Pumpkin Pancakes

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, stock up on pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including plenty of greens and root vegetables, and winter squash.

As soon as you get home, roast some winter squash and you will be that much closer to making this praline pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (delicious made with traditional pie pumpkin or kabocha squash). You will also have plenty of squash puree left over for pumpkin pancakes for a special fall weekend breakfast. We devoured a batch this morning, served with dollops yogurt, sprinkles of flax seeds and maple syrup.

Pumpkin Pancakes

adapted from NYT Cooking, makes 16-20 small pancakes

1 ½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 ½ cups buttermilk
¾ cup pumpkin purée
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for greasing the skillet
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together until well combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, pumpkin purée, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract until well combined.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. (A few small lumps are O.K.)

4. Heat a lightly greased griddle or nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Drop the pancakes into the pan using a heaping soup spoon, making sure to leave plenty of room in between for the batter to expand.

5. Cook for a minute or two, until the batter bubbles at the edges and browns on the bottom, then carefully flip. Cook another minute or two, until the batter is completely cooked through and the pancakes are puffy and deep golden brown. Repeat until all of the batter is used. Serve the pancakes as you make them or keep the pancakes warm as you cook them by setting them on a baking sheet in a 250-degree oven.

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Happy Thanksgiving. This year we're roasting a turkey from Fair Valley Farm and trying it this way, with the legs splayed and braised. It smells delicious. 

For dessert I roasted our last kabocha squash from Camas Swale Farm, and I baked my favorite pumpkin pecan praline pie.

When we sit down to our feast, we will express our many thanks to the local growers who are providers of delicious food and stewards of our environment.

Pumpkin Cornmeal Pancakes

This weekend I roasted two heirloom pumpkins from Sweetwater Farm, and one of their acorn squashes for good measure. Of course this yielded more than enough pumpkin puree for pumpkin pecan praline pie, so at the suggestion of my son, I made some pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.

I paired the naturally sweet squash with the sweet flavor of corn flour (from Lonesome Whistle Farm). No fan of the cloying flavor of pumpkin pie spices, I restricted myself to a dash of ground cardamom in the batter. But for toppings, we made some cinnamon-spiked sautéed apples, that added just the right hint of Thanksgiving dessert. This could make a nice post-Thanksgiving breakfast, if your guests aren't too stuffed.   

Pumpkin Cornmeal Pancakes with Cinnamon Apples

makes about 24 small pancakes

pancake batter
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup fine ground cornmeal or corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of salt
butter for cooking pancakes

cinnamon apples
1 large or 2 small apples, cored and diced
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp turbinado sugar

1. Prepare the pancake batter. Mix together the wet ingredients (pumpkin, yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract) until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients. Then gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If the batter seems too thick, add a little milk to thin it.

2. Prepare the apple topping. Warm a small skillet over medium low heat. Melt the butter, and stir in the chopped apples and cinnamon. Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples are soft and fragrant. Stir in the sugar and cook for a minute longer. Reserve.

3. Heat a griddle and when it is warm, grease with a little butter. Use a soup spoon to spoon the batter into pancakes. When permanent bubbles form around the edge and the color of the batter lightens on top, flip the pancakes and cooked them for a couple of minutes on the second side until both sides are golden brown. 

4. Serve the pancakes hot off the griddle with the apple topping and a dribble of maple syrup.

Fill Your Pantry...with Pumpkin

If you'd like to stock up on locally grown storage fruits and vegetables, beans and grains, don't miss the Fill Your Pantry event hosted by the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition this Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 PM at the Lane Events Center at 796 W 13th Ave.

For inspiration, above is an heirloom pumpkin I picked up at Sweetwater Farm, 

destined for my favorite Thanksgiving dessert of pumpkin pecan praline pie, crust made with Lonesome Whistle Farm's Steven's soft white wheat flour. Happy stockpiling.

Thanksgiving Menu

It's time to get serious about Thanksgiving menu planning. We'll be enjoying a Fair Valley Farm turkey, and we're going to try spatchcocking it. For vegetable sides, I'm planning on making delicata squash wedges and stir-fried brussels sprouts, brightened with lemon.

The stuffing will be made with cornbread.

And for dessert, I'm making a family favorite of praline pumpkin pie.

