Buttermilk Pumpkin Waffles (or Pancakes) with Savory Pumpkin Butter and a Side of Butternut Squash

About a week ago, I had the most intense culinary dream I've ever had.  I could somehow see myself making homemade, fluffy pumpkin pancakes, topping them with a rich, savory pumpkin butter, and serving myself with a side of roasted acorn and zucchini squash.  I could smell the sweetness of the pumpkin and squash, the richness of the butter, and the incredible aroma of rosemary and garlic added to the dish.  I woke up with intense hunger pangs and my mouth watering.

I had an incredible sense of urgency to prepare this dish immediately (after eating a snack to ameliorate my unhappy and empty stomach).  Despite leaving Atlanta the next day to visit my parents in Texas, I still had pumpkin on my mind (sing it to the tune of "Georgia On My Mind" by Ray Charles, substituting "pumpkin" for "Georgia," and you'll know what I'm talking about).  We had dinner at my aunt and uncle's house a few days ago, and fortuitously, there was a giant pumpkin growing in their plentiful garden that just happened to be ready to be picked.  Behold, the giant pumpkin, which weighed in at a lofty 17.2 pounds:

A ridiculously large, homegrown pumpkin, weighing in
at 17.2 pounds.

Brothers in a ceremonial cutting of "Pumpkin and the Beanstalk"
from attached vines.

Mom and I with the giant pumpkin.

My aunt, with her prized pumpkin.  Props to an expert gardener!  Talk about
a green thumb!

After an auspicious (not really) ceremonial cutting, we split the pumpkin in two and adjourned for the night, with half a giant gourd in tow.  Boy, was my family excited.  You see, we're crazy about fresh fruits and vegetables.  Acquiring half of a giant pumpkin is like finding gold to us!

I set out to tackle some of that pumpkin so we could make fluffy buttermilk pumpkin waffles.  I have to say (and not to toot my own horn, guys), but they turned out pretty fantastic.  Admittedly, the recipe would have been better for pancakes (buttermilk makes everything so fluffy!), but I had neither the energy nor the time to make 10-12 individual pancakes.  However, I would say this mix is probably good for either; if you want to save time and have a good quality waffle iron at home, go with the waffles, but if you fancy a sweet, fluffy pancake, go with that instead.

The batter itself was overall on the sweeter side, especially with the pumpkin puree in the mix.  However, I wanted to top the waffle off with something a bit more savory, so I drizzled some homemade pumpkin butter seasoned with (homegrown) rosemary and garlic.  With a side of rosemary and garlic-seasoned roasted butternut squash, this dish was reminiscent of all things autumn during what clearly feels like the middle of summer.  No matter!  There is never shame in eating root and gourd vegetables other times of the year!

Homemade pumpkin butter.

Oops, I had to try the waffle before I took a picture.  My mistake.
Homemade buttermilk pumpkin waffle topped with a savory pumpkin
butter and a side of roasted butternut squash (and a berry and mango salad
on the side).  

Here's the recipe; I hope you all thoroughly enjoy.  Bon appetit!

(Serves about 4-5)

WAFFLES/PANCAKES:

Ingredients:
-1 cup flour
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-2 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 egg
-2/3 canned (or fresh pureed!*) pumpkin
-1 cup buttermilk
*To make freshly pureed pumpkin, cook an appropriate amount in a pressure cooker, then either smash by hand or puree using a blender/food processor

Preparation:
-Combine all ingredients and mix well.
-For waffles: Fill waffle maker with appropriate amount of batter and cook until done.
-For pancakes: Scoop appropriate amount of batter onto a pre-heated griddle or large pan (on medium-high heat).  Cook until brown on both sides.

PUMPKIN BUTTER:

Ingredients:
-3 large tbsp pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
-2 large tbsp ghee
-1 large sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
-1/3 cup of milk (I used 2%)
-Salt to taste

Preparation:
-Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat on medium-low while covered (to prevent from drying).
-Stir occasionally until all ingredients are homogeneously mixed.
-Taste before serving to adjust seasonings.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH:

Ingredients:
-1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced into small pieces
-4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
-1 large sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
-Salt to taste
-1 tbsp ghee

Preparation:
-Combine all ingredients and bake in a 400 degree pre-heated oven for about 1 hour, uncovered.
-Serve as a side with waffle/pancakes topped with pumpkin butter.

