Pumpkin Recipes, With and Without Spice

Click image if you're basic.

I'd have my Basic White Girl card taken away if there weren't at least a dozen pumpkin recipes on the blog. No chance of that happening, as there are eighteen recipes (so far) using pumpkin as a main ingredient. Most of the recipes are sweet, of course, but a couple are savory. Pumpkin is a vegetable, after all. I am rather surprised that I don't have a recipe for pumpkin hummus here somewhere--a situation that will be rectified very soon. I recently found a yummy-sounding one on the Interwebs but haven't had a chance to whip it up. 

I've made more variations on pumpkin cheesecake (3) than anything else. There are also muffins, cake, cupcakes, breakfast items, plus soup and risotto. One thing I noticed while searching for pumpkin recipes: the older posts have some pretty horrible photography! Going from small digital camera to iPhone camera has made a big difference in the quality of my images. Good lighting makes an impact as well. So this post is recipe-heavy and photo-light. 

Curried Pumpkin Soup This recipe is stupid-simple. 

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chai Muffins This is clearly one of my more recent recipes, as I eat mostly gluten-free these days. Plus I'm hoping that the term will attract new followers to the blog....

mini pumpkin cheesecakes

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes Specialty pan alert! You need two 4-inch springform pans for this recipe. I suppose one 6" pan will do, but the cheesecake will need to bake for a bit more time. Don't ask how long. It's in your hands now.

Pumpkin Bread Just to be different, I added a bit of curry powder. 

Pumpkin Butter Don't spend $5 on a jar of pre-made pumpkin butter! Make it yourself for much less.

Pumpkin Cheesecake This is for a full-sized cheesecake to serve to family and friends. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies Rather than the usual cream cheese-swirled brownie, these are topped with a thick layer of pumpkin cheesecake. 

Pumpkin Cornbread There's actually no good reason to add pumpkin to cornbread. But I did it anyway.

Pumpkin Cupcakes Rich and moist, these cupcakes taste better after a day or two.

Pumpkin Fruitcake Don't be afraid--this is more pumpkin bread with dried fruits and nuts than actual fruitcake. Real fruit, not those awful red and green plasticized cherries.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle is a great dish for the upcoming Winter holidays. Make it easy on yourself and use boxed gingerbread and pudding mixes.

Pumpkin Oatmeal sure is cozy on a fall morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes are too!

"pumpkin" pie made with squash

"Pumpkin" Pie There are quotes around the word "pumpkin" because this recipe calls for fresh squash. Pretty much all canned pumpkin is actually butternut squash, and it can be substituted for the other squashes in this recipe. 

Pumpkin Risotto There are no "pumpkin spice" spices in this recipe!

Pumpkin Seed Brittle only uses the seeds, not the flesh. My late Dad said it was "like heaven" in his mouth. 

Pumpkin Spice Cake This is like a blondie, only pumpkin-spicier.

Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Compote Do make the compote! 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Pandemic Eats, Week 1-8, Home Edition

While we ate a lot of carry out and delivery food during the first 8 weeks of #stayhome, we also cooked regularly, too. Some of the food was completely from scratch, while other dishes repurposed restaurant leftovers. (I hate food waste, and you should, too.)

On the Tuesday of what would become Week One, I had tickets to The Band's Visit at the Hippodrome, and I had planned to take my friend Jeremy. The show was postponed pretty early on, so he and I made alternate plans. Those alternate plans were also changed by coronavirus. Plan C involved J coming over to make us Chinese dumplings, from scratch--wrappers and all. I was sous chef, and I am responsible for the horrible pleating on the dumplings. (I think we added too much water to the dough.) Still, they were delicious, particularly the fried ones.

I made gluten free apple pie for dessert, which we consumed with an Irish coffee on the side. Pierish coffee, as J calls it. It's not a thing, yet, but it should be.

My friend Laurie, @Baltimorehomecook on Instagram, started a project of making pasta and delivering it to folks. I can't turn down her homemade cavatelli, which I served with chopped up Italian cold cuts, spinach, parm, and fresh chives.

I was still attempting to continue Whole30 at this point, so these pancakes are made with Bob's Red Mill gluten free one-to-one flour.

Then I decided, since I wasn't losing anything, that I'd allow some gluten back into my life. Like the crust on this ham and brie quiche.

And the pumpernickel bread used for this toasted cheese sandwich served with a quick soup of canned tomatoes, cannellini, and stock, with fresh swiss chard.

