Hark at me.....

Blimey I almost forgot to Blog today. Shame on me !!

So anyway yesterday I got myself fully pumpkin'd up, got four of them to experiment with. They are on the small side but that is fine for the time being.

I've decided on three things that I'm going to make for the cookery demonstration.

The first will be a Soup, the second some mini pasties and the third will be a cheesecake.

For the soup I'm going to first roast the Pumpkin to intensify the flavour and I'll do that with some whole Garlic Cloves and some Rosemary plucked straight from the garden. I'll then Purée all this down with some Vegetable stock, add a swirl of Créme Fraiche and top with a few Almond flakes. I really think the marriage of these flavours will work brilliantly.

For the Pasties I'm going to mix the Pumpkin with minced Pork and give it a nice curried flavour using Cinnamon, Ginger, Chilli and of course Curry Powder.

I may also add some Peas into this to add some freshness and texture then I'll wrap this mixture into some light puff pastry. I actually think these will work better as big pasties rather than bite size ones but seeing as it's a demonstration and people will want to try them then small ones are the way ahead.

The Cheesecake will be normal kind of cheesecake affair with the biscuit base but I'm going to mix in Lime Zest with the base because this sharpness of the Lime should go really well with the sweetness of the Pumpkin. I think this could be a revelation if I can get the cheesecake filling to be super light.

All in all I think these are very nice dishes to do and should be very easy for people to recreate at home once they've seen the demo.

Having never used Pumpkin before I think it'll take some practice and I'll probably be sick of the sight of them by the 30th September when the demo takes place.

Post 2

So I've been asked to do a cookery demonstration for a local community project that involves people growing their own produce and sharing it around. Such a wonderful thing really and gets children involved too which can only be a good thing at a time when everything comes pre-packed and in a uniform shape.

Please if you can take time just to have a look at the wonderful things they do - Food4families

The next thing I have to do is think of what to cook !!

They would like me to do something with Pumpkins seeing as they are in season and their general use involves them being scraped out, given scary faces and filled with candles for a Jack'o'Lantern.

Well there is quite obviously so much more to them and given that I have an hour of demonstration time I think I might do a few dishes, maybe a Starter, Main Course and Dessert.....you can certainly do that with a Pumpkin because they are such wonderful and versatile things.

The only details I have on the event so far is that it'll be held on Thursday the 30th September in a marquee in a big field in Reading, Berkshire where lots of people will be having a picnic :-)

I'm thinking perhaps these dishes -

Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter
Pumpkin Curry
Pumpkin Pie
Spicy Pumpkin Mini Pasties

Oooooh anybody else got some ideas?