Another Food Blog

Need more be said? Well, maybe this. I used ‘freeze-cooked’ pumpkin which has been softened by the freezing process instead of by baking or boiling. I discovered a few years back that if you take out the centre bits and the seeds, and peel pumpkin slices, they freeze nicely and come out soft, and ready to use in pies and soups.

This one starts with fried onions, then I add the pumpkin pieces and chicken stock, a big spoon of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar. The spices are nutmeg plus a little cinnamon and cloves, and black pepper, of course. After it’s simmered 20 minutes, I blend it, strain it, and add half a cup of milk and a dollop of crème fraiche. I bring back to the boil and simmer again for about 10 minutes. As I said, just pumpkin soup. But how gorgeously warming on a damp, dreich day.

No, I’m not talking about the US alternative rock band founded 24 years ago and enjoying a revival. I’m talking about Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chili pepper originating in Assam, India. It has just blasted its way into the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s hottest pepper. In tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs. This is almost double the score of Red Savina, previously thought to be the hottest. It was grown from Indian seeds by researchers at New Mexico State University.

This is too hot for my tastes. For some time I had an intolerance of spicy hot foods. I no longer do, and have taken sometimes to eating food with some heat added. I use cayenne pepper, and though I never cook with chilis myself, I occasionally eat slivers of them when dining out. A little goes a long way, and I suspect that one of these Bhut Jolokia peppers would last me for about two year’s worth of food! I’d need a few microns in each dish.

Pumpkins are everywhere, and I made my first pumpkin pie of the year. I used about a third of a small pumpkin, and carefully froze the rest, having discovered that they thaw out already soft and ready to use. I used my usual recipe, as I did last year. I think I marginally overcooked this one, in that the pastry was not as perfectly succulent as I prefer. However, it was a good pie. It’s Halloween soon, but there’s almost a month before Thanksgiving. Time for lots of pies.

After I made that speech at Jesus College, I was given a very handsome gift. It was a wooden box containing four half bottles of port. They were all Taylor’s tawny which had been aged in wood, the first bottle for 10 years, the others for 20, 30 and 40 years.

I suppose the thing to do is to open them all and pour four small helpings of each to drink in succession, thereby to compare the quality of the various years. On the other hand, it’s also tempting to work my way through them until I reach the 40 year old, climbing the quality ladder as I do so. Either way, I confidently expect my popularity will jump when my friends read this…

It was the college dinner I had that set me thinking. Apple and pumpkin in a cream sauce under a herb nut crust. I wondered what chicken and mango bake might be like, if done in a cream sauce and under a similar crust. One way to find out.

The chicken pieces I sealed in oil on the stove top, while I carefully hedgehogged half a mango. This involves cutting lines along and across into the open half, then turning it inside out so the mango squares stick out from the skin and are easily cut off. These were added to the chicken, and after some simmering, three big spoons of crème fraiche.

For the crust I melted butter and added oatmeal, parsley and chopped nuts. Yes, I know most herb crusts use bread, but I like oats. Into a shallow tin went the chicken and mango, with the crusting spooned on top, and then into a hot oven for about 25 minutes.

Did it work? It looked great and was nice enough, but I can improve it. Next time I’ll put lemon juice into the chicken and mango, and the sauce must be more runny, so I’ll add milk to the crème fraiche. I used too many nuts in the crust, and I think it could have used some bread. The next one will be better.

I put in lots of meat. It came already cut into chunks with very little fat on them, but I went through and removed even that. It went into a pan lined with hot oil, and turned so that it browned on all sides. Then I added half a pint of lamb stock. To the simmering mixture I leisurely added vegetables as I chopped them. There were red and green peppers, a potato, and a large field mushroom cut up. To all this I added fresh ground black pepper, a few shakes of cayenne pepper, and some garlic. It took about half an hour from start to finish. It’s an easy but very tasty sort of ‘stove-top hot-pot’ which my grandmother used to make. She called it hash, and for some reason always served it on Ash Wednesday.

While it was cooking I prepared a crumble to follow. This time I used three large black plums, and put them in with chopped up dried figs that I’d allowed to soak for an hour. The liquid went in, then the crumble on top. After 35 minutes it came out looking very good, and was served with goat’s milk yoghurt. It had a rich, slightly tart taste because I added no sugar to the fruit, but added a level teaspoon of caster sugar to the crumble. It was adorably gooey, and tasted rather Christmassy – it’s the figs. Definitely a pudding for cold nights.