Real Pumpkin Pie
It seems like you can hardly find a pumpkin pie recipe that doesn’t call for evaporated or sweetened condensed milk. Pumpkin pie is actually a fairly healthy dessert, especially if you cut back on the sugar a bit and use maple syrup instead. It’s filled with things Weston A Price highly recommends eating like eggs, dairy, pumpkin and lots of healthy warming spices.
I prefer my pumpkin pie without crust, so I bake it in individual ramekins or a one casserole dish. Real cream, whipped up with some fresh ginger and maple syrup, tops it all off for the perfect Thanksgiving or anytime treat!
I like my food with lots of flavor so I usually double the spices in any recipe I’m making; this one is no different. You will also find that using freshly ground spices really helps bring out the flavor of each spice. Freshly grated ginger tastes so much different than powdered ginger. I’d also recommend using sweet cinnamon instead of regular cinnamon if you can find it. I get mine at Mt Rose Herbs, many stores carry it in their hispanic section. The flavor of sweet cinnamon pairs much better with sweet things, it’s more mellow than regular cinnamon.
I’m not big on really sweet stuff, this recipe has less sugar than most so it won’t taste like the recipe from the back of the can of pumpkin. I reduce the sugar in mine to 1/2 or even 1/4 cup. If you like your pie on the sweeter side increase the sugar to one cup.
REAL PUMPKIN PIE
15 oz. pumpkin puree (homemade puree will yield a lighter pie)
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup cream
1 tbsp brandy (optional)
3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of freshly ground cloves
whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsps maple syrup
1 tsp ground ginger (freshly grated is best)
1 tsp brandy (optional)
Heat oven to 325°F* In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, egg yolk, cream, and brandy. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and cloves. Whisk the sugar mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Divide the filling among ramekins (the total number will depend on the size of your ramekin, you could also use wide mouth half pint mason jars as well).
Bake until center is slightly jiggly and wet, about 1 hour. Cool completely on wire rack, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving (they taste best if made the day before and are refrigerated overnight). Whip cream until soft peaks. Add the maple syrup, ginger, and brandy and continue to whip until medium-firm peaks. Spoon over pie and serve. If you’d like sprinkle some minced crystallized ginger on top for garnish and extra flavor.
*To bake in a pie shell, heat oven to 425. Pour filling in pie shell and bake pie at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack and serve with whipped cream.
Pumpkin pie is my favorite thing that comes across the table around the holidays. I’ll pass up just about any other kind of sweet in favor of it (except for maybe an extra spicy gingerbread man). I always double this recipe because one batch never lasts long around here. I’ll admit to eating this for breakfast if I have it in the fridge and not feeling the least bit guilty about it. This would have to be my favorite holiday sweet.
What is your favorite holiday sweet?
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Nourishing Colombian Breakfast Soup
Many of you gave your home remedy advice on my Saturday post about feeling a little under the weather. Any of you that are friends with me on Facebook saw the photo I posted of the Nourishing Colombian breakfast soup I made Friday morning. This soup is great any day of the week, but it’s especially comforting when you’re sick.
Soup is not a common breakfast food here in America, but it is many other places around the world, including Colombia where I grew up. Serving up a bowl of this delicious soup is still one of the most warming breakfasts in our home. Mr Chiots loved it the first time I made it. There are a few different version, the one from the capital city includes milk and no potatoes. I much prefer the following version from the prairie region that I grew enjoying.
NOURISHING COLOMBIAN BREAKFAST SOUP
1 quart of homemade chicken stock
1 lb potatoes, cubed*
4 or more eggs
1 small yellow onion diced
3 cloves of garlic diced
4 Tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons of turmeric
1 teaspoon or more of sea salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 or 2 scallions, sliced into small discs
chopped fresh cilantro
Melt butter in saucepan over medium/low heat, add onions, cover with lid and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, return lid to pan and cook for an additional 5 minutes. You don’t want the onions to brown, simply to cook until translucent. Add turmeric, salt and freshly ground pepper.
