Thursday 3 December 2009

Best winter Thai pumpkin soup and acid fried blues


WTA's winter wonderland


Winter is glorious primordial time of the year on WTA. There's time to rest soil, rest the bones, go inward, contemplate, rejuvenate the soul...and write a Master's thesis! There have been 'gutsy' frosts and snow round these parts (it's snowing as I write this post) and the ground is rock solid. Summer's hard work is still paying dividends in the form of parsnips curly kale, and there's even some good feeds of carrots to be had.




Leeks and Jerusalem Artichokes destined

for the Christmas table.

WTA managed to provide more than enough parsnips, carrots, Romanescu broccoli, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes, Brussel sprouts pumpkin and runner beans to feed nine at this year's Christmas table. Digging the parsnips and carrots out of the snow was a little problematic but definitely worth it when to came to eating them.



WTA's fresh, 'naturally frozen' sprouts and broccoli

WTA's Crown Prince pumpkins have been a roaring success this year. The Brits have finally caught onto what a eating vegetable pumpkin is (something the Aussies knew yor years!). I've come up with the following recipe for a brilliant Thai-style pumpkin soup I've been enjoying over the last month so. So here it is...

WTA's Best Thai Pumpkin Soup.

1kg of raw pumpkin (peeled)

1tbsp of Thai fish sauce.

Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (grated)

1 tbsp Schwartz Fragrant Thai Hot crushed curry spices

3 tbsps Schwartz 'Cook art' green chili, lemongrass & cardamom spice blend


2 medium red onions


1 litre of light coconut milk

1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock

Method
Preheat oven to about 190 degrees c.
Peel the pumpkin and cut into small chunks. Cut the onions into quarters. Place pumpkin and onions in a baking tray and coat with couple of glugs of olive or rapeseed/canola oil. Sprinkle all the spices over the pumpkin and onion Place tray in the oven and bake pumpkin and onions until both are beginning to soften.
Remove baked pumpkins and onions from oven when soft. Transfer to large heavy-based pot. Add chicken stock and simmer on cook top for half an hour. Liquidise stock, pumpkin and onion mixture. Slowly stir in coconut milk and grated fresh ginger. Add fish sauce. Season with sea salt or freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve garnished with basil or corriander leaves.

Steve's 'Acid Fried Blues'

The dark evenings have also given me time to catch with some of the music that inspires my depth psychology and gardening. Western Australian Steve Tallis - http://www.stevetallis.com/ - is one such musician whose music has been feeding me over the dark months. Steve is playing around Paris right now and is definitely worth seeing play if you're in that neck of the woods or indeed anywhere the man happens to performing his 'acid fried blues'.
Listen and grow well!

1 comment:

  1. I'm so impressed by your vegetables! I never have much luck with ours - very difficult clay soil, HOT summers and often we have water rationing. It looks so cold where you are - we spent the New Year holiday in England year before last - a bit in Devon and then in London. I froze!

    I made a similar soup just a few weeks ago!

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