Many thanks to the local growers whose produce will grace our table. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thai Sweet Meat Winter Squash Curry

In our last share from our Open Oak Farm summer CSA, we received an Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat winter squash that was about the size of my son when he was born. It felt like a big responsibility to process it. I roasted and froze some for my favorite Thanksgiving pumpkin praline pie, a second aliquot went into a spicy bean and pumpkin soup with stock made from the pulp, and the final third I used in a rendition of my favorite Thai dish: pumpkin curry. I was lucky enough to have some especially fresh and fragrant ginger and lemon grass that I picked up at last week's Saturday Market, which I blended into an approximation of a red curry paste.

A heaping tablespoon of this wonderfully fragrant, if not terribly red paste, combined with coconut milk and the cubed squash, cooked up a delicious pot of rich, thick curry. Because I had fuyu persimmon salad on my mind, we had an extra orange meal with sliced persimmons on salad greens with lime juice dressing and peanuts. And now I have a good half cup of curry paste remaining. When I'm all cooked out after Thanksgiving, and we've had our fill of cranberry turkey sandwiches, I plan to whip up another pot of Thai winter squash curry as a perfect vehicle for leftover turkey.

Thai Sweet Meat Winter Squash Curry

~6 cups sweet meat winter squash or pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
1 to 2 Tbsp red curry paste (recipe below)
1 red or yellow sweet pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 scant tsp sugar
thai basil leaves or cilantro leaves

1. Heat a large Dutch oven or cooking pot over medium heat. Open the coconut milk can and scoop out the thick coconut cream. Melt this in the pot until it sizzles and then add the curry paste. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring, until it is very fragrant. 

2. Add the chicken pieces and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring to coat in the curry paste. If using cooked turkey pieces, omit this step and add the turkey once the squash is cooked.

3. Mix together the remaining coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. Add this to the pot, along with the cubed squash, peppers, and onions. Bring the stew to a simmer, turn the heat to medium low, cover, and cook until the squash is tender, about 30 or 40 minutes. Uncover, taste and adjust seasonings, (add cooked turkey at this point, if using) and simmer for another 10 minutes or so until the sauce is desired consistency. Turn off the heat and stir in the basil or cilantro leaves. Serve with steamed rice.

Red Curry Paste

1 Tbsp coriander seeds
6 small dried chile peppers (such as de arbol)
1 tsp black pepper corns
2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 shallot
2 large cloves garlic
2 Tbsp cilantro stems
1 lemon grass, coarse outer leaves removed
2 inches ginger root

1. Toast the coriander seeds for a minute in a dry skillet until fragrant. Then toast the chile peppers until the puff up, but do not burn. Remove the seeds from the peppers. Using a mortar and pestle or electric spice grinder, grind the coriander seeds, chile peppers, pepper corns, and coarse salt into a powder.

2. If you want a good work out, you can process the rest of the ingredients in a large mortar and pestle, or combine them all in food processor and process together into a smooth paste. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator or freeze single portions in an ice cube tray. This makes enough for multiple pots of curry.

Pumpkin and Rio Zape Bean Soup

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can expect the following produce from SLO Farm, Sweetwater Farm, and Songbird Farm:

• apples: Liberty, Gala, Jonagold, and apples for processing available in bulk
• pears and Asian pears
• pie pumpkins and ornamental pumpkins
• tomatoes: heirlooms and cherries
• cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, string beans
• peppers including bell peppers, poblano, and hot peppers 
• root vegetables including beets, turnips, and kohlrabi
• multiple varieties of potatoes
• kale, chard, lettuce, Italian parsley, cilantro 
• onions, leeks, garlic
• eggs, honey

As soon as we saw these lovely little pie pumpkins from SLO Farm at the market last Sunday, my kids started lobbying for pumpkin pie. All in due time, I thought (here's an excellent pecan praline version I like to make for Thanksgiving), but what I really wanted for a chilly October day was some soup. And what I really wanted in a pumpkin soup was something that had no resemblance to a pumpkin pie.

Also I still had some dried heirloom beans from last year's CSA from Lonesome Whistle Farm to use up before our next season starts. Inspired by a black bean and pumpkin soup from Smitten Kitchen, I combined these pretty purple rio zapes with a riot of autumn colors: our orange pumpkin, and red peppers and purple onions from Sweetwater Farm.

