sweet potato & ricotta gnocchi two-ways

a field of sweet potato gnocchi ... like little orange pillow-flowers growing in my kitchen.


ingredients
about 2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potato.
2/3 cup ricotta cheese. draining it helps, but it's not necessary.
about 1 & 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling and dusting the workspace.
salt to taste.
shakes of black pepper.
a little nutmeg/cinnamon blend.

directions
mix up the sweet potato, ricotta, and seasoning.
add flour to make a dough. it should be a little sticky, but if its really got a grip on your hands, don't be shy about adding a little extra flour.
divide dough into six portions.
on a lightly floured work surface, roll each portion into a log approximately 1 inch in diameter.
cut each log into 1-inch portions.
at this point, you can freeze the gnocchi for later. or ...

deliciousness option #1: boiled
(1) set a large pot of salted water to boiling.
(2) drop in the gnocchi, about 10 at a time. you don't want them to bump into each other too much, and you don't want the water to cool down too much.
(3) boil for about 3 minutes, or until the gnocci have expanded a bit and look slick, but not waterlogged.
(4) toss with brown-butter sauce, add parmesan and sage, and go!

deliciousness option #2: fried. yes, mmm, fried.
(1) put a little olive oil in a pan and heat it up on medium.
(2) drop in some gnocchi.
(3) fry until brown and crispy on the outside, hot and mushy on the inside.
(4) toss in sauce and devour.

these, below, are unsauced, but i mixed them up with some delicious homemade pesto. lots of folk seem to limit their sweeter pastas to sweet or straight-buttery sauces, but i thought the contrast of bright, garlicky pesto let this dinner be decadent without getting heavy.

pav bhaji

i had a bit of a glut of random vegetables. tomatoes, potatoes, massive and lovely peas from the oakland farmers' market, maybe some others. it's hard to keep track, during the summer. so ... how to decide on the next bit of experimental cookery? enter my new favorite exploration technique: google "[vegetable(s)] [part of world/cuisine] recipe." so far, i've found that there is always an awesome indian recipe for any vegetable (or combination of vegetables) that a body has lying around. this time, it's pav bhaji. i had never heard of it, but it sounded good. fortunately bombay bazar (valencia & 17th) had a made-to-order spice mix -- it was key. most folks (i've read) make pav bhaji with an absurd amount of butter, and serve it on griddled butter-soaked bread. but, since it was monday and i try to refrain from death-inducing food on weekdays, i de-buttered the sauce and served it with khitchari instead.

ingredients

for pav bhaji
1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
3 yukon gold potatoes
6 tomatoes, grated (a newfound technique, courtesy of my bombay kitchen.)
about 1 cup shelled fresh peas
1 red pepper, minced
1 yellow onion, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 T ginger garlic paste (also from mbk. this is so handy to have in the fridge.)
2 T or so vegetable oil
2 T ghee
1 t turmeric
1 t cayenne pepper
pav bhaji masala spice mix (all this stuff, and a body still needs a spice mix!)
salt to taste
at least 1/4 lemon
cilantro

for khitchari
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup mung dal
1/2 cup channa dal
~8 whole allspice
salt
2 1/4 C water. did you know you can make this in a rice cooker? i didn't think i needed a rice cooker until i got one from my mom last christmas. actually, i didn't think i needed a rice cooker even when i got one! now i use it almost every day and feel really, really grateful. thanks mom!

directions
boil cauliflower & potatoes until tender. set aside.
in a deep saucepan, saute red pepper, onions, and jalapeno pepper in oil over medium heat, about 5 minutes.
add ginger-garlic paste & keep the saute going.
add turmeric, salt, grated tomatoes (should be sort of like a puree), peas, cauliflower & potato mix, ghee, and masala. stir.
keep cooking for about 20 minutes or so, mashing the mixture with a potato masher as you go.
add juice from 1/4 lemon, and adjust spices. i used about 3 T of the spice mix, but i like it spicy.
serve over khitchari with chopped cilantro, maybe more lemons if you feel like it.

it was also totally good with a little of the eggplant pickle mixed in (yes, again, from mbk. this book is literally a whole new world of deliciousness).

serves 4-6. or, enough for 2 dinners and 4 lunches.

that lurid color isn't quite accurate -- its just my kitchen light that makes it look a bit atomic.

