Curried Pumpkin Soup Redux..

[osodecanela]

So a friend from the Seattle area dropped in unexpectedly on Sunday. A major treat I must say. She's living on a farmstead on Bainbridge Island, directly across the Puget Sound from Seattle, along with her sister & brother-in-law, their little girl and her brother-in-law's cousin, who is now her significant other. I had to laugh when we spoke. She said boyfriend doesn't quite express the nature of the relationship. Then she said it was good to be dating again, or something to that effect. I pointed out dating is not the right term. "Hon, you're living together; that's a major step beyond dating."

Late in the afternoon we hit the apple orchard where the fig tree I raid every fall is. Things are dormant this time of year. She wanted fresh live applewood, to graft onto root stock she has at home. They have a mini-orchard on the farmstead with over 20 varieties of heritage apples. She wanted to add Gravensteins to that list, but I have no idea which trees are what at this time of year. The orchard which as far as I can tell hasn't been harvested for years has at least a dozen different varieties, including Gravs, but nothing is labeled and each of the varieties are scattered throughout. We took shoots from 16 different trees, a total of 26-28 shoots in all, which are likely being grafted as I write. She says she has roughly at 95% success rate in getting apples to graft. 4-5 years from now, we'll know what she got.

Maia is a vegetarian and so when it came time for dinner, I dispatched another of the smaller white pumpkins, a 1/2 lb of mushrooms that needed dispatching and several onions, into the stockpot for another stab at curried pumpkin soup. The resulting concoction was a lovely shade of pea soup green, and thanks to the roux I made about the same consistency. She had her OXO vegetable peeler in her purse and so we peeled the pumpkin, then cubed it and got some carmelization on it in some butter mixed with EVOO. OXO often is a better mousetrap when it comes to making kitchen tools. I have several of their spice grinders, and I now intend to add their vegetable peeler to my kitchen tool stash. It made short work of the pumpkin, something the peeler I have in the house will not power through.

The Maharajah Curry blend from ogam's cousin, knot_frayed impresses me most pleasantly. I've used it twice so far, both times on pumpkin, and both soups have been successes, at least to the palates of those partaking. If anyone out there is interested in getting some, go to www.salemspices.com.

Comments

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I've had good luck roasting pumpkin with tandoori spice powder on it.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Do you read smitten_kitchen? This year's recipes have included Carrot Soup with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas and Gnocchi in Tomato Broth. The Carrot Soup recipe has links to previous carrot soup recipes.

I like the OXO GoodGrips peeler, but my hand sometime cramps with it. I have better luck with the Titan peeler. (I don't think David met a gadget he didn't like. This one was a win.)