Black bean soup with pickled watermelon radish yielded enough to stash a quart in the freeze for future eating.

Leftover pork tenderloin became an element on this salad, a riff on the classic nicoise, with a mustardy vinaigrette and potatoes. Cheese and nuts just because.

I found that beets make great lunch salads. I tried red, chioggia (candy stripe), and gold beets, and determined that the earthy flavor of red goes best with cheese (feta or bleu) and nuts (walnuts or anything else).

Turkey meatballs with creamy pesto were good for a couple of meals.

Ditto this pot roast, which we ate at least 4x.

I like changing up my daily lunch, so when I don't have leftovers to eat, I make something like this beet hummus.

I opened up a jar of Desert Pepper Salsa Rio and knew we wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing before it got funky, so I repurposed it as a soup with cannellini beans, leftover pork, and pickled onions. Cheese quesadilla on the side.

We've been eating a lot of potatoes, mostly baked. One time I got fancy and made Smitten Kitchen's cacio e pepe potatoes Anna. Pretty good, but next time I'll use butter instead of olive oil, for more flavor.

We've had Chinese carry out a few times, from Red Pepper Sichuan in Towson and Asian Kebab and Hot Pot in Lutherville. (They are owned by the folks who operated the late, lamented, Hunan Taste in Catonsville.) A ton of rice meant fried rice one night. I also repurposed some crazy spicy pig ears into this dish, and the avocado mellowed that heat out nicely.

I broke out my recipe for sriracha bouillabaisse one evening to use up a pack of frozen TJ's mahi mahi. With some rouille-coated toasts, it made a fine light supper on two evenings.

What have you been cooking at home?

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Gaonnuri

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, I stayed in Koreatown when I was in NY for Fashion Week. Despite all the tempting offerings that surrounded my hotel, I kept my consumption of Korean food to one meal. And what a meal it was!

Gaonnuri is on the 39th floor of a building at 32nd and Broadway. The sweeping views of the city are only somewhat distracting from the excellent food. With a menu full of tempting Korean dishes like haemul pajun (scallion and seafood pancake) and japchae (stir fried glass noodles) plus the option of tableside barbecue, I had a hard time making decisions. I wanted it all, so that's what I had - the tasting menu. Eight courses, including dessert, plus an amuse bouche. Washed down with Hite beer.

The rather bland amuse was a thin rice porridge, perhaps to clean the palate of any previously consumed flavors.

PORK TROTTER NAENG-CHE 족발 냉채

Thinly Sliced Steamed Pork Trotter Wrap With Vegetables And Soy Mustard Dressing

If I didn't know this dish was pork, I would have thought it was beef. The medium-thin slices were served chilled, and were somewhat difficult to eat with chopsticks and a spoon (traditional Korean tableware). I managed. The dish, though meaty, was a light and refreshing start to the meal.

DUMPLING SOUP 만두국

Steamed Dumpling Soup With Mushroom

Two kinds of Korean dumplings and shredded beef and egg floated in an intensely beefy consomme-style broth. I'd take this over won ton soup any time.

MODUM JUN 모듬전

Pancake Sampler – Oyster, Perilla Leaf With Pork, Beef Shortrib

I'm most familiar with crispy, lightly greasy, haemul pajun and we almost always order the seafood and scallion pancake when we eat Korean food. I was not at all familiar with the three varieties served in this course. None were crispy, and the oyster and perilla/pork versions reminded me more of omelets than pancakes. The beef one, wanja jun, was similar to a meatball. Or in the case of my pancake of ground shortrib, beef tartare. The outside was browned, but the inside was close to rare. It was mildly seasoned, so the beef flavor shone. I think it was my favorite of the three.

GALBI JJIM 갈비찜

Traditional Korean Braised Prime Shortribs

One normally finds galbi (or kalbi) in cut in thin slices across several bones, but at Gaonnuri, the short ribs were western-style, served in big meaty chunks, off the bone. Easily the best short ribs I have ever eaten, the meat had a perfect fat-to-meat ratio, and were melt in the mouth tender, with that lovely sweet galbi flavor. Gorgeous.

BLACK COD GUI 은대구 구이

Broiled Black Cod in Caramelized Bean Paste Sauce

If you've ever tried misoyaki butterfish at restaurants like Morimoto or Roy's, then you have an idea of what the black cod gui was like -- tender, very fresh fish with a sweet, caramelized skin. A little bean paste and gochujang on the side could be employed to add variety to individual bites, and the lightly cured kimchi added tartness to the dish.

