October and I have a love-hate relationship, especially now that I reside in a state where October marks the beginning of winter rather than fall. Shorter, colder days are not good for my mental health. On the other hand, there are a couple things about October that I enjoy, including play-off baseball (I'm a Red Sox fan looking forward to watching the hometown Phillies slaughter the motherfucking Yankees), Halloween, and of course, pumpkins.
I finally bought a shitton of canned pumpkin and have been working my way through it since. First, I tried my hand at a simple, vegan pumpkin bread, adapting a recipe courtesy of theppk.com:
Yes, I made it last night, and yes, that is all that is left of it. I've enjoyed this with peanut butter (natural of course!), pumpkin butter, or vanilla soy ice cream. It's amazing. It's not as spicy as I like though, and when I make it again (because I will, probably this week) I plan on doubling up the spices. Recipe as follows, with original and my mods noted.
2 c white whole wheat flour (this is what I had on hand, recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon (original measure, double up if you like it a little spicy!)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (recipe calls for allspice, no tengo)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 c canned pumpkin
1/4 c honey (recipe calls for 1/2 maple syrup)
1/2 c pumpkin butter (recipe calls for 1/4 c apple butter)
1 TB canola oil
(recipe also calls for 1 tsp vanilla extract which I didn't have, and 1 c golden raisins, which I despise)
Mix all dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients. Mix wet and dry, throw in a greased loaf pan, bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Simple and delicious!
After I made the bread, I had half a can of pumpkin leftover. I also had a can of tomato sauce in the fridge, and serendipitously, was able to find a recipe that used both in my all-time favorite cookbook, the vegetarian Bible, Crescent Dragonwagon's "Passionate Vegetarian." The full title of this recipe is "Curried Lentil-Potato Cobbler with Pumpkin and Tomatoes and Filo Top Crust," but since I am low maintenance, have never cooked with filo dough in my life, and likely lack the dexterity to do so, my version omits that last set of words.
CURRIED LENTIL-POTATO COBBLER
2 c lentils
6 c water (recipe also calls for bay leaf, didn't have it so I didn't use it)
2 teaspoons oil
1 chopped onion (I used purple)
freshly grated ginger (recipe calls for 1 TB minced, I grated a ton directly into the pan)
minced garlic (tons, you can never have too much)
1 TB black mustard seeds (brown works too, but no yellow!)
1/2 TB cumin seeds
1/2 TB ground coriander
1/2 TB ground turmeric
1/2 TB cayenne (use less if you can't take the heat)
dash of cinnamon
dash of ground cloves
3 potatoes, cubed
PUMPKIN-TOMATO GRAVY
1 can tomato sauce (I estimate I used about 16oz, recipe calls for 1 14oz can of tomatoes and green chilies)
1 1/2 c canned pumpkin
1 TB honey
1/2 c dry white wine
1 c low sodium vegetable juice blend (recipe calls for 1 1/2 c vegetable stock, which I didn't have, so I subbed the white wine and juice instead)
(In its original state, recipe also calls for 4 sheets frozen filo dough, along with 2 to 3 TB oil or melted butter. , which are added to the top to make this more like a casserole. As I already stated, I did none of this nonsense, did all the cooking on the stovetop and served as a stew.)
Bring lentils and water to a boil, simmer 40 minutes. Meanwhile, saute onion until softish, add ginger, garlic, and spices, and saute a couple more minutes. Throw onion-spice mixture into lentils, along with potatoes. Mix gravy ingredients together and dump into lentil-potato mixture. (Recipe calls for simmering lentil-potato-onion mixture for another 20-30 minutes before adding gravy, I didn't wait and simmered it all together.) Simmer for a while, until potatoes are cooked, stirring occassionally. Don't be an idiot like me and let it burn to the bottom of the pan. (Still getting used to the gas stove, just transferred to a different pan, leaving burnt bits behind, and it was fine.) Voila:
Accompanied by an herbed drop biscuit, again, modified from a theppk.com recipe.2 c white whole wheat flour (recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour)
5 tsp baking powder
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp ground coriander (recipe calls for rosemary, but I wanted to match it up to a spice in the lentils)
1 tsp salt (could have omitted this and will in the future)
5 TB cold butter (this is what I had, original recipe is vegan, calls for 3 TB cold shortening and 2 TB cold margarine)
1 c skim milk (organic of course, local if possible, soy/almond/rice/nondairy if you are vegan)
Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter until it's kind of grainy. Mix in milk until you have a dough, drop 1/4 c heaps onto greased baking sheet (makes about 8) and bake for 10-15 min at 450 degrees.
(Too lazy to properly tag up this post at the moment, I'll get to it later on.)
