INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
1 medium blue/Kent pumpkin around 2 kg
1 medium carrot
1/2 tsp red paprika powder
2 tsp curry powder divided
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1+1/2 tsp garlic powder divided
1 tsp raw sugar
3 tsp salt divided
3 tsp chicken stock powder divided
4 tbsp olive oil divided
100g butter
1 - 2 litre water
100g butter
1 - 2 litre water
All teaspoon measurements are flat
METHOD:
Chop pumpkin in half top to bottom, scoop out the innards with a tablespoon or similar, set aside. Cut one or two 1cm wide rings from the widest part of each half, trim off skin, and cut each ring into quarters. Lay out on baking paper in a shallow tray and brush with about half the olive oil. Set aside.
Cut remaining pumpkin into about 2-3cm chunks, trim off skin. Slice the carrot into slivers with a peeler, or julienne or fine dice - this needs to cook completely. Put the butter into a saucepan large enough to hold the pumpkin and water, add the pumpkin pieces and carrot, salt, and about half a cup of water. put on medium heat.
Make up two powders, as follows:
Roasting: 1 tsp curry powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp raw sugar 1 tsp salt
Seeds: 1 tsp red paprika 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp chicken stock powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp curry powder
Add more water to the soup if it begins to dry out, up to 0.5 litres, return to simmer. Add 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp curry powder 2 tsp chicken stock powder. Keep topping the water up as you do other things.You're aiming to have a creamy soup which can just form peaks after all solids are creamed/blended.
Shake the roasting powder together, sprinkle over the pumpkin segments on the roasting tray and place in oven at 230C. Save any remaining roasting powder after dusting all the pieces.
Separate the pumpkin seeds from the pulp, discard the pulp, wash the seeds under hot running water in a strainer, then dry between tea towel or paper towel. Place remaining olive oil in a small frying pan, heat, and add the pumpkin seeds, keep stirring until a few pumpkin seeds begin to pop or brown. (This point varies between varieties, Kent has small seeds that popped, larger seeded varieties tend not to pop.) Place the strainer over the pan to stop seeds jumping out, turn off the heat, let sit for a few minutes then strain the seeds out, save or discard the oil as you normally would.
Check the roasted pumpkin is starting to brown, (usually 20 - 40 minutes depending on your oven) and take from the oven when it does, set aside to cool slightly. Dust the toasted pumpkin seeds with the seeds powder, mix remaining powder with the roasting powder, and put up to one tsp of this powder into the soup. Blend soup with a stick blender if any large chunks still remain, by now the soup should have been simmering between 30 minutes and a hour while all the other processing was taking place, allow blended soup to simmer for another five minutes. Soup should be a little bit thicker than creamy, almost form peaks.
SERVING:
Serve the soup in a deeper bowl, place a few segments or roasted pumpkin upright around one edge of the bowl, lining about 1/3 to 1/2 the way round, sprinkle a spoonful of toasted pumpkin seeds around the opposite edge. Serve with buttered crusty bread, and a spoonful of cream if desired.
NOTES:
It's been almost a year since the last recipe, slack Ted! But this soup is soooo worth doing all the steps and making the pumpkin into three different forms. Using the two powders as an additional flavouring to the soup ties everything together.
The carrot makes the colour deep and rich without messing up the taste any. It looks fantastic and warm with the palisades of roast pumpkin around the edge of the bowl and the seeds sprinkled over the surface, just looking at it will make you feel toasty warm.
And in effect, it only took about an hour to make three different pumpkin dishes that just go together. There'll be leftover roast pumpkin pieces and seeds to snack on.
My wife took pictures of her bowl, if I can wheedle a picture out of her I'll add it to this post later...
ENJOY!
