Pumpkin and Apples Roasted with Brown Sugar #RandomRecipe Challenge

This wonderful recipe comes very slightly adapted from the gorgeous cookbook Bountiful – Recipes Inspired by our Garden, by Todd Porter and Diane Cu, the pair otherwise known as White on Rice Couple.  If you don’t have this one already, buy it now.  No kidding.  While it’s not a completely vegetarian cookbook, it does showcase garden vegetables enhanced by fragrant fresh herbs and warm, wonderful spices, making them the rightful main attraction on any dinner table. 

Bountiful: Recipes Inspired by Our Garden

This month’s Random Recipe Challenge from Dom at Belleau Kitchen is to choose a new cookbook, perhaps one you got for Christmas and open it randomly to a recipe, then make that.  As it happens, I got three cookbooks for Christmas, all from my mother, generous woman that she is.  In addition to Bountiful, she gave me the latest Ottolenghi book, Jerusalem and Clotilde Dusoulier’s new vegetarian cookbook, The French Market Cookbook.   I have spent the last few weeks reading and bookmarking and it’s going to take me ages to make all the dishes I want to make from all three fabulous books.  I’ve already said, “Buy Bountiful.”  But you’ll want the other two as well.

 

Ingredients - side dish for four or main course for two

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons, tightly packed, dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 medium apples (Mine together weighed a little more than 12 oz or 350g, whole.)

1 small pumpkin or winter squash (Mine weighed about 1 lb 13 oz or 840g, whole.) 

1/2 cup or 60 grams chopped pecans

Sea salt 

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Peel your pumpkin and remove the seeds.  

Slice into half moons about 1/2 in or 1cm wide.  Set aside.  If you want to toast the seeds later, these instructions are simple and easy to follow.  

Peel, halve and core your apples.  Slice them into thick wedges. 

Choose an ovenproof saucepan and you will save the washing up.  Otherwise, the first steps of cooking will be on the stove and then you will need to transfer the ingredients to a baking pan.   

Melt the butter in your pan over a medium heat.  It will start to pop and sizzle as the milk liquids evaporate.  When it stops sizzling, add in your brown sugar and your cinnamon and stir well until the sugar has melted into the butter. 

Add in the apples and stir well to coat them with the sugary butter.  

Sauté gently until the apples have softened slightly then add in the pumpkin.  

Stir well to coat the pumpkin with the butter and the apple juice that has cooked out the apples. 

Give the whole thing a good sprinkle of sea salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.  And then top with the chopped pecans. 

Pop your saucepan in your preheated oven (or transfer everything to an ovenproof baking pan) and roast until you can pierce the pumpkin easily with a fork.  Mine took about 30-35 minutes.  

Enjoy! 

***This post includes affiliate links that will earn me some small change, for which I am much obliged, if you make a purchase after following the links.***  

Smoked Salmon Potato Stacks

If you are looking for a change from crackers and bread as a base for canapés, may I suggest sliced potatoes? They work particularly well with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Check out my deliciously adorable smoked salmon potato stacks! It's a delicious combination. And naturally gluten-free.



I have a confession to make. Sometimes I have neither crackers or bread. But I almost always have potatoes. Panfry a few thick slices and you've got the perfect base for the spread of your choice. 

I created this recipe a few years back for Appetizer Week. Since then I've served potato slices with many other toppings but you can't beat this classic combination.

Smoked Salmon Potato Stacks

Quick to make ahead and quick to assemble, your party guests will love these easy to eat finger food.

Ingredients
2 potatoes (Together mine weighed about 13 3/4 oz or 390g.)
Olive oil
5 oz or 140g cream cheese at room temperature
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Tiny piece purple onion 1/3 oz or 10g
6 oz or 170g thinly sliced smoked salmon
Chopped parsley, mint or fennel fronds to decorate, optional

Method
Peel your potatoes and slice them into rounds about 1/4 inch or 6mm thick. I got about 10 or 11 good slices from each potato and discarded the end bits, which would have been too small to match the rest.



Drizzle a little olive oil on a non-stick griddle pan and cook your potatoes in batches until they are browned on both sides and cooked through. Set aside to cool.



Mix the cream cheese, yogurt and lemon juice together in a small bowl and give it a generous few grinds of black pepper.



Thinly slice your purple onion.



Put the cream cheese mixture in a Ziploc bag and cut a small corner off so you can squeeze it out.

Share the cream cheese mixture out between the cooked potato slices, reserving just a little bit to garnish.



Cut the smoked salmon slices into skinnier pieces and roll them up. Set two or three small rolls on the cream cheese mixture.



Finish with another small dab of the cream cheese mixture and top with a sliver of the purple onion. If you like onion and know your crowd does too, feel free to put more.



Sprinkle with chopped parsley, mint or fennel fronds to decorate, if desired.



Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.



Enjoy!

Apricot Blue Cheese Pecan Bites

The mix of salty blue cheese and sweet apricots topped with toasted pecans makes the perfect bite for happy hour.  Enjoy these with a glass of crisp dry white wine or an ice cold beer. 


Here’s the thing.  I love salty stuff.  I’d choose a piece of bacon over a slice of chocolate cake any day.  But if you add salty to sweet, I’m still in.  The idea for these apricot blue cheese bites came to me in a flash of inspiration when I was using canned apricots in muffins.  They are the perfect little vessel for melted cheese!  I used blue but if that’s not your favorite, try Brie or Camembert or even a goat cheese.  Don’t have pecans?  Top them with toasted walnuts.   No matter how you make them, I’d like to come over for the party!

Ingredients
1 can (14 1/2 oz or 410g, net weight) apricot halves
3 1/2 oz or 100g blue cheese
1 oz or 30g whole pecan halves – one per apricot half so your weight may vary slightly.
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Method
Drain the juice or syrup out of your can of apricot halves and put them on bed of paper towels to absorb any moisture.   Count how many there are and count out that many pecans plus a few spares.  My can had 17 apricot halves.

Toast your pecans in a non-stick skillet over a medium flame.  Toss or stir them frequently to avoid scorching.  When they are browning nicely, remove the hot pan from the stove and sprinkle in the sugar.

Toss the pecans around quickly to coat them with the sugar which will begin to caramelize immediately as it hits the hot pan.  There may be smoke.  Just keep tossing.  Set aside to cool.

Wipe out the non-stick skillet and pop in the apricots.  On high heat, cook them quickly until they are browned or a little charred on both sides.

Put the apricot halves in a baking pan, hole side up.

Cut your blue cheese into small pieces and put some in each apricot.

Put the pan under the broiler or grill in your oven and cook for just a few minutes or until the blue cheese is melted and bubbly.  Some of the cheese may melt out onto the pan but as it cools, you can scoop it up and put it back in the apricot.

Top each with a toasted pecan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Sharing with your helper is optional.  But, frankly, not really recommended.