parsi-style snapper ragout & khichri

for the last couple of weeks, i've been obsessing over my bombay kitchen, an awesome new cookbook that has rapidly taken a place next to the A16 cookbook in my heart. every single thing i've made from this book has turned out beautifully, with minimal fuss and much forgiveness for my little substitutions and/or errors.

the khichri is 1/2 basmati rice, 1/4 mung dal, and 1/4 red lentils, cooked with ghee, tiny chopped onions, and a ton of spices -- whole cloves (i used a combination of whole allspice and powdered clove), cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, salt, and a little turmeric. usually, rice is fine by me, but nothing special; adding the lentils turned what i used to think of as a side dish into fragrant, creamy deliciousness that i was happy to eat on its own!

but, i was happier to eat it with the ragout. you can make it with fish filets, or shrimp, or whatever is on hand -- i chopped up red snapper into approx. 1-inch chunks, and rubbed it with a mix of salt, cayenne, and turmeric. separately, i sauteed 1 chopped onion in vegetable oil, then added two chopped jalapeno peppers and my lazy-girl version of masala paste (finely chopped garlic, ginger, salt and hot pepper). next, about six chopped tomatoes, about a cup of chopped cilantro (including stems) and some tamarind paste and sugar. cooked down to a loose jammy consistency, then fried the fish separately, mixed in with the ragout, and adjusted spices. total yum.

i'm serious: everything in this book is delicious and totally easy. so far, i've made these two, the eggplant pickle (p. 235), parsi green chutney (p. 227), cabbage salad with lime & mint (p. 214), caramelized fried rice (p. 168), khima (p. 119), and savory khara ras chaval (p.113-14; the name "soupy meat" really doesn't do this light soup a bit of justice). i dread the day i need to return this book to the library.

apricot jam & goat cheese galette

so, this is one of the 8 jars of apricot jam that i (and an army of others) made in june, with the able guidance of the girls at yes we can. i've been wanting to make something with this jam ever since i made the jam itself!

instead of an apricot jam tart -- the original idea -- i decided to modify martha stewart's dried peach and goat cheese galette to suit my purposes. same galette crust: a pate brisee, rolled out to a 1/4-inch thick rectangle, about 8" x 15", with a 1/2-inch thick folded-crust border.

fresh thyme: so key. thanks to sarah for growing it in our backyard!

the pale-orange parts are a goat-cheese mix: fresh goat cheese, apricot jam, honey, salt, lemon rind, & fresh thyme. the dark-orange parts are just pure apricot jam! obviously, i didn't get to my camera before the galette was brutalized.

arancini

i can't think of a better use for leftover risotto and mozzarella scraps. i had made risotto with summer squash (zucchini & pattypan) a few days before, and there really wasn't enough left over for a full meal, much less two. and i was just about to leave for ten days, so it didn't make sense to leave perfectly good mozzarella cheese languishing (and, almost certainly, rotting) in my absence.

ingredients
risotto
cheese, in small chunks
basil leaves, chopped
salt
vegetable oil
bread crumbs

directions
1. surround cheese and basil with risotto. should be about the size of a small clementine.
2. squeeze gently.
3. roll in bread crumbs.
4. fry.
5. sprinkle a little salt on the hot balls.

david's should-be-world-famous grilled cheese sandwiches

david makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the universe. i think the key ingredient is dedication. the end product should be perfectly crisp outside -- but not hard -- and softening and melty on the inside.

(1) put buttered, sliced sourdough bread on a warm pan. layer with no fewer than two types of cheese -- at least one must be melty, the other should be sharp. these two are mild and sharp cheddars.

