Pumpkin and Quince Soup

It's Halloween and that can only mean two things... The first is joyless people moaning "Oh, it's such an American thing' they say, but guess what?  So are men on the moon, Breaking Bad, Tom and Jerry and serial killers, and all of those are brilliant things.  The second thing is the humble pumpkin.

Now I have been quite vocal in the past about how people seem to cram pumpkins into everything (cynically one would think just to get more hits on their blogs...) like pumpkin spiced lattes, caramel pumpkin cheesecake dog biscuits and so on.  But in the spirit of evil, I shall join this club with a soup that is perfect for eating on a cold October night whilst watching Peter Cushing do his stuff in The Satanic Rights of Dracula.

It uses quince as an ingredient,  mainly because when we moved into the new Soup HQ, we inherited a quince bush, made some jelly and loved it, which got me thinking if I could use it in a soup.  If you don't have access to a quince bush, lime juice would work perfectly well! 

(Also, to get you in the Halloween mood, here's a zombie film I made.  It's a bit gory

[The Following post should be read in the voice of a witch, warlock or sundry demon]

Now the darkness is upon us and the spirits prepare to fly, causing havoc and all manner or malingering, it falls upon me to impart the wisdom of how to prepare a soupe made of the flesh of that most devilish of all the vegetables that grow in the dirt of the grave - the pumpkin.

Be warned though, this is not the tame soupe but a devilish fiery concoction.  No thin and watery gruel this, but a most unusual brew, made that much more strange by the addition of the fruit of the Quince bush, which imbues upon said soupe a sharpness such as a lime would also provide.  However the soupe will not reach full efficacy unless the flesh of the quince is interred into it.

The sprinkling upon the top of the soupe of the toasted seeds of the pumpkin also imparts a delicious savoury note which is only matched by dry roasted eye of newt or other water borne creature...

Go ahead, make this soupe if ye dare...

Ingredients
1 Pumpkin (about 1kg of flesh)
1 Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Quinces
1 Red Chili
1tbsp Ginger Puree
1tsp Cumin
1tsp Coriander
1 Tin Tomatoes
1 Tin Coconut Milk
1.2l Vegetable Stock
30g Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Method for preparing the soupe

1. Murder the onion and cut that into small pieces.  Show the onion no remorse, even if you cry.  Do the same to the chili.

2. In a cauldron or other suitable piece of kitchenware - preferably cast iron and under a full moon - heat up some oil and then fry the onion's remains.  Add the chili, ginger and some garlic to keep away vampires.  Cook until dead but not burnt - maybe 5 minutes...

3.  Add the coriander and cumin powders (or ground monkey paw if you have it) and then cook for a few more minutes.

4. Hack up the pumpkin like Michael Myers on Prom Night.  Use a very sharp, pointy knife and slice the flesh, cutting away all the skin and tough bits.  Then cut the remaining soft fleshy parts into unidentifiable pieces. Leave no incriminating evidence

5.  Add the stock, pumpkin and tomatoes to the cauldron, salt the soup so nothing more shall grow there.  Cook for 45 minutes and then remove from flame and torment. Allow to cool until cold as the grave.

6. Blend, mash, grind, flense or otherwise reduce the soup to the consistency and colour of freshly spilled blood.

7.  Peel the skin from the very living flesh of the quinces and then chop them asunder (Be careful as the dastardly quince harbours much in the way of tricky gristly and tough bits.  Be sure to remove these fully)

8.  Add some water to another pot and bring to a goodly boil.  Into this pot dispose of the Quince's flesh and render down to pulp or puree.

9.  Add the resultant puree, plus the juice of one coconut to the soup and reheat to renew the agony.


10.  Serve to hungry demons with a scattering of the pumpkin's own seeds upon it.  Try not to choke upon the resultant mess

Pumpkin Soup with Sage and Bacon

On a trip to the supermarket the other day,  I had to wade through aisle after aisle of skeleton themed sweets, plastic vampire fangs and bottles of bleach in the shape of Frankenstein's Monster (although I may be making one of these up...) which led me with the swiftness of Sherlock Holmes, to deduce that Halloween is almost upon us.

Me, with terrible wounds...

Much like Chrismas, birthdays and that day when they roll cheeses down a hill somewhere and people chase after them, Halloween seems to be a decisive event.  From people moaning about it being an American holiday, being over-commercialised to people objecting on religious grounds and so on and so forth.  Me, I love it - always have done, back from when I was a nipper and we used to make turnip lanterns as pumpkins were such stuff as dreams were made of back in the 70's in Leeds. 

On to student days when we dressed as zombies, lobster creatures and, erm, werewolves with jaundice (yes, we still remember that Kris!) and now in more sedate times re-watching old Hammer Horror films like Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell and Taste the Blood of Dracula (man those films had way better names that modern horror films do...)

And yes, it goes without saying that the one vegetable that symbolises Halloween is the pumpkin (which are everywhere now...) so here is a pumpkin soup to warm your bones as you prepare to chill your soul this Halloween.

Of course, you could leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock if you wanted, but scientists have discovered that the addition of bacon improves any dish by 1027%, and who am I to argue with science?

Ingredients
40g Butter
2 Onions
1kg Pumpkin
2 cloves Garlic
1.2l Chicken Stock
60ml Sherry
50g Smoked Bacon
Pumpkin Seeds
1tbsp Chopped Fresh Sage
Grated Nutmeg

Method
1. Finely chop the onions and garlic.  Heat the butter in your soup pan and then gently fry the onion and garlic until it starts to colour.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

2.  Peel the pumpkin, de-seed it and then cut the flesh into cubes.  Add these to the pan and cook for a further 10 minutes, until the pumpkin flesh is soft.

3. Add the stock, sherry, sage,and some salt and pepper, bring the pan to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is very soft.

4.  Remove the pan from the heat and then blend until smooth, pass the soup through a sieve to remove lumps and make it extra smooth at this point if you like, then return to the pan.

5.  Re-heat and serve.  Garnish with grated nutmeg, toasted pumpkin seeds, basil leaves fried in a little butter until crisp and some cubes of fried smoked bacon.  Enjoy!