coffee grinder and whizz to a powder. Try not to inhale it when you take the lid off. The full dehydrator (5 trays) of chanterelles made 250ml of powder.

The smell of the powder is incredible - intense essence of mushroom - and both chanterelle and hedgehog powder smelled quite similar.  But I haven't figured out the best way to store or cook with it yet... Edit: see here for recipes so far.


Note: I think the chanterelles were mostly Craterellus tubaeformis, the winter chanterelle (fits with being late in the season), although I think we also found some Cantharellus ignicolor (flame-coloured chanterelle; think the ones in the photo above are these) and Cantharellus cinnabarinus (bright red ones). The hedgehog mushrooms were Hydnum repandum and/or Hydnum umbilicatum.

Fennel, apple and walnut salad

Another autumn salad, using more of the apples we picked the other day, plus some fennel from A's CSA and walnuts, a lovely trinity of ingredients.

1 bulb fennel, tough parts removed, good parts finely sliced
1 medium apple, washed, cored and thinly sliced
~6 walnuts, crumbled
1/2 spring onion, finely chopped
~1 tbsp fronds from the fennel, finely chopped
~1 tbsp curly parsley, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt+pepper

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and toss together. Taste and check for seasoning and acidity.


Very fresh, clean tastes - great to eat with something greasy. Noticeably this kept surprisingly well - the apples stayed white and crispy. The only thing I might leave out would be the fennel fronds, other than them it would still be perfect after several days in the fridge.

Butternut squash and chickpea salad with tahini sauce

Having accumulated 4 squashes (3 butternut and 1 acorn) I guess I was kind of on the lookout for new things to do with squash. I stumbled across this recipe, and it seemed to be combining a bunch of things I like / I know go well with squash, so I thought I'd give it a shot. As I assembled the ingredients and started to make it, I realised it is actually quite familiar - it's similar to the roasted squash and chickpeas I've made and liked before, with a tahini sauce that is another variation on a favourite quick sauce. Still, it's a new construction and with those credentials I'm bound to like it...

For salad:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 ½ lb), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
½ tsp ground allspice (or sumac)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
equivalent of 1 tin cooked, defrosted chickpeas
¼ of a medium red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

For sauce:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
3 ½ tbsp lemon juice (approx. juice of 1 lemon)
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 425F. In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a good pinch or two of salt. Toss until the squash pieces are evenly coated. Turn them out onto a baking sheet, and bake for 25 to 45 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Meanwhile, make the tahini sauce. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and mix to blend. Add the water and olive oil, mix well, and taste for seasoning.

To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and coriander in a mixing bowl. Either toss with tahini sauce, or serve with tahini sauce on the side.


Perhaps a little more onion than I would have liked, but pretty colours and tasty.  Nothing very new but nonetheless nice, autumn-turning-colder comfort food.

Apples are everywhere: apple and ginger jam

This weekend was fall fun from beginning to end: we looked at fireworks (Bonfire Night is coming up); went for a short hike up Mt Kearsarge on a beautifully crisp, clear day scattered with red and yellow leaves; went apple picking and bought lots of squashes at Carter Hill Orchard; ate apple pie...  And we had a Harvest Festival at the garden, during which we cranked out a lot of fresh apple juice using a wonderful vintage press and ate amazing soup containing foraged maitake mushrooms and acorns. I took a few of the extra, slightly bruised apples to make some apple jam.

I used this recipe before, when I had a constant (in Autumn) supply of cooking apples from the trees around the allotments in Norwich - our plot was right at the bottom of the space, and as I walked along the track to it I always found windfalls scattered on the road and figured they were fair game - they were only going to last until the next car came along if I didn't pick them up. The jam is surprisingly good: apples are too mild in taste (and lacking in texture) for a jam by themselves, but the addition of lemon and ginger makes a wonderful, golden, spicy jam in a relatively short time.

