Perfect Pumpkin Soup

Marco: You just gotta love winter comfort food!

Hannah whipped up a delicious pumpkin soup the other night.

I can never have pumpkin soup again if it's not topped with crumbled fetta, toasted pine nuts and sesame seeds and fresh rocket! Delicious!

Hannah: I love pumpkin soup, but find that too many recipes are either just boiled pumpkin with loads of cream or so many things added, you hardly taste the pumpkin. So as I wanted to make something healthy and delicious my plan was: heaps of pumpkin, a good stock and some onion and garlic for flavour. The added fetta, pine nuts and rocket at the end were just inspired at the last minute from looking in the fridge!

Roast pumpkin is my absolute favourite – it makes the pumpkin super sweet and gives it a nice rich flavour! So, after drizzling some good olive oil in a roasting tray, I cut a whole butternut pumpkin into 1-2 inch chunks, chucked in 2 whole cloves of garlic (peeled – these also go super sweet) and roughly chopped up a whole onion. Everything can be rough, because it’ll all be blended up in the end.

So, while that was roasting away (I think I did it for about 1 ½ hours on 180deg), I made a simple chicken veggie stock. I love making stocks, because if you have a good one, it will make your meal amazing! So, considering that I put garlic and onion in with the pumpkin, I only used one clove of garlic and half an onion in the stock, I slowly caramelised these together. Then I just chucked in what I had in the fridge (too lazy to walk to the shops on such a cold day) which was: one carrot, one celery stick (with leaves) and one tomato. I kept the quantities small because it’s all about the pumpkin after all! I fried these off for just a minute or two with the onion and garlic then poured in about 1 ½ litres of boiling water and a teaspoon of powdered chicken stock. Then I just let this sizzle away until the pumpkin was finished roasting.

I let both the pumpkin and the stock cool down for about 20 mins then chucked it all in the blender. But, because I like it thick, I ended up not over doing the blending or the stock quantity, so it was smooth but nice and thick. Then, when we were ready to eat, I heated up the blended mixture in a big pot – do this slowly though, because otherwise it boils and plops everywhere (I made quite a mess). I quickly dry-fried some pine nuts, crumbled a little bit of fetta and a small handful of rocket on top – and it was yum! Perfect for winter!

Cheers,
Hannah

Rainbow Trout Sicilian Style

Roasting is just the easiest way to cook, you spend about 15 minutes preparing, then chuck it in the oven and walk away while the house fills with delicious aromas!

Here's something I quickly whipped up last night. I had stocked up on fish recently at the local fish marked in Marrickville. Grabbed some amazing looking local ocean rainbow trout.

I had never cooked it before, so I decided to keep it simple, knowing its a rich fleshy fish. So I just seared it in a pan with salt and pepper on both sides and then added a glass of white wine. Put a lid on it for a bit, then chucked it in the oven to slowly roast away. Served it with some roasted egglant with diced tomato, garlic, basil and pine-nuts. (Should've added anchovy) Had crunch cos and rocket salad on the side. Felt pretty posh on these big plates, but the fish just wouldn't fit on out other ones. This was way too easy and the kind of thing you would get charged a mozza for in restaurants.

Hand made Spaghetti with Pesto and Grape Tomatoes

Fresh from getting soaked at the Addison Rd Growers Market, (every sunday at the Addison Rd, Community Centre in Marrickville - near Reverse Garbage) we whipped up some fresh spaghetti, cranking up the pasta maker for the first time in our new kitchen. At the markets, we grabbed some delicious grape tomatoes, and the biggest bunch of basil and without even planning it we had the makings of delicious pesto on our hands!

Hannah worked her magic on the spaghetti. We hadn't tried this before, only making tagliatelle so far, so it was a bit fiddly and got a bit mushy, but still it was delicious. Nothing better than freshly made pasta! The pesto was so easy and being a classic Genovese sauce, it's not something I have grown up eating or seeing made. But with a good whizz and loads of good parmesan, olive oil and toasted pine-nuts you can't go wrong really!

Stay tuned for a recipe shortly.

It went down beautifully with a glass of of our favourite white wine, from Willow Bridge which is usually around the $11 mark!

Marco.

Mmmm burgers.

How good to these look? Wholemeal bread rolls (only 30cents each), with fresh tomatos, mixed lettuce, a slice of cheese, caremalised onions and of course home made patties! Oh, and don't forget the tomato saunce and mustard! Served with a pint of lemon, lime and bitters and it made a perfect lunch for a big hunger!

Dan's Bega Dinners

No doubt to become a regular feature on Pot Belly, here is the first installment of some awesome meals being whipped up down south, note well the cast iron cookware!




Marco, this is beautiful. i'll keep up to date with ya scoffings.

Tonight I couldn't help but photograph what I whipped up. Spiral and Penne pasta handled with macadamia and extra virgin olive oil topped with cherry tomatoes from the garden, fresh home made pesto (basil from the garden), olives and grated cheese. so simple yet oh so delicious.

And then there is a very famous photo from a few years back at the cave. WAS a fettucini neopolitana with corn and tuna. Went down a treat as does almost all meals when cooked on an open fire with nothing but fresh air, vitalised water from the Colo River and a rock to call home.

will keep the pics coming from the Bega Bounty.

Willi