Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Pumpkin Two Ways

A beautiful day in my neighborhood and as promised, today I will tell you about pumpkin on Marilyn's Table.   It's my favorite time of year and the produce is amazing.  Today's Table will feature pumpkin in two very different ways.  Here is what's on the Table:

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce
Spiced Pumpkin Dunking Sticks
Alton Brown's Hot and Spicy Cocoa

The ravioli recipe came from Saveur magazine.  However, it appeared to be a bit tedious.  So I took some shortcuts.  First of all, I did not make pasta dough from scratch.  I have found that using wonton skins work very well and the finished dish looks a bit free from. Also I used canned pumpkin (not pie filling) instead of roasting a whole pumpkin.

First comes the filling; onions are sauteed in a bit of EVOO about 10 minutes.  Then red pepper flakes are added along with amaretti cookie crumbs, cinnamon, Parmesan cheese, honey, white wine and salt.  Cook to combine and then add the canned pumpkin and heat through.  Cover and set aside to keep warm.

In a small skillet melt unsalted butter and add the sage leaves and cook until they are crisp.  Set this aside as well.  Heat a pot of salted water to boiling; dip the wonton skins in the water to soften, just a few seconds will do.  Arrange 3 - 5 on a plate and spoon  some of the pumpkin filling in the center of each, leaving a bit of the edge.  Lay another wonton skin over the filling and press the edges together.  Serve the warm sage butter over the top.  I really liked this process as well as the dish itself.  I expect to prepare more ravioli's using this method.

The cocoa is a dry mix that is mixed and stored in an airtight container.  It can then be made one cup at a time.  It is rich and creamy with just a bit of a kick.  Mix together: powdered sugar, Dutch process cocoa, powdered milk, salt, cornstarch and a pinch or two of cayenne pepper.  Fill a mug about half full of the mix and pour boiling water over.  Stir and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Yum!

The cookies were a bit of a disappointment, but I discovered I had left out an ingredient so it was no wonder they were not what they should have been.  Soft unsalted butter is beaten with sugar until thoroughly mixed.  Then cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger salt and cloves are added and mixed together.  In a separate bowl, canned pumpkin, egg and vanilla are combined and added to the butter mixture.  Stir in flour with a wooden spoon.  Now the dough is to be placed in a pastry bag and piped in a corkscrew motion onto a cookie sheet.  Well I found the dough to be to stiff to use the pastry bag so I rolled the dough into 'little cigars' about 4 inches long and put them on the baking sheet. They are to bake 5 - 7 minutes, but since they were not in the shape the recipe called for, I left them a bit longer.  While they cool a glaze is made to drizzle over the cookie.  Cream cheese, butter, are mixed together. lemon and orange peel are grated and added with some lemon juice.  Powdered sugar and milk are added until the glaze is of a consistency that will drizzle over the cooled cookies.  I grated more orange peel over the glaze.  I will work with this again, being sure to put in ALL the ingredients.  Perhaps they will come out lighter and more of a dunking consistency.

All in all the meal was good and perfect for the weather and time of year.  I will be taking next week off from cooking.  I will be in Kohler, Wisconsin for the Food/Wine Experience and will see demonstrations by two of my favorite PBS chefs.  It's one of my favorite events and Kohler is a lovely town. Have a good week and I will tell  you about it in the following week.

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