(makes ~6 regular sized jars)

3 lb apples
600ml water
2 lemons
2 one inch pieces of fresh root ginger
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
3 lb sugar

Peel, core and chop the apples. Put the apple pieces into a large pan with the water. Put the peel and cores into a muslin bag and tie up tightly, then add the bag to the pan. Grate the lemon zest and squeeze the lemons, then add the zest and juice to the pan. Peel the fresh ginger and grate one piece into the pan. Chop the other piece of fresh ginger into two and put in the pan. Add the ground ginger. Simmer until the apples are softened. Fish out the bag and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Add the sugar and boil hard until setting point is reached. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then fish out the two large chunks of ginger and spoon the jam into sterilised jars.

(see Methods page for notes on set point, jar sterilisation and jar filling)


The original recipe calls for crystallised ginger, of which I had none so decided to try using fresh ginger instead. It came out pretty good: you don't get the chunks of gingeriness you would with the crystallised ginger but the jam is still nice and gingery - each mouthful is different, depending whether you get a bit of lemon zest or more ginger or just apple. The set is firm but perfect and it is a great spreading jam as the apples are pretty much completely smoothed out.

I actually had twice this quantity of apples, but decided they would be too much jam so stewed the rest to make an apple puree / apple sauce. The apples were all eating apples - I have never yet found real cookers here - so all I did was peel, core and chop, then heat in a covered saucepan until they collapsed, without adding anything, and the sauce/puree came out amazingly sweet.

Raisin-oat-sunflower biscuits (gluten-free)

I haven't done any gluten-free baking for a while, but the oats we buy regularly from Trader Joe's are gluten free. On the back of the package is a recipe for gluten-free oat cookies that has been tempting me for a while. The opportunity presented itself with the harvest festival at the garden this afternoon (featuring my two regular GF test eaters). So here goes...

(I made half the quantity given below and it gave 15 large cookies)

1/4 cup fake butter (or 4 tbsp oil)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sunflower seed butter (or peanut butter)
3 cups GF oats
6 oz raisins (or mixed dried fruit)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Heat oven to 350F. Cream sugars and butter/oil in a large bowl. Add linseed mixture, vanilla, bicarb and cinnamon and mix well. Add sunflower seed butter and mix. Stir in oats, raisins and sunflower seeds. Place teaspoons of the batter on a lightly greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart (they will spread a little as they bake). Bake 10-12 minutes until light brown around the edges. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to cool a bit so they firm up a little and are easier to handle, then transfer the still-warm biscuits (careful, they are quite soft and bendy at this stage) to a cooling rack. They will become firm and crunchy as they cool.


I liked these a lot. Sweet and crunchy and tasty and you would never guess they were gluten free. They don't even have any flour in them at all! Also, a good way to eat up the sunflower seed butter, which I thought I would love straight up but weirdly like much less than peanut butter - it works perfectly in these. Big thumbs up from both A and H, and from lots of other non-gluten-free diet people too... and they were all eaten, which is always a good sign.

Note: I don't really like using marg if I can help it, and it seemed a bit superfluous in this recipe, so the second time I made these I used 4 tbsp of safflower oil and it worked just fine. Actually the batter was a lot less sticky than the first time I made them, although whether that was something to do with ambient temperature or a different sunflower butter brand or what I don't know. Anyway, they came out great again: definitely a hit. I am still wondering if you could skip out the oil/marg altogether and just use a little more nut/seed butter: will perhaps try this next time.

Pumpkin chocolate cake-cookies

I've been getting through about three squashes a week recently, pumpkin/squash are great stuff. I'd rarely baked with pumpkin before I moved here, but I am fully converted now.

These are partly for the harvest festival we are having at the garden today, and partly for our friend G, whose birthday is on Thursday and we spent the day with yesterday, and who fortuitously loves pumpkin anything (and also dislikes chocolate, I remembered too late - but it was OK, turns out he likes chocolate chips).

I wanted to make pumpkin cookies, and considered a bunch of recipes before settling on this one. I think my original vision was something a bit more cookie-ish - these are quite cake-y - but they taste great so it's OK.

(makes about two dozen large cookies)

2 cups plain flour
1 1/3 cups oats
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 2/3 cups sugar (mixture of brown sugar and granulated)
2/3 cup veg oil
2 tbsp carob molasses
1 cup cooked pureed pumpkin (about 1 smallish acorn squash)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp ground linseed
1/2 cup plain chocolate chunks

Heat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Mix together flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix together sugars, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla and linseed. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheets. They don’t spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers. Bake for 16 minutes at 350F.

