Category: nutmeg

pumpkin pie

With a gift of a pumpkin under my arm, riding the train back into Essex was difficult that evening. I was spurred on by the thought of what to do with it by Spud Jr. sending me a link to a video recipe for pumpkin pie. I’m not sure I’d ever had it before so it seemed like a good idea as any.

I used a couple of tricks from the Heston lemon tart to make it as good as I could; particularly using a temperature probe to set it perfectly.

I can’t say I was blown away by it. The flavour was definitely pumpkin but I couldn’t help thinking something was missing. It needs perhaps a layer of chocolate icing to offset the smooth, uniform flavour. And I added lemon zest to the pastry but I think orange would be a better choice. Maybe I’m just not darn American enough.

Based on a recipe by Food Wishes.

pumpkin pie

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the filling:

1 kilogram pumpkin My 1.8kg pumpkin yielded about 1kg flesh when roasted
1 can pumpkin puree 15 ounce
1 large egg
3 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch Chinese five spice
Pinch salt

For the pastry:

120 g icing sugar
3 large egg yolks
300 g plain flour
150 g unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 lemon zest grated

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150C. Carve the pumpkin into even fist-sized chunks and roast in the oven for 3 - 4 hours, until a knife sinks into it with no resistance. Cover with foil and leave to cool.
To make the pastry, whisk the egg yolks with icing sugar until frothy. Rub the butter into the flour, lemon and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs. Combine the yolk mix with this until you get a smooth pastry and then wrap in the fridge to rest for 30 mins.
Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick. Press into a pie dish, prick all over and blind bake for 30 mins until browned.
When the pumpkin is cool peel away from the skin and pulse in a food processor. When smooth whisk with the remaining filling ingredients and pour into the pastry case. Bake for 20 mins or until the centre of the pie reaches 70C when checked with a temperature probe. Leave to cool and serve with whipped cream.

chilli cinnamon coriander cumin food nutmeg

garam masala

Another year, another excuse to rustle up a garam masala. This year, a heavy lean on the aniseed flavours: star anise, cinnamon, chillis, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, bay leaves, a whole nutmeg all roasted in a low oven until aromatic. Blitz to dust.

bay coriander cumin curry food nutmeg

garam masala

Or Gary Masala, as I call it in my kitchen (ho ho). It’s a Hindi expression, meaning “hot paste” although I have heard other translations. It’s a blend of ground spices that are the cornerstone of the Indian kitchen.

Contents vary from cook to cook, from family to family; as a clueless Essex boy I have taken a ‘greatest hits’ from others I’ve heard about. I’ve made mine with: cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, nutmeg, mustard seeds, bay leaves and coriander seeds (all spices should be used in their whole unground form for maximum aroma). I lay them all out on a baking tray and put them in a mildly warm oven (about 140C) for about 45 mins. This can be done in a dry frying pan but I find the papery dryness from the oven lends itself better to crushing without gaining a scorched taint. The great side-effect of this is your kitchen is filled with a powerful aromatic perfume. Then comes the crushing: I don’t have a spice mill capable of this so it’s down to the good old pestle and mortar for me. I then store it in an old Schwarz spice pot.

The possibilities of this are great – I have a recipe coming up for this later this week…