A Double Whammy! Part II: An Ode to Mothers and Simple, Traditional Bengali Maacher Jhol

I very strongly believe that mothers, particularly stay-at-home mothers, are the most underappreciated, overworked members of our society.  They take all sorts of crap from everyone, but selflessly endure to better the lives of their children.  I mean, think about it -- how many times do you think you got angry at your mother, bit and/or scratched her, threw a tantrum that she had to tirelessly deal with, and made a mess with your vomit/poop/pee?  Okay, considering this is a blog dedicated to the wonderfulness of food, that's pretty gross.  But, really -- if you CAN thank your mother for doing all those things and more, you probably should.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be with my mother this weekend, but I was able to Skype with her and my dad to send my love and appreciation.  Happy Mother's Day, Ma.  This post is for you.

I'll be honest -- I was feeling a little lazy yesterday.  It rained pretty much all day, which made me want to bury myself in my comforter and get lost in a good book even more!  So, I did.  But then I started craving a home-cooked meal.  No, not just any home-cooked meal, but one of my MOTHER's home-cooked meals.  Deciding that I needed to cook some salmon in the freezer, I set it out to defrost, buried myself in a book of short stories, and came back in a few hours ready to make one of the most common dishes I had grown up eating -- simple maacher jhol (fish curry).  

This is a pretty simple recipe, but it really hits the spot on a rainy, dreary day.  I distinctly remember my mom watching me cross the finish line of every marathon I've run and helping me home as I so gingerly walked to and from the car.  Afterward, she'd always make me a home-cooked meal of maacher jhol / bhat (fish curry and race) for me after each of these races.  I'd have a bowl-full of food, then crawl into bed with my millions of ice packs, feeling tired, but satiated.  It really is a perfect post-race meal, guys.  Fish curry is typically eaten with rice, but I just like to eat it on its own sometimes.  Oh, and I always eat it with my hands.  To me, it's blasphemous to consume curry with a fork and knife (provided you're not in a nice restaurant).  You can use most types of fish with this recipe, but I've typically used catfish or salmon.  

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

-Your favorite cuts of your favorite fish

-Bolst curry powder (yes, it must be Bolst)

-Ground turmeric

-Salt/pepper to taste

-1 medium-sized tomato

-2 small white potatoes

-1 bunch of cilantro

-1 pinch of paanch phoron (you can get this at any Indian grocery store)

-water

-2 tbsp fresh ginger

-garlic powder

-1-2 tbsp of canola oil

-1 hot pepper (of your favorite variety)

Preparation:

-Clean the fish properly and cut into small pieces (say 4" long?), leaving the bones in (if it's not fileted).  Make sure the fish pieces are dry.

-In a large bowl, mix 1-2 tsp of turmeric powder, garlic powder, and salt with the fish.  Make sure each piece of fish is well-coated in the turmeric powder.  DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH TURMERIC POWDER!  Adding too much will make any dish bitter.  

-Dice the tomato and potatoes into small pieces.  

-In a large non-stick sautee pan, fry the fish pieces on both sides with the canola oil until they are cooked through.  Never curry fish until it's cooked!  Currying raw fish runs you the risk of (a) consuming raw fish, and (b) subjecting you to potentially really smelly fish.  Frying it with the turmeric powder cuts that fishy smell.  

-In a large sauce pan, combine the fish, enough water to cover the fish pieces (not too much!), salt and pepper to taste, the hot pepper, 1 tsp of Bolst curry powder, the diced tomatoes and potatoes, paanch phoron, ginger, and garlic powder (ginger and garlic powder to taste...I just kind of eye-ball measurements).  

-Cook on medium-high heat until the curry starts to bubble (don't let it boil!).  Once you start to see bubbles, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the curry, and let it 'do its thing' for about 20-30 minutes.  Of course, adjust seasonings as needed, but when you feel like it's about done, add a handful of fresh cilantro to the maacher jhol.

-Serve on its own, or with a serving of basmati rice.  Enjoy!