Remove from oven and move to a wire rack to cool. These taste best when they’ve had some time to cool and set. They taste even better the next day.


Definitely a hit with everyone who ate them, although I think the GF ones I made at the same time went down better!

Savoury caraway-wholemeal muffins

While looking for the carrot muffin recipe, I came across this one and thought it sounded interesting - why not make double the muffins for the same amount of washing up?

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain flour (original recipe 1 cup rye flour and 1 cup wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1/4 cup veg oil
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 cups almond milk mixed with 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare muffin tins.

Mix the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Stir in the cornmeal and the caraway seeds.

In a separate bowl, beat together the linseed mixture, oil, blackstrap molasses and milk mixture. Add wet to dry and mix until just combined.

Spoon into muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.


I really like these - the darkness and caraway are great, and they are proving a handy lunch addition - I keep them in the freezer and throw a couple in my lunch bag if I'm short: they take an hour or so to defrost. Perhaps another time I will try with the prescribed rye flour.

Spiced carrot muffins

I woke up this morning wanting carrot cake. And we actually had some carrots in the fridge, so it seemed like a realistic desire to fulfill. I haven't made carrot cake in ages (my go-to is the Delia recipe), but didn't really feel like the whole, cakey, sugary shebang, so decided to go for lots of spices, adapting this recipe, instead.

(makes 12)

1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup veg oil
1 1/3 cups almond milk mixed with 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup golden raisins mixed with a little flour
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups grated carrot

Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare muffin tins.

Mix the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt in a large bowl with a fork.

In a separate bowl, beat together the linseed mixture, sugar, oil, milk mixture and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the raisins, pecans and carrot in the final strokes.

Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.

Buttercup squash soup

We stopped at a few farmstands when we were out in the country with Karin - we bought loads of onions and potatoes, and also three different kinds of squash: butternut, buttercup and acorn. Butternut are always fine: soft, sweet and nutty. Acorn are perhaps my favourite so far: very smooth and sweet. Buttercup I've used less often: it is also sweet, perhaps a little drier than the other two.

1 medium buttercup squash
1 tbsp olive oil (plus more for oiling the roasting tray)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 jalapeno chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cups vegetable stock
1-2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
salt+pepper

First prepare the squash: cut it in half through the stem, deseed and place cut side down on a lightly oiled baking tray and roast at 400F for ~45 min or until it gives when poked. Allow to cool then scrape the insides from the skin and discard the skin.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the onion. Cover the pan and fry the onion over a medium heat until softened and starting to brown, adding the garlic and chilli along the way. Add the cumin seeds and fry for a few minutes while stirring. Add the squash and stir / fry for a minute or two, then add the thyme leaves and the stock and bring to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes or so, until everything is well combined.

Next, add the red wine vinegar, soy sauce and salt+pepper to taste. Allow to cool for a few minutes then liquidise.


This makes a rather thick (++incredibly silky) soup but that's what I felt like eating today - add more liquid (water or stock) to make a thinner texture. The squash is really quite sweet, so I think the vinegar and soy are really important for counteracting that. The cumin and thyme are both assertive tastes, but seem to play together well. All in all pretty good - very warm and earthy and moreish.

Roasted beetroot with garlic, thyme and balsamic

More beetroot, this time roasted (based on this).

6-8 medium-small beetroot, washed thoroughly, top-and-tailed, and any very ugly / hairy / dirty bits of peel removed (go the whole hog and remove all the peel if you feel like it)
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4-6 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp water
salt+pepper
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 400F. Cut the beetroot into evenly sized wedges. Put them in a lidded oven dish. Push the garlic cloves and thyme sprigs into spaces between the beetroot wedges. Pour the water and olive oil over, season and put the lid on the dish. Put in the oven and leave for about an hour, until the beetroot is tender. Remove from the oven and pour over the balsamic vinegar. Remove the twiggy bits of the thyme, scraping them gently between the tines of a fork to encourage the leaves to stay in the dish. Peel the garlic, mash it a little, and return to the dish. Toss, and taste for seasoning.