I started the soup with sauteed onion, peppers, and garlic, to which I added a rich spice palette of cumin, chipotle chili powder, and smoked paprika, and a chopped tomato.

While this base cooked down, my son and I attacked the pumpkin, me with a chef's knife and he with an ice cream scoop.

If you're deconstructing a pumpkin, you may as well use the goopy insides to make a quick stock, which can simmer while you carve off the skin and toast the seeds.

Then I quickly pureed the soup base into a paste in the bottom of my slow cooker, added in cubed pumpkin and beans, and left it to simmer on low for 6 hours. Once both pumpkin and beans were nice and soft, I fished out a few of the beans for texture, and pureed the rest. The final soup was rich and hearty with the natural sweetness of the pumpkin tempered by the toasted spices and beans, and it was enjoyed by even the most ardent pie proponents.

Pumpkin and Rio Zape Bean Soup

1 small pie pumpkin
2 cups (1 lb) rio zape beans (or substitute black turtle beans), sorted and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato diced (or substitute 2 Tbsp tomato paste)
2 Tbsp neutral oil such as grapeseed
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
8 cups water
salt to taste
splash of dry sherry
sour cream for serving


1. With a large chef's knife, slice the pumpkin in half and use an ice cream scoop to remove the insides. Reserve the seeds for roasting and use the remaining pumpkin pulp to make a quick pumpkin stock. Combine the pulp with about a quarter of the chopped onion, 8 cups water, the red pepper flakes, and a generous amount of salt. Simmer for about half an hour. Then pass through a strainer to collect all of the solids. You should have about 7 cups of stock. Taste and adjust seasonings.


2. While the stock simmers, cut of the skin of the pumpkin and cut the flesh into 1 1/2 inch cubes. If you like, toss the pumpkin seeds in olive oil, some coarse sea salt, and (if there are no objections from the peanut gallery) some smoked paprika, and roast in a 350 oven or a toaster oven for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally (watch that they don't burn).


3. Heat a skillet or the base of a slow cooker if yours can go on the stove top. Add the oil and saute the remaining chopped onions until glassy. Add the diced pepper and saute for another couple of minutes. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Then add the spices and allow to toast in the oil for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have a fragrant, thick sauce. 


4. At this point, your stock should be ready. Add a cup of stock to the spice base and transfer this mixture to the base of a slow cooker. If you want to ensure a smooth soup later on, you can use an immersion blender at this point to puree the mixture into a smooth paste. Now add the pumpkin cubes, the dried beans, and the remaining stock. Cook on low for about 6 hours until the pumpkin and beans are both soft. Alternatively you could cook this from the start in a Dutch oven on the stovetop over very low heat, which will require less time but more supervision and a little more liquid.


5. Once the beans and pumpkin are soft, you can finish the soup. If you would like to preserve some whole beans, fish out about 1/2 cup of them with a slotted spoon. Then puree the pumpkin and beans with an immersion blender. Taste and adjust the seasoning, add back the reserved beans and add a little water if the soup seems too thick. To brighten the flavor, add a splash of dry sherry as you rewarm the soup after pureeing it. Serve the soup with a dollop of sour cream, and, if they haven't already been nibbled away, a garnish of roasted pumpkin seeds.




Other recipes for heirloom beans

Coffee Braised Lamb Shanks and Arikara beans

Green Flageolet Bean and Tuna Salad

Creamy green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet bean soup with Indian spices

Arikara beans with tomatillo pork

Ireland Creek Annie Baked Beans

Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade

Arikara beans with roasted fennel and peppers

Jacob's Cattle bean and ham stew

Calypso beans with ginger and black mustard seeds

Ireland Creek Annie bean bruschetta

Lemon and herb Dutch bullet beans

Minty green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup

Rio Zape beans with toasted chile sauce

Arikara bean gratin

Calypso bean and leek soup

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

Hopefully you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Before you drift off into a tryptophan stupor, I'd like to address a Thanksgiving debate of the best pie choice, if you are limited to a single one. I know some are proponents of the pecan pie, but with a corn syrup base, these can be cloyingly sweet. Others couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, but I find that they can be a bit monotonous in texture. Instead, I have a favorite combination pumpkin pecan praline pie that is the perfect marriage of the two standbys. This recipe has special meaning because it comes from the pastry chef Christine Law who baked our wedding cake, and appeared in the San Jose Mercury News in the week before our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.

