Soup #3 - Roasted Butternut Soup

Krista provided this recipe for Sunday Slow Soupers. We tried it last night with a homemade Chicago style pizza. This is a nice easy recipe if you use a butternut squash as suggested in the title and ingredients. However since I had a really big bag of Hubbard squash in the freezer, I used that.

Let me tell you a little bit about hubbard squash. First of all, it looks like it fell from outer space and possibly houses alien creatures. Second, only someone who was told by someone they trusted would believe that there was a lovely sweet tender flesh inside. Third, this is the world's most difficult squash to open. It's similar to opening a dried coconut (which is easier if you use a machete). You can see what I'm talking about at http://starlightbakery.blogspot.com/2008/10/padaro-pumpkins.html where you can read the step-by-step process my sister and I used to get to the tender flesh.

This one yielded enough puree for about 24 pumpkin pies. So far I've made 4, so I welcomed an opportunity to use some of it in this soup.

I used fresh instead of dried ginger in the recipe but we decided that I should have used more. After blending, I used a sieve to remove the pulp. But then I put it back into the left-over soup because it tasted really good and I don't want to waste it.

I also have a large bag full of fresh thyme on my counter, so in went a few sprigs of thyme for flavor. The garnish is Greek yogurt.

Fortunately there is still a little left, hidden in the back corner of the refrigerator behind all the furry leftovers (where no one else will see it). Now if I can just get to it while everyone else is showering or taking naps, then I won't have to share.

Soup #2 - Mexican Turkey Soup

We tried Jerry's Mexican Turkey Soup recipe tonight. Yet again avoiding the grocery store, I noted on my way to feed my compost worms their Thanksgiving Dinner that there were still some small roma tomatoes on one of our plants. I also had a can of corn niblets in the pantry, some frozen chipotle, and a few bedraggled green onions which I supplemented with some shallots. Fortunately my neighbor's lime tree borders our driveway and there was one lying on the ground under the tree. Lucky me.

While the recipe calls for dry roasting both the corn and the tomatoes in a skillet on high heat, I chose to char my tomatoes with a torch... the kind you get at Sears. We discovered this roasting method when our kitchen was being remodeled (after trying a wood-fireplace roast and ending up with soot-covered tomatoes). It works especially well for peppers and chiles. Stick them on a fork and run them through the flame. I did char the corn, however, in the skillet over high heat because the fork thing doesn't work on canned corn.

I put a leftover turkey wing bone in my chicken stock and let it simmer while I chopped the onions, garlic, and charred tomatoes.

The only difficult part was getting the avocado cream to sit photographically in the soup at the end.

No one seemed to care, they just wanted to try it. It was delicious.

Sunday Slow Soupers: Porcini and Chestnut Soup

Krista Harris who writes In and Out of the Garden, told me about the Sunday Slow Soupers. Every Sunday each member makes the same soup and then writes about it. Porcini and Chestnut Soup was their first soup, scheduled for last Sunday. What? Today is Friday? Aargh, I'm a little behind but I did find raw chestnuts!

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Amy. I made a few modifications based on not wanting to go back to the grocery store on the heaviest shopping day of the year and risk my life for a parking spot. Instead of celery, I used a few hearts of romaine. I used cilantro instead of parsley (in California we use this like parsley anyhow). We had some leftover kabocha squash from Thanksgiving (Californian for pumpkin), which I added with the carrots. I chose the sherry option at the end.

So I bought the chestnuts (early before the crowds hit the shopping center) then wished I bought a can of chestnuts when I started reading about how to roast and peel them.

I like it better when you stop on a street corner in London to buy them hot off the grill and keep them in your pockets to warm your hands. But London was too far to go for roasted chestnuts today. So I heated the oven to 400 degrees, cut a slit in the rounded side as directed by a nearby cookbook, and put them into a jelly roll pan with a bit of water.