This was good warm, but even better cold the next day: the flavours of the thyme and beetroot really stand up to each other well.

Autumn salad: beetroot, fennel, apple, seeds, crunch

A dropped off beetroot (the real pink deal this time) and mustard greens yesterday, and we talked about Borneo and SE Asian history. I sauteed some mustard greens simply with onion. As I biked home this salad emerged in my head as how I wanted to eat the beetroot - lots of raw, autumnal crunch:

1 large beetroot, peeled, top-and-tailed and cut into matchsticks
1/2 large bulb fennel, sliced into approximate matchsticks
plus 2 tbsp of fronds from the fennel, finely chopped
1/2 medium apple, cored and cut into matchsticks
1 heaped tsp poppy seeds
3/4 tsp white sesame seeds
3/4 tsp black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
2 tbsp raisins, optional
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
3/4 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Prepare the ingredients, put together in a bowl and mix.  Taste to check for seasoning, acidity and sweetness.


I really liked the seasonality, the sweet-tangy-earthiness, the colours, and of course the crunchiness of this. I decided to matchstick the beetroot instead of grating to keep the bleeding of colour a little bit under control, and that worked - the whiteness of fennel and apple was still visible. Although grating would have released more juice and made the beetroot softer - I relied on the acid to do this instead. I wasn't 100% on the raisins - they introduced sweetness and a different texture, but I also kind of liked it as an exclusively crunchy / seedy affair. Keeps well (perhaps even improves) in the fridge.

Green tomato chutney

The other half of my green tomato preserving marathon. This is a classic chutney, from the book Grandma gave me (with a few adjustments).

(made about 3 standard sized jars)

2 lb green tomatoes, chopped
1 lb onions, sliced
2 1/2 tsp salt
300 ml cider vinegar
5/8 lb (275g) brown sugar
8 oz apples, peeled and chopped
8 oz raisins (used a mixture of golden and normal)
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 habanero peppers, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp red chilli pepper flakes

Mix the tomatoes and onions in a large bowl with the salt, cover and leave for 24 hours.

Drain the tomatoes and onions and discard any liquid.  Heat the vinegar in a large pan, add the sugar and heat until dissolved. Add the raisins and bring to the boil. Add the rest of the ingredients and heat over a low flame for 2 hours / until dragging a wooden spoon through the mixture leaves a trail you can see the bottom of the pan through. Allow to cool for five minutes or so then spoon into sterilised jars. For best results, leave to mature for at least 2 weeks before eating.

Green tomato jam (Confiture de tomates vertes)

It was the first of the end of season tidy up days at the garden on Saturday, and I collected a lot of green tomatoes. I had chutney in mind, then thought maybe I had enough tomatoes to make a couple of different things, and came across this unusual sounding jam (possibly a French idea). I saw several recipe variations but decided to go with this simple amalgamation.

(made 3-4 standard sized jars)

2.5 lb green tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 lb sugar
zest and juice of one lemon

Mix the sliced tomatoes in a large bowl with the sugar. Cover and leave for 24 hours. Transfer the mixture to a large pan with the lemon zest and juice, and heat over a low flame for 2 hours. Check for setting point, heat faster for a while if necessary. Allow to cool for ten minutes then put carefully into jars and close the lids tightly.


This stuff is really interesting. It looks like a Martian raspberry jam - lots of small seeds and a deep colour, but richly green rather than pink-red. The taste is fairly subtle, with a slight sharpness to it. I haven't quite figured it out yet: will need to eat some more...


A couple of months later I was at Grandma's, looking through an old cookery book (Miss Tuxford's Cookery for the Middle Classes, 9th Edition, 1927) that we found in a box of books that used to belong to Mum. In the chapter on 'Food Reform Cookery', which I think means vegetarian food but perhaps has a grander meaning too, I found a recipe for Green Tomato Jam:

So perhaps it's just an old-fashioned idea rather than being particularly French. Anyway, it was nice, and next time I have green toms I will try it with ginger!