Guest Mary Curry with Pumpkin Soup!

Missy, here. Before I share Mary's guest post, I want to tell you about an exciting event to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Several authors are donating a 50-page critique, and the highest bidder will win--with proceeds going directly to Samaritan's Purse. I'm one of the authors participating, so I hope you'll bid on me! :) Here's a link to my blog (click here) and to our Facebook event page (click here.)

Now, on to fabulous Mary Curry!

Pumpkin Soup

by Mary Curry 

Last week, I commented on a soup that I made and Missy asked if I would share the recipe.

Sure. I love to share recipes here. The only problem? Well, there wasn’t really a recipe. I kind of made it up as I went along based on flavors that I felt belonged together. I guess that’s sort of the pantser way of cooking. But it’s all good in the end.

I promised I’d try to recreate the soup because it was really delicious and so healthy.

These are the ingredients I started with:

Chicken (or vegetable) broth, canned pumpkin (I used the large can because that’s what I had.), spices (I used Garam Masala, Nutmeg and cinnamon. The Garam Masala has cinnamon but I wanted more!), apples and lentils. 

 Assembling the ingredients and chopping up the apples is really the hardest part! After that it’s just a matter of mixing it all together and letting it simmer.

First I added the broth to my Dutch Oven. I used two of these containers of broth because I wanted enough soup to have lunch all week. Feel free to adjust or use a combo of broth and water. I used chicken broth this time because it’s what I had on hand, but last time I used vegetable broth. Either works fine.

I dumped in a whole bunch of the spices after that. Sorry I can’t give measurements, I just shook – a lot. Less on the nutmeg because it has a stronger flavor. You can adjust the spices when it gets to the tasting stage so for now, go with less if you don’t like spicy.

Next comes the pumpkin.

 Share some with the cute dog if he’s hanging out at your feet.

Note – if the cat thinks the dog is getting treats, he’ll show up too. But he doesn’t want pumpkin.

Good thing I’m cooking for myself. The Board of Health wouldn’t be liking these animals in the kitchen.

Next I peeled and cut up apples. You probably could do it without peeling, but I peeled.

I had a bunch of apples that were starting to go soft so I used about six, but it doesn’t have to be that many. I think I only used three last time. Go with your feelings about apples. For me, you can’t go wrong with lots of apples.

Simmer awhile.

See how specific this is? It really depends on how close you are to wanting to eat. The longer you simmer, the thicker and richer it gets. When you’re about half an hour or so away from wanting to eat. add the rinsed lentils. They absorb a lot of the liquid so this is where you want to check to make sure you don’t have pumpkin apple stew. Add liquid as needed or leave it alone if you like the idea of stew.

I had some pumpkin seeds in the cupboard so I toasted them to sprinkle on top. They added a nice crunch when I was eating.

Enjoy!

The first time I made this I added apple cider for flavor. I left that out this time since I had so many apples.

Hint – the soup tastes really good with the oatmeal cranberry walnut scone I picked up at the farmer’s market.

Warning: Did you know that pumpkin seeds have a certain effect on you? I didn’t and I wondered why … (how do we say this delicately?) Ah, they give you an overactive bladder.

But they’re good for you and they taste good!

Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa Salad with Mary Curry!

Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa Salad

By Mary Curry 

Welcome to Interactive Friday where you help me figure out the best version of a recipe!

Last week when Missy posted her fabulous Green Goddess dressing, I mentioned a salad that I’ve enjoyed at a local café - Black bean, corn and quinoa salad with avocado dressing and tortilla strips. Missy asked me to post about it so that gave me a chance to go back and order it again.

I got it as take-out so I could take notes as I ate, but I need some help in perfecting the recipe.

Some of it is easy –

Quinoa – check

black beans – check

corn – cooked it in the microwave with husks still on the way Missy taught us here - http://yankeebellecafe.blogspot.com/2012/06/favorite-friday-corn-on-cob.html - then cut it off the cob and chilled it.