I think I left them in the oven about 20 minutes--I was upstairs when the timer went off at 10 minutes. I was really dreading the part that says peel hot shell off nuts and then try to rub off the skin... if this doesn't work, boil them and try again. Instead, I cut the hot leathery nuts in half and used a small melon baller to scoop out the mealy centers. The skin miraculously stuck to the inside of the shell, not the nut. Yay!!

The rest of the recipe was simple and some friends arrived just in time to join us for the soup tasting. None of us had ever had chestnut soup before and we all enjoyed it. The porcini mushrooms gave it a deep rich flavor and the chestnuts gave it a hearty texture. I didn't add any extra liquid and my broth was salty enough so we didn't need to add salt. The color was quite pleasing. The fake creme fraiche was made by whisking together some warmed cream cheese and milk. A nice photographic substitute.

I'll definitely do this one again.

Persimmon Lanterns

Here they are in all their luscious beauty.

Dave harvests another 50 persimmons.

He is getting pretty good at this!

Hoshi Gaki

The peeled persimmons hang for a couple of days before you start massaging them. The outer flesh firms up and the inside begins to soften. You press them, rolling the inside a bit to move the moist pulp around.

Notice one is enclosed in a cheesecloth sling. The stem came off that one. The cheesecloth has worked just fine.









You hang them in groups of two, looping a doubled string over the stems. Arrange them so one hangs higher than the other and place them next to each other alternating high and low.

Usually you hang them from a bamboo pole, but I decided my garden window would work just fine.

I can open the windows on either side to get a little cross ventilation to help them dry.













This is after the first day of hanging. The outer flesh is beginning to look a little papery and not so taut.

It's supposed to take about 3 to 4 weeks of massage every two or three days. Mine are moving along a lot faster. It may be because they are in the window.

I haven't taken any pictures lately because I've been so busy trying to keep them all massaged. We probably have 50 hanging in the kitchen right now.

Yesterday we tasted one that had reached the stage of rich candy-like sweetness, moist but not gooshy. It was incredible. Dave tasted one today and decided to hang another rack so we can make a lot more.

A sugary bloom begins to collect on the outside as they get to this luscious dried state.

A Tree Full of Persimmons

It's that time of year in So. California when the Persimmon trees are laden with fruit and you realize you only need a couple of persimmon puddings for the holidays, so what the heck are you going to do with all those persimmons.

I've tried freezing them whole like billiard balls (in case I need a batch of persimmon bread or cookies during the year), but I already have a freezer filled with persimmon balls and no room for anything else. So when I heard about a persimmon massage class that our local Slow Food group was giving, I decided that might be the solution.

Apparently massaged persimmons yield luscious dried fruit far superior to other dried forms and in Japan when Hoshi Gaki (the massaged fruit) is given as a gift at New Years, it's considered a special treasure and is said to bring good luck. So here's a lovely way to distribute excess fruit to your friends at the end of the holidays.



First you pick firm persimmons leaving the stem attached to the fruit. In fact, in Japan, they usually break off part of the branch that the stem is attached to, so you get a little "t" at the top.

Here are some persimmons eagerly awaiting their first massage.

You'll need a small paring knife to remove the top, leaving the stem and part of the calyx.

If you rest the tip of the knife against the front side of the stem and then rotate the persimmon as you cut, you should get a nice flat top.

"Should" is the operative word here. but with a little practice they'll be flat and the ones that aren't smooth are still going to be delicious.










The next step is to hold your knife at a 45 degree angle and peel around the top edge to make a shoulder on the fruit.

I'm not sure why this is important but it gives the fruit a nice artistic look and in Japanese culture that is usually reason enough.













At this point you can use your peeler to remove the rest of the skin.

Peel lightly and only peel over the tip once. Any thin places run the risk of breaking before the inner pulp is dried and allowing it to leak out.

The outside will become sort of leathery and will form a bag to hold the moister interior as you massage it. The purpose of the massage is to move the moisture around to help the persimmon dry evenly.







This persimmon is peeled and ready to hang. But since I have 30 bries to deliver this morning, you're going to have to wait for the next blog update to see how to line them up for massage.