Note: This is not my curry.  I have been forgetting to take pictures lately,
so here's the best I've got for now.  Courtesy of Google images. :)

A double whammy! Part I: Artichoke and cheddar mini-quiches

Well folks, as usual, life has been busy and I have been neglecting my food blog.  It's funny, I think about this blog quite frequently -- much more frequently than I post -- and come up with some fun, creative ideas to write about, but then life happens and I forget about it.  I have ten or more things I'd love to blog about right now, but to save time, I'll focus on two (for now).

"Part One" of today's entries will glorify the versatility of the quiche.  My first memory of eating a quiche was while visiting Paris a few years ago.  For reasons I won't go into, that trip was mediocre at best, so almost everything I experienced (except for the Louvre...that was pretty awesome), including the food, was pretty lackluster.  Okay, so a lot of this had to do with the fact that it rained THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS THERE, plus I was away from home travelling solo for nearly 2 months (very fun and rewarding experience!  I just grew tired of it the last few days) and I was pretty homesick by the end of it.  I have to say, though, one of my better experiences in Paris was trying some sort of spinach quiche.  (Another was when I ordered the most buttery croissant I have ever tasted from some hole in the wall bakery.  It was a little piece of heaven.  I still dream about that rich, flaky pastry to this day.)

My roommate knows that, at the end of a long, hard day, I sometimes want to numb my brain (and perhaps, kill a few brain cells while I'm at it) with some trashy reality show on Bravo, or make my taste buds tingle with a show on the Food Network.  For whatever reason, I happened to be home one day and took a lunch break with Mrs. Paula Deen.  Now, normally I don't advocate recreating her recipes because she puts a pound (or more) of butter and/or sugar in everything.  But this recipe for mini artichoke and gruyere quiches sent my stomach into overdrive!

My favorite part of quiches, as I mentioned above, is their versatility in mealtime.  It's socially acceptable to have quiches at any time of the day!  Whether you want a heartier breakfast on a Saturday morning, or a quick starch/protein-filled dish with your lunch salad, or you just want a midnight snack for those really long days, quiches are "okay to eat" and can really satiate your deepest savory cravings.

You all know I never follow recipes exactly, or for that matter, glance at a recipe for more than 12 seconds, so I created my own variation of Paula's mini-quiche.  I hope you all enjoy my artichoke and cheddar mini-quiches, seasoned with fresh rosemary and chives, and a generous serving of real (emphasis on the real) bacon bits.  The smokiness of the cheddar and bacon really brought the dish together; every gooey bite has a delicious hint of rosemary and chives.  I have to brag a little -- my garden has been THRIVING this spring and I happen to use a sprig of rosemary and some fresh chives from the back porch.  Nothing like having homegrown herbs to throw into a recipe!

Here's the recipe...(sorry, no pictures today)

Ingredients:

-6 large eggs
-1 cup of milk
-1 large fistful of your favorite cheddar cheese (I like to go for extra sharp)
-1 sprig of rosemary (remember: a little bit goes a long way)
-1 stalk of chives
-6 oz of canned artichokes (half of a 12 oz can is what I used)
-REAL bacon bits (or some leftover fried bacon you might have at home)
-Small ziploc bag full of saltine or Ritz crackers, or you can use breadcrumbs (this is for the crust)
-Canola oil non-stick spray

Preparation:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
-Spray a muffin tin with the Canola oil non-stick spray
-Chop artichokes into small pieces.
-Combine eggs, milk, cheese, herbs, artichokes, and a generous handful (or more) of bacon bits (or crumbled fried bacon you might have at home) and mix thoroughly.
-Crush a ziploc bag full of crackers (this is fun!!).
-Line the bottom of each muffin cup with the crushed crackers.  Alternatively, you can just use breadcrumbs, but it's more fun to crush crackers.  Your choice, entirely.  I have never used breadcrumbs, but I imagine both the texture and taste (depending on the flavor of the breadcrumbs) would change.
-Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 way full with the quiche mixture.
-Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until the tops look all fluffy and you've done the knife trick (i.e. your knife comes out clean when you stick it through the middle).
-Enjoy!