In my opinion the corn was the best part!

greens – check

red onion thinly sliced – would have been a check except the one I bought had some weird black moldy looking stuff in it when I cut it open. Tasted NASTY so I skipped that part. That made me sad because the slices of red onion gave a nice zing to the café salad.

tomatoes – check. I used little red grape tomatoes

avocado slices for the salad – check

toasted tortilla strips – for these, I decided to make my own. Well, not really. I bought corn tortillas. My daughter chopped them into thin strips and then we toasted them in the oven. (Note: for this part, it’s better to toast longer on a low temperature. I did it on a higher temp and they got mostly chewy. I lowered it so they could just sort of dry out.)

Onwards to the salad –

That first part is all pretty basic.  Just cook the quinoa and chill, prepare the beans however you like (I always cook them. Makes them easier to digest if you know what I mean.) and then chill.

Wash the greens.

When everything is chilled you’re ready for the dressing. This is where my copycatting fell apart.  What I made tasted good, but it wasn’t exactly right.

I took another avocado and juice from a lime and blended with some cilantro. Because I can’t get Virginia’s smelly feet comment out of my head, I went light on the cilantro.

   

Okay – so juice from a whole lime was waaaaay too much.  I’d say start with a tsp. of lime juice and add in to taste.

Except that you probably don’t want to do this dressing at all.

One of the things that complicated me figuring out the dressing is that it tastes different every time I go there. One time it was really creamy. Another time more liquidy. Hmmmm.

So I blended the avocado, too much lime juice (you should have seen the way my daughter’s face puckered!), cilantro and a dash of powdered garlic.  Honestly, once I added the garlic, it wasn’t too bad. I like lime juice anyway. I blended and blended (actually switched to the mini food processor because the blender wasn’t working) until I had something that kind of resembled  guacamole. I mixed that in with the cold quinoa and then arranged the whole thing on the bed of greens, added the beans, corn, tomatoes, (no onion), avocado, and topped with the toasted tortilla strips.

Voila!

Isn’t that pretty?

It actually tasted really good too. There was just one problem (other than the lime juice and missing onion.) There really wasn’t any dressing on the lettuce.

At that point, I had the brainstorm I should have had back at the beginning. I Googled black bean corn avocado salad quinoa.

What do you know?  LOTS of results. And they have dressing recipes. *sigh* 

So here’s where you come in.

Take a look at some of these recipes, if you will, and tell me which you think sound best.

Or maybe you have an alternative suggestion.

Trader Joe’s has a recipe - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/TRADER-JOE-S-BLACK-BEAN-ROASTED-CORN-AND-AVOCADO-SALAD-ON-A-BED-OF-QUINOA-50093720

Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/recipes/ci_18300471

Matt’s Mix  (This sounds good, but you have to buy something from him.) http://mattsmix.com/recipes/black-bean-roasted-corn-avocado-salad-with-red-quinoa/

From the Dallas News website (uses red quinoa) http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20111018-black-bean-corn-avocado-salad-over-red-quinoa-with-cilantro-dressing.ece

I’m kind of leaning toward this one - http://www.eating-for-england.com/quinoa-salad-beans-avocado/  because I like the sense of a citrusy (lemon and lime) liquidy dressing and I think cumin might give it the bite it was missing. I might blend some avocado into it though.

Thoughts??? HELP???

***********

Visit Mary Curry at The Healthy Writer Blog!

Guest Mary Curry with British Cheese and Onion Potato Pie

British Cheese and Onion Potato Pie

Guest Blogger Mary Curry

I know it’s January and we’re supposed to be being good and eating low-carb and all, but potatoes are good for you. Really. They’re a good source of potassium, so think of this recipe as good for your blood pressure. Besides, it’s the perfect warm up your insides food for a cold January day.

Whew! Now that I’ve gotten the rationalizing out of the way, let me tell you about this recipe.

My youngest daughter is a vegetarian which is fine most of the year but it makes holiday meals difficult for her. This year I was trying to find a recipe to entice her while everyone else was savoring the Christmas ham.

I stumbled across a recipe on BBC for a Cheese and Onion Pie. Since my daughter spent a wonderful month in London this summer and was still longing to go back, I figured this would be a hit.