(2) top with another slice of buttered sourdough.
(3) cover and cook on medium-low heat. seriously, lower heat than you think. this should take about 20 minutes. at least. dedication, remember?
(4) just a little longer.
(5) omg.

earth day-green farmers' market pasta

the tuesday farmers' market at the ferry building had a lot of awesome springy-summery stuff this week! bonus that it was all super-green in honor of earth day.

ingredients
1 bunch jumbo asparagus, chopped into bite-sized pieces
about a basketball-sized mass of sugar snap peas, shelled
2 shallots, minced
1 medium leek, white and pale green parts only, chopped into thin half-circles
butter
olive oil
salt
pepper
orecchiette pasta
parmesan cheese, grated
pesto (optional)

directions
set salted water to boil.
meanwhile, saute shallots in butter & olive oil (in approx. equal proportions) on medium heat.
add leeks, salt & pepper to taste.
add asparagus.
water should be boiling; add pasta.
about 4 minutes before pasta is done, add peas.
drain pasta and return to pot.
stir in pesto.
add vegetable mix and parmesan cheese.

eggplant-potato curry dosas

don't worry; he's not angry. just really pumped to down some dosa.

ingredients
dosa
1 cup dried moong dal
salt
minced ginger/garlic
cumin seeds
water
vegetable oil (for frying)
*note: as far as i can tell, normally dosa are made with an equal mix of urad dal (black gram) and basmati rice, both soaked overnight, then pureed, then left out to ferment for a day or two. shockingly, rainbow grocery doesn't have urad dal so my big plans to make authentic dosa came to naught. this moong dal variety is a lot easier and faster and you don't need to plan like five days ahead. still v. curious about the regular kind though.

eggplant-potato curry
1 large eggplant, peeled and cubed (approx 1")
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (approx 1")
ghee
minced fresh ginger
turmeric
cumin seeds
black mustard seeds
hing (optional, but awesome)
salt

cashew-parsley chutney
about 1/3 cup cashews (i didn't have quite enough, so i subbed walnuts for the rest)
1 bunch italian parsley, chopped (could sub cilantro if you like)
a little honey
lemon juice
plain yogurt, about 1 cup

directions
dosa
soak the moong dal for 2+ hours or overnight.
puree in the food processor, adding water as necessary (the less water, the better, but you'll definitely need to add some).
add minced ginger/garlic, cumin seeds, and salt.
heat a non-stick pan with the oil. spoon dosa mixture on the pan -- it won't fan out by itself, so you'll have to spread it. it's pretty hard to make it as thin as the dosa you get from actual professional dosa-makers, so don't worry too much about that:
flip over.
serve with curry, etc.

eggplant-potato curry
heat ghee.
add hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds.
when the seeds start popping, add ginger and stir.
add eggplant, potato, & turmeric. stir.
reduce heat slightly and cover. let cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
spoon into dosa.

cashew-parsley chutney
put everything into a blender. blend. adjust seasonings to taste.

chocolate & sea salt shortbread cookies

normally, i really struggle with cookies. i don't know why; they're supposed to be easy, right? i mean, kids make them. why not me?

ingredients
1 3/4 c + 1 T flour
1/2 c + 1 T cocoa powder
3/4 c sugar (i used half white, half rapadura)
3/4 t baking powder
1 t vanilla extract
8 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate
8 oz unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 t sea salt (i probably doubled this)
note: i halved the recipe and it made about 35 small cookies.

directions
mix together flour, cocoa & baking powder.
in a separate bowl, combine butter & sugar and mix until smooth.
add the flour in thirds, beating after each addition.
add chocolate, vanilla & salt and mix. don't overmix!!
halve the dough.
put half on a lightly floured surface, and roll the dough into a log shape, about 1/2 inch radius.
you'll need to squeeze the dough together a bit before you start rolling -- it's pretty crumbly -- and keep squeezing as you roll, so the little air pockets formed by the chocolate chunks don't collapse your log.
repeat w/ the other half of the dough.
wrap the logs in plastic wrap (separately) and refrigerate for at least an hour. (you can leave them like this overnight if you like, too.)
preheat oven to 300F. line baking sheet with parchment paper.
cut the logs into approx. 1/4 inch thick disks. put the disks on the paper. these don't really expand, so they can be close together.
bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.
cookies should still be soft when you take them out -- they'll get harder as they cool. actually, they'll probably need to be softer than you think they should be in order to get that great, mouth-melty texture that's the whole reason for making shortbread in the first place.

maybe this is the beginning of a new era of cookie-success.

purple cauliflower soup

just like the regular kind, but prettier!