Pour chicken stock into pan with onions and garlic, add cubed potatoes and cook until tender (10-15 minutes). Reduce heat to a slight simmer, break eggs into ladle and carefully drop eggs into soup, cover and cook for about 5 minutes until eggs are desired level on doneness.
Divide scallions and cilantro between four bowls. Ladle hot soup into bowls and serve. Add more salt if needed, Colombian like this soup on the salty side, I do too as I feel like it soothes the throat nicely with the extra salt when you’re sick!
*Any kind of potato will work, I prefer using potatoes that fall apart during cooking
I suppose “breakfast” might be a bit misleading, this soup would be good for any meal of the day, though I’ve never had it served to me any other time. In Colombia they serve different soups at lunch and dinner. I actually enjoy having something different for breakfast.
What do you think about soup for breakfast?
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A New Hobby: Roasting Coffee
I’ve talked about our love of coffee several times before. Mr Chiots and I are coffee aficionados; we drink coffee like other people drink wine, talking about the depth of flavor, the crema on the espresso right after brewing, and on and on. We were super happy to find a local source for the most wonderful micro-roasted coffee, but sadly Al quit roasting to sell and we were left sans good fresh micro-roasted coffee beans. Rather than settle for mediocre, we decided to take our normal path and simply start doing it ourselves.
We spent some time researching beans sources and coffee roasters then we took the plunge. There are many people that roast their coffee in an air popcorn popper. Since we’re espresso drinkers and like a dark roast, that wasn’t an option for us. We needed a drum roaster.
After doing much research we found CafeCoffees which is a guy who builds them on a small scale. What we really like about this roaster is that he makes them repairable with parts from the local home improvement store. Whenever possible we like to buy appliances sans electronic controls and made to be repaired. They’re usually more expensive initially but end up being much cheaper over the long term. As small business owners, we also appreciate supporting a small business. The 3 pound roasting capacity of the roaster we purchased was an added benefit since it will save time and money over roasting in smaller batches.
We ordered a collection of espresso beans from Sweet Maria’s, some single origin and some blends. Then we waiting for our roaster to arrive, eagerly anticipating the wonders of home roasted coffee. Our beans arrived about a week before our roaster. To fill in the gap, we had to buy beans from another small local roaster to get us through. Needless to say, our decision to roast at home was backed up by the flat flavor to of that coffee.
Our roaster arrived last Saturday; we set it up and roasted two pounds of coffee on Sunday afternoon. We were happy with the roaster that we chose and were also pleasantly surprised by our roasting results (especially since it was our first batch). Technically you’re supposed wait 2-3 days after roasting for the espresso to “bloom” fully, but we couldn’t wait. We brewed some on Monday morning.
You may think roasting your own coffee at home is difficult and you need special equipment – but it’s not and you don’t. There are some people that simply use an air popcorn popper and some that even do it in a cast iron skillet (which I may try someday when we want some coffee to brew in our Chemex). Basically you put your green coffee beans in your roaster and roast until desired doneness, we like a darker roast so we wait until they start the second crack (sounds like popcorn popping). Then you cool as rapidly as possible and you’re done. We were actually amazed by how easy it was!
Roasting coffee at home also saves money! We purchase our green coffee beans for between $5-$6/lb and our roaster only uses about 5 cents of power for each batch (we can roast up to 3lbs of coffee). Of course it will take us a while to recoup the cost of the roaster, but since we invested in a roaster that will last for years to come so it will save a lot of money over it’s long lifetime.
Our initial efforts aren’t as good as the coffee we used to get from Al, but they’re better than any other coffee we’ve purchased. We’re also using single origin beans at the moment and we like a blend of beans for more depth of flavor. We have a few blends to try as well and we will most likely come up with our own blend with much experimentation. It looks to be a fun and delicious hobby! I’ll keep you posted on our adventures (Oh and I’m planning on making a how-to video someday for Ethel so I’ll let you know when that happens).