This is the basic BBC recipe:

Ingredients

For the pastry

·       450g/1lb plain flour, plus extra for dusting

·       2 tsp baking powder

·       ½ tsp salt

·       120g/4½oz unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

·       1 free-range egg yolk

·       50g/2oz parmesan cheese, grated

·       120ml/4fl oz water

·       1 free-range egg, beaten, for glazing

For the filling

·       1 medium potato, peeled and cut into cubes

·       2 onions, finely sliced

·       1 tbsp plain flour

·       50ml/2oz whole milk

·       50ml/2oz double cream

·       150g/5½oz mature cheddar cheese, grated

·       ½ tsp English mustard

·       ½ tsp cayenne pepper

·       salt and freshly ground black pepper

I’m going to be honest with you – I didn’t follow the recipe much at all.

First, I didn’t make the pastry crust. I used the Oronoco Farms frozen crust I had in the freezer. My daughter loves that crust so why mess with it?

Second, I basically used the ingredient list and then adapted it to what I had on hand. I used about 8 large potatoes, peeled them and set them to boil.

  

While the potatoes boiled, I diced 1 sweet onion and 1 red onion and sautéed them in Irish butter until they were translucent.

Then I mixed the potatoes, the onion mix, some milk and lots of cheese and layered it into the pre-baked pie crust, topped it with an extra layer of cheese, and set it to bake about half an hour at about 350 degrees.

The result was delicious. Both my daughter and I ate way too much of it and then we enjoyed leftovers for a few days. It was that good!

So this is what the BBC pie looks like.

I didn’t put the top crust on mine because I liked the bubbling cheese on top. I’m sure either way is delicious. (And the BBC one looks a whole lot prettier.)

I did a variation another night with artichoke hearts but that wasn’t as delicious as I’d imagined it would be. The artichokes just got mushy. I’d like to try it with salmon baked in but I’ll have to do that separate from my daughter’s portion.

Have you ever made something like this? Do you have any suggestions of things to add in for variety?

And here’s a link to the original recipe. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheeseandonionpie_89625

Mary Curry's Cranberry Bread

Many years ago (so many that no one remembers when), my daughters and I began a Thanksgiving tradition that still holds today.

Somehow (we don't remember this part either - Oops!) we came into the possession of a well worn copy of a delightful book called Cranberry Thanksgiving. (There's also a Cranberry Christmas and Cranberry Valentine's Day.)

This is the description on Barnes & Noble

Maggie and her grandmother each invite a guest to their Thanksgiving feast, featuring Grandmother's own cranberry bread, made from a secret recipe...Grandmother almost loses her secret recipe for cranberry bread to one of the guests she and Maggie invite for Thanksgiving dinner. Includes the secret recipe. 

That bold part - that's the key to the tradition. 

When the girls were little, reading the story and then baking the bread together was a favorite part of our Thanksgiving preparations. Today my daughters are 22 and 24 and guess what - yup, we still bake the bread. (Although I have to admit we stopped reading the story long about the time they hit middle school.)

The bread is definitely easy-peasy (TM Ruthy) to make and sooooo moist and delicious.

I could just share the secret recipe (that's prominently displayed on the back cover *g*) but where's the fun in that? Instead I'll give you the photo version.

I love the description of the recipe. It says Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread and then in parentheses (Get Mother to help).

The ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter or margarine (I've only ever used the butter)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon grated orange peel (okay, I always leave this out)

3/4 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups light raisins (dark work also)

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped (nah, too much trouble. I toss them in whole).

Sift flour, sugar. baking powder, salt and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.

Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries.

This is before mixing and adding fruity goodness...

And this pic is after. This is because Ruthy can't remember where exactly Mary had these lovely photos placed so I'm stickin 'em in, here and there.  ;)

Spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and ten minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack. 

The recipe says you may substitute all cranberries for the raisins but I don't recommend it. The raisins are a nice sweet balance to the tartness of the cranberries.

ENJOY!  (It tastes great with whipped cream cheese - maybe with afternoon tea.)

I love to hear about traditions that families have established over the years. Please share yours!

And one final shot for cuteness sake.

This is Fenway "helping". His new favorite toy is the cranberry he's been chasing around the house.