ingredients
1 head purple cauliflower, chopped
1 chopped potato
~3 small leeks, white and pale green parts only, chopped
butter
olive oil
coriander
oregano
paprika
salt & pepper
chicken stock
lime juice
tiny bit heavy cream

directions
seriously, this couldn't be easier:
saute leeks in butter & olive oil until soft but not brown.
add potato, cauliflower & spices.
add chicken stock and/or water, enough to cover.
bring to boil.
reduce heat, cover & simmer until cauliflower is tender.
adjust seasonings.
puree in blender.
add a tiny bit heavy cream and lime juice.

i am a sucker for purple food.

oh yeah, and check this out: when i squirted a little lime juice on the soup, it turned this gorgeous bright fuchsia color! dinner + chemistry!

pulled pork sandwich

ingredients

2 lb pork shoulder

for the rub:
pimenton de la vera
paprika
sea salt
black pepper
the dirty dozen rub (a gift from jean -- thanks, jean!)

for the mop:
3/4 c red wine vinegar
1/4 apple cider vinegar
3 T worcestershire sauce
2 t sugar
1 T spicy brown mustard
1 T sweet habanero mustard
1 T cayenne powder
honey

directions
combine the rub spices and rub all over the roast.
wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate overnight.
in a bowl, combine all of the mop ingredients and mix well.
unwrap the roast.
heat the over to approximately 190-200 degrees F.*
heat up a cast iron skillet and sear the roast on all sides.
pour the mop over the roast.
cover the skillet with aluminum foil.
cook for ~6 hours. maybe 10.*
pull apart.
pile onto buns and eat!

*so ... it's pretty difficult to get the oven to hover reliably at such a low temperature. i put this in the oven and set the dial to what i thought would produce about 200 degrees, but it ended up heating to about 330. the meat cooked there for about 40 minutes. so, i turned the dial down even further than i thought necessary, thinking that i could leave it for about 4 hours, and cruised over to dolores park for some beverages and laying about in the sunshine. when i got back, the meat was definitely nowhere near done, and the oven temp read about 140ish. so i turned the dial back up, checked to see that the oven flames were still on, and kept the roast in for another four hours or so -- enough time to have a bowl of french onion soup, a bottle of wine, and a goat cheese-and-bacon burger at chez maman. the pork turned out perfectly tender, moist and pull-able. in other words, i'm not really sure how long the pork was cooked or at what temperature, but it turned out great regardless.

walnut tofu: not pretty, but cool

in 2006, i did a temple stay (shukubo) at ekoin, a shingon buddhist temple in the japanese mountain town of koya-san. koya-san is home to a massive cluster of monasteries, a ton of buddhist monks, and the glorious, mystical graveyard okunoin, where kobo daishi's remains hang out (as do the remains of lots of other famous buddhists and important folks who wanted to be buried near kobo daishi). the temples are pretty famous for their shojin ryori -- traditional gourmet buddhist vegetarian food -- and it might not surprise you that at least part of the reason that i went to koya-san was to eat it! and more than two years later, i still remember the sesame tofu -- a light, slippery square with such a rich taste that i didn't miss meat for a second. that memory fired me up to make another type of "not-tofu" tofu out of walnuts.

ingredients
about 2/3 cup blanched walnuts
(note: blanching = boiling in water until slightly softened)
2 packages gelatin
2 cups water
1 t sugar
1 t salt

directions
blanch the walnuts.
begin heating the water. add the gelatin before it gets hot. dissolve the gelatin in the water, whisking pretty constantly to make sure it doesn't clump.
grind the walnuts in a food processor until they form a thick paste.
add the salt and sugar.
gradually add the gelatin-water. keep processing until it looks sort of like a thin milkshake.
strain out the solids.
pour the walnut liquid into a mold (if you have one) or any old bowl.
let cool. refrigerate until set.

this stuff ended up being really neat, quite a bit like a creamy walnut jell-o in a gorgeous shade of pale lilac. the creaminess (and hint of sweetness) reminded me of a delicious nut-milk shake at cafe gratitude, and it was so unexpected coming from this wobbly little bit of goo. i'll definitely try it with sesame seeds and edamame and probably with almonds. i'm also curious how much the texture would change if i used the more traditional kuzu method (which would also enable me to serve the tofu warm). whole foods has kuzu ...

niku-jaga

aka japanese beef and potato stew.