First you prepare a pie crust. You can do this in a food processor, but if you want to feel more like a Pilgrim you can attempt it by hand, cutting butter into flour and then mixing in just enough ice cold water to get the dough to come together. Then chill the dough before you roll it out and transferring it to a pie pan (a decidedly modern silicone mat makes this part manageable).

Before prebaking it, you cream some butter with brown sugar and pecans, and line the bottom of your crust.

As the crust cools, you can prepare the pumpkin filling. This is best with pumpkin puree from a freshly roasted pumpkin, but you can also use unsweetened canned pumpkin. I've modified the original spicing, omitting the nutmeg, which I dislike, and increasing the ginger, but you can adjust these to your taste. The final pie is delicious on its own, or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

adapted from Christine Law

Pie crust

1 1/2 cups flour

8 Tbsp chilled butter (1 stick) or use part butter and part vegetable shortening

1/2 tsp salt

~5 Tbsp ice cold water

Praline layer

3 Tbsp soft butter 

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup pecan pieces

Pumpkin filling

1 sugar pie pumpkin (for 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree, with more for other uses)

1 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. To prepare the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast cut side down on an oiled baking sheet until the flesh is very soft, about an hour. Scrape out the flesh from the skin and puree in a food processor. Reserve 1 1/2 cups for the pie and save the remainder for another use (pumpkin bread, pumpkin and ricotta ravioli, etc.).

2. For the crust, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the flour with a pastry cutter until it has the texture of cornmeal. Add water gradually and mix with a spatula until it just comes together into a ball. Wrap in a silicone map or plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill for an hour or freeze for 10 minutes. Roll out to fit into your pie dish. Prick all over with a fork.

3. To prepare the praline layer, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cream together the butter and brown sugar and add in the pecans. Spread over the bottom of the prepared pie crust and bake for 10 minutes. Allow the crust to cool completely.

4. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. To prepare the pumpkin filling, heat the evaporated milk until scalding. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and spices. Mix in pumpkin puree, and then gradually mix in the hot milk. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake until the filling has set and does not jiggle, about an hour and 10 minutes.

Halloween Pumpkin Soup

Two Sundays ago, SLO Farm had some lovely pie pumpkins on sale. My daughter chose the largest one she could find, which I ended up hauling home. Then we had a family debate about what to do with the pumpkin. My daughter advocated keeping it indefinitely as a cherished family member, my 2 year old son demanded "pumpkin pie!", but I wanted to try out a pumpkin soup recipe from The Greens Cookbook that my friend Judith claims she subsists on all winter long. With the promise of more pumpkin purchases, I swayed the crowd toward my agenda. Cooking the soup proved to be the perfect pre-Halloween activity. We got to (in my son's words) "scoop the goop!" 

Then, like a coven of witches, we went foraging for herbs

which we stirred into a bubbling cauldron of pumpkin stock.

Meanwhile, the roasting pumpkin filling the house with delicious, earthy smells. The soup itself came together quickly: I sauteed the onion in butter, simmered the pumpkin flesh with the strained stock, pureed it with an immersion blender, and then finished it off with a cup each of grated gruyere cheese and cream. The end result was rich and flavorful, and made a filling meal along with fresh cucumber sandwiches on Eugene City Bakery bread. Perfect sustenance for witches, goblins, and ghouls.

Pumpkin Soup with Gruyere Cheese

adapted from The Greens Cookbook

The Stock

Seeds and pumpkin goop

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 celery stalk and some leaves, chopped

several springs sage, thyme, and chives

1/2 tsp salt

8 cups cold water

Simmer for about 25 minutes and strain.

The Soup

1 scooped out pumpkin, halved

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

6-8 cups stock

salt and pepper to taste

~3 ounces gruyere cheese, grated

1 cup light cream

sage leaves for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roast the pumpkin halves, face down on a baking sheet with a lip to catch the juices, until soft (about 1 hour). When cooled, scrape the flesh from the skin. If there are caramelized juices in the pan, soak these off with some strained stock, and add to the soup.

2. In a large soup pot, saute the onions in butter until soft. Add 6 cups of the stock and the roasted pumpkin and simmer for about 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender. Add more stock if the soup is too thick and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in gruyere and when it has melted, add the cream. Serve garnished with sage leaves.