Leaderboard

The products of Friday's cook went into dinner last night. Here is the aubergine dip with walnuts on top. It was a hit, with some naan bread. We had five courses, each matched with a cocktail. Here is the fleet of limoncello sour drinks. Followed by roasted poussin and saffron rice with barberries and crispy onions. Luckily there was a break in the weather and I was able to get the poussin off the KK without getting soaked! The gluten free carrot, pistachio and coconut cake, half cooked in the KK and half in the IDK oven turned out nice. We finished with poached dried apricots stuffed with clotted cream and topped off with walnuts. Simple(ish) and tasty. All but one of the recipes came out of the book Persiana. I will try to find and post the recipes that are available online.

The cauliflower dish from Friday was from Ottolenghi's book Flavour. Link to an online version here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/recipes/?c-recipeid=4124 Some of the Persiana recipes are here:https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/12/persiana-recipes-sabrina-ghayour-cookbook The rice on Saturday came from the Moro book. A version of the recipe is here https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-mororec19g-2009aug19-story.html And, especially for @C6Bill and his lady friend, here is a link to a very close version of the aubergine dish. I promise you won't taste the purple! https://saffronandherbs.com/2021/10/23/mirza-ghasemi/

A feast for sure and with matching drinks! I need to get on that invitation list!

I finally managed to try something I've wanted to do for a few years - pumpkin pie, only instead of being in a crust, it's in the pumpkin shell for scooping out. I was sure I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton did one but searching on the interwebs only found his recipe for pumpkin soup served in the pumpkin so I was on my own. Side note - I've actually never made a traditional pumpkin pie with a crust so this was a totally new adventure. I was wanting to get a locally grown pie pumpkin but life intervened and I ended up getting one from the grocery store. I cut the top off, scooped out the seeds, and cut and scooped as much of the flesh as I was comfortable doing without compromising the shell strength. I ended up with about 2 pounds of pumpkin. I considered smoking it but decided to go a bit simpler and roasted it in the oven. Since I had several cans of sweetened condensed milk on hand, I found a pumpkin pie recipe that used it; the recipe has a 15 oz can of pumpkin puree, so I doubled it. It also called for pumpkin pie spice which I didn't have so I found a recipe for that on the interwebs as well. Tossed the roasted pumpkin and other ingredients into the blender and pureed it, then poured it all back into the pumpkin shell after a taste test - it was tasty! I put the pumpkin top back on the pumpkin and put it into the preheated oven in a foil pan. I had no idea on how long to bake it since it was encased in the shell and was much thicker than the average pie, so I monitored the filling temp using my Thermoworks Signals. After a while, I got an alert from the Signals indicating the temperature had shot over my target temp; the shell had softened up enough that the top had fallen into the filling, pushing the thermometer probe into the pumpkin shell. I tried to salvage the top but it came apart when I tried to pick it up out of the filling, so I put the pumpkin back in the oven without the shell after repositioning the probe. Once the filling made it to the proper temperature, I took the pumpkin out of the oven and let it cool before refrigerating overnight. The shell was very soft and was sagging into the filling so I trimmed it some before serving. I stuck some graham crackers around the edge of the filling and crumbled more on top. Other than the issue with the lid and the shell getting too soft to easily transport, this was a success and very tasty. If I do this again, I'll bake the filling for a while before putting it in the shell and bake the shell just looking enough for it to soften just enough to not taste raw as well as baking the lid separately to allow more heat into the filling. I may try smoking it as well. I think this would be a good dessert for a party or holiday meal, especially if it can be presented with the intact pumpkin top. I've attached pics chronicling the whole process.

You are making my mouth water, Tekobo 👍👍

I found this bottom round roast in the freezer and upon inspection noticed it had been there for quite some time, just over 1 1/2 years, no worries, it was carefully wrapped in a vacuum shrink pkge and showed no sign of freezer burn. I like a small low fire while roasting, starting with charcoal briquettes and building upon that with small splits of various kinds of wood until the base changes to all wood coals. I used two spices Americo and Gringo from Arizona, from when I was there last as well as some salt. I stole Tekebos' idea for cauliflower but came up short when my wife didn't want the heat, a neutral spice with a cream sauce was the only available option, next time we'll leave the tin uncovered for a charring of the veggies as opposed to steaming them. After the roast was finished it was wrapped in foil and allowed to rest over the coals at a safe distance staying warm until it ready to carve. It was warm day and there aren't many left, so here it is with a few pics.