ingredients
about 1.5 lb beef (i used a top sirloin roast), chopped into approximately 1.5 inch squares
about 1.5 lb cooking potatoes (like russets), peeled and coarsely chopped
two big carrots, peeled and sliced
fresh shelled peas
3 c water or dashi
~5 T shoyu
~3 T mirin
~2 T sugar (rapadura)
vegetable oil
cooked rice

directions
heat oil.
add beef and cook until lightly browned on all sides (don't cook all the way).
add potatoes and carrots. continue cooking.
add water.
skim the scum that foams to the top.
reduce heat. add sugar, soy, and mirin.
cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
check the taste and adjust if necessary.
continue simmering until you're happy with the amount of liquid left.
5 minutes before you're done, add the peas.
ladle over rice and serve.

way easy, way good dinner and lunch for two. cheap, too.

otsu

i had actually forgotten where i found this recipe -- a standby now for more than a year -- until i decided to post about it. no surprise, really, that this came from 101 cookbooks. i tend to add asparagus, and i think the black sesame seeds make it look a bit sexier than the white.

irish car bomb cupcakes

these are guinness cupcakes filled with bailey's cream. decadent and fabulous in honor of st. patrick's day!

for the cupcakes:

ingredients
2 large eggs (room temp)
½ c sour cream (or yogurt)
6 oz Guinness
2 t vanilla extract
½ c dutch processed cocoa powder
1 c sugar (i used rapadura)
1 ¼ c + 2 T cake flour (all-purpose is ok too. just subtract the extra 2 T.)
1 t baking soda
1/8 t ground cinnamon
6 T melted unsalted butter

directions
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
line a cupcake pan with cupcake papers. this recipe makes about 12 cupcakes.
melt butter, then set aside
whisk together eggs and sour cream in a large bowl. add Guinness and vanilla and whisk.
mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. some will tell you to sift, but not i.
add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients about a third at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the melted butter at the end and continue mixing until very well combined.
pour batter into the 12 cups, filling each about ¾ full.
bake for approx. 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
let cool.

for the filling:

ingredients
6 T softened unsalted butter
1 ½ c powdered sugar
¾ c marshmallow fluff
2 ½ T (or so) bailey’s irish cream liqueur
1 T (or so) heavy cream

directions
beat the butter with the powdered sugar, fluff, bailey’s and cream.
(the idea here is to make the cream taste as much like bailey’s as humanly possible, so i just kept on adding bailey’s until the taste was strong enough for my liking.)
transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a ¼ inch plain round tip.
insert the tip of the pastry bag into the top of each cupcake. squeeze way harder than you think should be necessary -- you want a lot of cream in there. squeeze some extra cream on the top to make a little nipple.

okay, confession: these were supposed to have frosting on them, but the frosting (an attempt from the normally foolproof martha stewart baking handbook) was a total bomb, i suspect because i didn't whip the eggs enough, so i nixed it. perhaps you have hardier forearms than i. still, i thought that the cupcake-to-cream filling ratio was moist enough that the frosting wasn't missed.

homemade flour tortillas

= totally delicious.

ingredients
2 c flour
3 T butter (or lard -- i used homemade lard for a while -- or some combo)
2/3 c water
1/2 t baking powder (optional -- this makes them thicker)

directions
mix flour and baking powder.
melt butter and mix with water.
combine ingredients.
knead briefly.
allow to rest for about an hour, covered.
divide into balls. i doubled the recipe to get 16 medium balls.cover with a damp towel and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes and up to 1.5 hours.
on a floured surface, roll into tortilla shapes.
heat a cast-iron skillet.
to cook, place a piece of dough in the heated skillet. it should start to bubble within about 30 seconds. when it does, flip it. in another 30 seconds or so, it should start to get little brown spots and puff up a bit in places, like so:
flip again, and the whole thing should start to puff up. once it does, remove from heat and wrap in a warm towel or put in a tortilla warmer. or give it to a waiting hand, to be filled with taco yummings:

mozzarella sticks

surprisingly easy.
1. chop up mozzarella.
2. dip in batter (1 egg; 1/4 C milk; 1/2 C flour, salt & pepper, oregano).
3. dip in bread crumbs.

4. fry.