Have you ever roasted your own coffee or do you know someone that does? Have you ever considered roasting your own?
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The $5 Challenge at Local Roots
I headed off to Local Roots Wooster yesterday to buy food for the $5 Challenge. There so many options of things to make that would have cost me way below $5 per person. The cabbages are in season and the local butcher had fresh brats, braised cabbage with brats would have been less than $10 for everyone. The zucchini and squash are nearing the end of their season so ratatouille would have made a very inexpensive dish for a crowd. There were tons of fresh eggs begging to made into fresh light pasta with a simple butter sauce. I finally settled on an old classic, something that is make so much better when made with love and care in the Slow Food way with quality ingredients, no boxes or cans and a extra little time to make it flavorful. What did I decide to make? Watch the video and find out. (keep watching, there are a few bloopers at the end of the video)
It’s not too late to join, head off to your local farmer’s market this morning and see what ingredients are available. Cook some something delicious and share it with friends since good food is made better by good company because the $5 challenge isn’t just about food that’s inexpensive, it’s about building your community and sharing good food with others.
Do you have a favorite local market or farm?
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Join Us for the $5 Challenge & win a Prize
As you know, I’m a big advocate for good, healthy local food. I keep up to date on what’s going on in the agricultural world, as well as the local and slow food movement. When Slow Food initiated their $5 Challenge I thought it was a great idea. I’m always trying to tell people that eating local seasonal food is not more expensive and this challenge sets out to prove just that. The goal is to cook healthy meal for less than what you would spend for a meal at a fast food restaurant. They emphasize that the food should fit the Slow Food ideal “food that is good for those who eat it, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet.”
THE CHALLENGE: This September 17, you’re invited to take back the ‘value meal’ by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person. Cook a meal with family and friends, have a potluck, or find a local event.
WHY: Because slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food. If you know how to cook, then teach others. If you want to learn, this is your chance. Together, we’re sending a message that too many people live in communities where it’s harder to buy fruit than Froot Loops. Everybody should be able to eat fresh, healthy food every day.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Sign up for the challenge! You can cook a meal with friends and family, find a local event, or host your own event. When you sign up, we’ll send you $5 cooking tips.” Sign up for the challenge! You can cook a meal with friends and family, find a local event, or host your own event.
This isn’t really a “challenge” for me. We’ve been eating local, seasonal, slow food for quite a while. We even try to eat this way when we travel and when we’re on the run.
I’ll be getting together with a few friends tomorrow night and I’m in charge of the meal. Later today, I’m off to Local Roots to see what kinds of meals I could prepare for $5 a person. Of course I could make the entire meal with ingredients from my garden and some of the venison from the freezer and it would cost me only about $2 per person. But I think I’m going to purchase the ingredients for this challenge.
I have a few meal ideas knocking around in my head, like:
- Crispy Sticky Chicken Thighs from Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life
- Braised Beef Sandwiches like those ones I blogged about
- Simple Roasted Chicken with seasonal vegetables
- Pasta Primavera featuring homemade noodles with local eggs topped with seasonal vegetables and local cheese
- Beef Roast with roasted root vegetables
- Homemade pizza with various toppings & local cheese
- Beef Stew with a crusty homemade peasant loaf
- Caramelized Onion Soup topped with crusty bread and local cheese and a side salad
- Ratatouille from seasonal vegetables
- Mushroom Lasagna with local mushrooms and cheese with a fresh salad
Having a small edible garden is a great way to save some cash on your food bill and it’s the ultimate slow food. I have a collection of Botanical Interests seed packs to give away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is comment a great meal idea that would cost less than $5 per person using “food that is good for those who eat it, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet.”
So, who’s in? Any great ideas for inexpensive, delicious meals?
Here’s a great Q&A with Josh Veirtel about the $5 Challenge and how it came about.
