I have already posted a few times, how I prepare homemade bread. You can find the recipe here.
I made a few loaves of bread and while it was baking, I went to explore my pantry. I was really grateful when I found a few small Hokkaido pumpkins, laying on the top of the shelves. I immediately thought about @mondoshawan's #biss sandwich contest.
Hokkaido pumpkins are one of the greatest gifts, my garden can give me, besides potatoes and onions. If there are stored in a dark and cold place, it will last the whole winter.
I took a jar of Ajvar, which is my favourite canned sauce, I did a lot last year, but since it's so good there are just a few small jars left. I will explain in a few words how I prepared it last fall. Some people make Ajvar just out of red peppers, oil and vinegar, but I like to use a few more kinds of vegetables into it.
I garbed another jar, with pickles and I went further on my sandwich journey.
Passing by the garden, I noticed a few early spring salad leaves. I took a few and ran into the kitchen with a full basket.
Ingredients for patties:
- a cup of rice
- two small or one big Hokkaido pumpkin
- small onion
- two garlic cloves
- a teaspoon of vegetable salt or salt
- red sweet paprika powder
- a teaspoon of chopped parsley
- half a teaspoon of thyme
- 60 g of breadcrumbs
- 30 g of sesame seeds
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
Preparation:
- Wash the rice in lots of water and drain it. Put it in a small pot and place it on the stove. Add 3 cups of salted boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes. Cover with a lid and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
- Peel the pumpkins and clean out the seeds. Cut it into small cubes, and boil it until tender, for about 15 minutes.
Drain it and transfer it into the blender. - Finely dice onion and garlic. Fry the onion with a tablespoon of oil. Add garlic, vegetable salt or sea salt, red sweet paprika powder, chopped parsley and thyme. Add it to the pumpkin and blend together until smooth.
- Add pumpkin puree to the rice.
Add bread crumbs and mix well. Set aside for a few minutes, that the breadcrumbs soaks in the liquids. - Roast sesame seeds in a hot pan. Blend roasted seeds, until you get a powder.
- Form patties out of pumpkin and rice mixture, if it's crumbling, add more bread crumbs. Coat patties with sesame powder and fry it in a pan, with two tablespoons of oil.
Ingredients for Ajavar:
- 5 kg red meat, peppers (Kurt's Gate is the best for Ajvar)
- 3 red tomatoes
- 3 unripe green tomatoes
- 3 eggplants
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 8 tablespoons of alcoholic white vinegar
- 2.5 dl of oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- parsley, oregano, thyme, pepper
Preparation:
- Cut around the core and take the seeds out of the peppers. Coat whole red peppers, tomatoes and eggplants with oil and roast it. The best of it is to use an open fire, the get the smoked flavour, but you can also do it in a hot oven.
- Set aside for a few minutes to cool down a little. If you like you can peel the skin off the vegetables. I peel away only the parts where the skin is very loosened, but I don't really bother a lot with it.
- Slice vegetables and put it in a big pot. Add oil, crushed garlic, sugar and salt and fry for a few minutes (depends on the size of your pot). Add white vinegar and cook for another minute.
- Add herbs and blend well and you get delicious Ajvar. You can store it in a freezer or in jars, using water bath process. It will stay good for the whole year, if it lasts that long.
While writing this post and adding photos, I noticed that I forgot to write a ticket with physical proof. I took a photo with the leftovers, I hope that's ok.