5. eat!


these really have that diy look to them, yes?

moqueca

since i've never had moqueca, it was pretty unlikely that i would be able to tell whether this tasted "right." although i've definitely been venezuelan in a past life, i don't know whether i've ever lived in bahia (i guess the best way to figure that out is to go there and see if it feels familiar ... plane ticket please!), and its been so long since tom has been there that he didn't really quite remember what it tasted like either.

so.

i don't know whether it was moqueca, but it was pretty good!

ingredients

about 2 lbs red snapper (although they say any white fish will do)

1 lime

1 small tomato roughly chopped, 2 medium tomatoes sliced into thin rounds

2 bell peppers (1 green and 1 red) sliced into thin rounds

a lot of roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 small onion roughly chopped, 1 large onion sliced into thin rounds

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup dende oil (thanks diana!)

1 C coconut milk (i used light coconut milk. mistake, mistake. it's just coconut milk mixed with water, and i never would have added a bunch of silly water to the moqueca ... it made it a lot more like a soup and less like a stew. next time i won't let health interfere with consistency. )

pickled jalapeños thinly chopped
salt to taste.

directions

cut fish into 2-inch pieces.

in the food processor: 1 small tomato, 1 small onion, 1/3 C chopped cilantro, 1 t salt, 2 garlic cloves. mix w/ juice of 1 lime.

cover fish with this mix and marinate in the refrigerator for about an hour.

layer 1/2 of the bell peppers, tomatoes and onions & cilantro in a large saute pan.
cover layers w/ fish and marinade.
layer the other 1/2 of bell peppers, tomatoes, onions & cilantro on top of the fish. add jalapenos.

drizzle with olive oil and dende oil.

add coconut milk and salt, and more lime.

stir, cover and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes.

vietnamese chicken-pineapple soup

i really adore the pineapple soup at bodhi so i tried to recreate it with chicken, with some help from epicurious. i confess that my version almost certainly turned out better than the epicurious recipe would have, but i didn't want to pretend that i just made this whole thing up, and the pineapple broth from the epi recipe is just brilliant.

ingredients

meat from 12 pre-roasted chicken thighs

1 pineapple

vegetable oil

minced garlic

1/4 cup + 2 T asian fish sauce

fresh shiitake mushroom caps, thinly sliced

tomatoes (i used 2 cups of halved cherry tomatoes)

3 baby bok choy, chopped

2 carrots, peeled quartered and sliced

2 daikon root, peeled quartered and sliced.

was there celery? i can't remember. it's possible.

approx. 1 cup mung bean sprouts

fresh mint

tamarind paste

salt

chicken stock

directions

cut peel from pineapple & throw out. then trim outer layer, cutting deep enough to remove eyes (i had no idea these were in there before! this was my first whole pineapple ...), then quarter and chop out the core. puree core and outer layers with 2 C water until smooth, then pour through sieve to get rid of the solid bits. add enough water (or chicken stock) to make about 8 C broth.

cut the rest of the pineapple into small/medium pieces and set aside.

heat oil in a big pot over medium-high heat, then sauté chiles and garlic and stir. add 1/4 C fish sauce and boil until about 1/2 is gone. add pineapple broth and boil.

stir in everything except the chicken and mint and return to boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes.

meanwhile, heat up some more oil and sauté more garlic. add chicken, cook until hot, then add chicken to soup. then add mint & serve!

this really needed the tamarind paste to taste right. next time i think i'll do away with the bok choy (too stringy) and the daikon (not the right mood for this soup).

butternut squash soup recipe #1

a few days ago, someone at tom's office asked for my butternut squash soup recipe. i think she just wanted to know my online source. little did she know that i had actually made up a recipe for this one; ok, "cobbled together" is probably a better description, since a fair amount of refrigerator stragglers made their way into this soup.

ingredients
3/4 butternut squash, roasted w/ salt & chopped
5 cloves roasted garlic
sugar pie pumpkin puree -- about 1.5 cups, maybe more
3/4 cups corn
a couple whole peeled tomatoes and their sauce
chicken stock (amount depends on how thick you want the soup)
pinch of hing
oregano
bay leaf
parmesan rind
cayenne pepper
salt & pepper
___________________

directions
saute spices in olive oil.
add squash, pumpkin puree and corn. saute.
add chicken stock and bay leaf. bring to boil.
reduce heat. add parmesan rind. cover & simmer for a while.
add tomatoes & stir. take out bay leaf & rind.
salt, pepper, & oregano to taste.
blend & serve.