We're in exactly the reverse of the Northern Hemisphere with regards to season change. Still, we have seen such a huge rise in the love of pumpkin spice and Halloween. I didn't specifically make his soup for that reason, but it definitely fits the theme.
As we head into the middle of spring (with some cold spots still in between) and the rest of you are in autumn, I suppose it's the only time of year where we kind of meet in the middle. Not quite warm enough to go out without a jersey, still cold enough for soup, but some surprisingly warm days where we get to defrost a bit.
I love collecting bits and bobs from my cooking, especially stock and gee. I often freeze it and it just makes for such incredible flavour. There is no comparison between store-bought stock and homemade stock. It just changes everything and makes the flavor of whatever you decide to cook with it, so full of love and flavor.
Cooking isn't just about throwing ingredients together from a list. It's about planning ahead, scheming, getting ideas from other people, and experimenting. If you are privileged like me (which I wasn't for most of my life) I get to cook for the love of it, and not just as a chore.
I can't stand for very long so if I do decide to cook, I need helpers and most of what I do is done sitting at our dining room table while I order everyone around :p
So @zakludick brought this enormous pumpkin home a few weeks ago, and that's great and all, but I've also honestly been avoiding it because my holy guacamole is there a lot of work in prepping a pumpkin: from peeling to chopping to fishing out the inside... and it leaves your hands really orange.. like at least for a day. No matter how many times you wash your hands.
Anyway, I needed to make a warm comforting meal and I had some stewing pork ( we often buy big bulk packs of pork that includes a roast, an enormous steak, stewing meat and various chops). which I would either make a stew or curry with.
I had a look at this pumpkin I'd been avoiding and decided to give it a go! Sudddendly inspiraton hit. I wanted something like pea and ham soup, but with pumpkin instead of peas.
So, here's how I did it.
- I peeled chopped and sauteed about four large onions with chopped garlic, herbs nutmeg and a few other spices that I can't remember now.
I then added the pork pieces and allowed that to brown.
While that was going on and I had the kids stirring the pot for me, I made work of the pumpkin. And thank goodness I did. I had to cut out a little bit of it because it had gone bad, but the rest of it was perfect. It was A LOT of work though. Also bear in mind that the skin is very thick and most kitchen peelers won't be able to handle it. I peeled it with a knife, by hand.
The pumpkin part was the most work though and only took me about 20 minutes. I then added some chicken stock, and the pumpkin and covered everything with water (about 1.5 litres), and turned the pot down to a simmer for about four hours.
@zakliduck got us some of our favorite butter bread from the shop and we got stuck in, munching until we were warm and sleeping. This soup actually fed us for three nights. The second night we added some soup bones from the butchery and the third night, @zakludick made these incredible panini toasted sandwiches with cheese and mince that we dipped in the soup, which we finally finished.
I love soup because there are no rules. You can throw pretty much whatever you want in there and then once the initial sautéing and chopping is done, you just leave it alone for a few hours and magically, you have a perfectly delicious meal!