In the meantime, you can go to Jeff Reiger's Hoshi Gaki page at Penryn Orchard Specialties. Jeff was our teacher at the Slow Food class and he sells a variety of persimmons as well as his own hoshi gaki.

A Moment for Zack

Each dog in our lives has his or her own special personality. Michelann has written a tribute to Zack on her blog at http://www.lyrico.com/me/index.html, which lovingly describes the dog that was Zack.

For me, I'm finding it very difficult to look at a an empty paper towel roll and not think of Zack. One time he carried the carboard cylinder around for several days sticking it in our faces and in the faces of the other dogs to get us all to comment on his treasure and share his joy... I guess. After several days of this Bea (a dog of very little patience) got fed up, grabbed the paper towel cylinder from him and tore it to shreds. I have to admit we were all a bit relieved.

Socks were another treasure, especially the stinky dirty ones. He could be in and out of the laundry room in a flash, showing up back in the kitchen with a mouthful of sock. Another time he decided to forage the open dish washer. Shaun found him carrying around a knife in his mouth... a large one.

He also believed that all junk mail and packaging materials were his personal property... treasures to be admired by all who loved him. This was especially frustrating to Ladybug, who inherited her dad's appreciation for portable items and would often try to steal them from him by attaching her teeth to the other end. Shaun referred to this as the Kiss of Death. Zack would patiently hold onto his end as she tried to pull him around the room.

Flower pots were the funniest because he would grab the rim at the bottom of the circle instead of the top. A large pot would cover his eyes, causing him to walk into walls and chairs and other dogs.

And of course Lady Bug is a ongoing reminder of Zack. All of our puppies were raised by Zack who taught them to play while Amber was weaning them. At first Amber wouldn't let Zack near her babies, but he hung around a lot waiting for a sign that she wanted his help.

When the time came, he was ready. The puppies would pile onto him (all eleven of them) to play. He'd have puppies biting his ears, pulling his tail and under his front paw. They learned to make the growling sound that changes in pitch with the intensity of the play and also the importance of savoring your food... that's eating it very slowly while the other dogs watch.

We miss him a lot, especially when we change the roll of paper towels, try to match up pairs of socks, throw away the junk mail without a nudge on the arm, or sit next to his empty chair in front of the television.

Pistachios 101

These are the green nuts picked right from the tree. They have a fruity hull that turns black if not removed soon after picking.

We sold green nuts at the Farmer's Market. Most Americans are not familiar with green nuts because the nuts don't keep well in this stage. SB Pistachio Company only sells green nuts at the Farmer's Market and only during the harvest. They are picked the day before the market, sorted, and bagged by hand.

You must remove the soft hull to find the hard-shelled moist nut inside. In Iran, they boil the husks to make a jam. I talked with a woman at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market who told me her mom made jams from the hulls, but she never learned the recipe from her mom.

This pistachio has opened naturally on the tree. That means it is fully developed. The raw (undried) pistachio tastes fruity and a little citrusy. The texture is more fruitlike. It doesn't have the crunch of a dried pistachio.

At the processor, the husks are removed. Open ended pistachios are sorted from closed-shell pistachios. Closed-shell pistachios are shelled and sold as kernels. This harvest brought in 80% open ended nuts.

Remember when we used to buy pistachios in red or green shells? They were dyed to mask the stains left from hulls that weren't removed quickly enough. Hmm, I think I probably ingested a lot of red dye using my teeth to pry open red pistachios.


Here is a freshly picked pistachio that didn't develop. I'm guessing that's because pollen from the male tree didn't reach this flower. A lot of the nuts that don't shake off the tree easily contain these undeveloped pistachios that look a bit like embryos. The shells on these are tightly closed. But some of the closed-shell pistachios do contain fully developed kernels.

Closed-shell pistachios are put into a water bath to separate the heavier "sinkers" containing fully developed kernels from the "floaters," which aren't worth cracking open.