SEAFOOD DOLSOT BIBIMBAP 해물 돌솥 비빔밥

Mixed Rice With Seafood And Vegetable Served In Hot Stone Bowl AND

DOENJANG JJIGAE 된장찌개

Korean Bean Paste Stew With Beef, Tofu & Vegetables

I love dolsot bibimbap, a dish of rice with vegetables and protein served in a sesame oil-slicked screaming-hot stone bowl. The bowl and oil lightly fry the rice, making for mouthfuls of varying textures once the ingredients are stirred together. This version had shrimp, squid, and a little fish roe, and it was as good or better than any other I've tried. The final savory dish, served at the same time, was a lightly spicy stew with chunks of zucchini, beef, and tofu, and also among the best versions I've tried. A big bowl of it would be a great choice on a blustery night, warming and soothing.

A LA MODE 된장찌개

Frangipane-Apple Galette, Huckleberry Compote, Mascarpone Ice Cream

By the time dessert arrived, I was stuffed, so I couldn't do the lovely crisp apple galette justice. I felt the huckleberry compote to be a little on the sweet side, but otherwise I enjoyed the few bites I was able to eat.

All that for $105, with an amazing view of the city. I'd definitely do it again (and take Mr Minx along for the ride).

Gaonnuri
1250 Broadway
Penthouse, 39th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212. 971. 9045



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Dining in NY - Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen

Mr Minx and I were in NY recently to celebrate our 15th anniversary and my impending birthday. We ate at a number of interesting and less-expensive-than-usual places, just about all of them of some ethnic persuasion. We also saw a terrific Broadway show, An American in Paris. While looking for a place to have lunch before our matinee, I found Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen.

While restaurants in the Theater District/Times Square are not particularly known for their haute cuisine (think Olive Garden), this little restaurant with the big name was awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin for 2016. The Bib Gourmand is defined as serving "two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less." Basically cheap eats. But there are some notable restaurants on the 2016 list, including both Momofuku Noodle Bar and Ssam Bar, Frankies 457 Spuntino, Kesté Pizza & Vino, Prune, and Tertulia. I figured a restaurant in such good company can't be bad. And it wasn't.

Service is prompt and efficient in Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen's no-frills dining room. There is barely need for a menu, as the restaurant's name pretty much sums it up, but it was nice to receive one with photos of every dish, so we knew what we were getting into. The bulk of the choices are for dim sum-type snacks, with bigger dishes involving ramen or hand cut noodles in soup or stir fries. We had eaten ramen the day before (and several times in the week before our trip), so opted for dim sum in the form of pan-fried Peking duck buns, scallion pancakes with beef, pork and crab-filled soup dumplings, and a cold dish of sliced beef and tripe in chili oil.

It was all good. The meat in both the buns and scallion pancakes was slightly sweet, which balanced the spice of the beef and tripe. The tripe was cut a bit more thickly than we are used to in similar dishes served at Grace Garden and Hunan Taste, which made it a bit more chewy, but the lightly peanutty chili sauce with the distinct piney-citrus-floral flavor of Sichuan peppercorns had the perfect amount of ma-la (spicy and numbing) heat.

After having scalded myself at my first attempt at eating soup dumplings, I was very aware of the proper method of consuming these heat bombs: using the tongs provided, place a dumpling on the soup spoon; take a tiny nibble of the dumpling skin; suck out the broth before consuming the rest of the dumpling. These dumplings weren't as incendiary as those at Joe's Shanghai, so we emerged unscathed.

I think I liked the scallion pancakes most, for their crisp flaky exterior and the sweet bite of tender beef inside. It was a nice textural contrast. But everything else was quite tasty as well. It would be nice to have these slightly different options available at dim sum here in Baltimore, but who am I kidding? We're lucky to have any dim sum options at all.

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen
811 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019



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Happy Anniversary, Ejji Ramen

Ejji Ramen, one of our favorite places to eat in Belvedere Square Market, recently marked its first birthday. We've supped there several times in the past 12 months and have felt that they've only gotten better as time goes on.

Our normal m.o. involves hitting Ejji on a weekday night and ordering ramen in any of their three styles (miso corn, tonkotsu, and laksa) just as they are listed on the menu (rather than attempting to compose our own combination of toppings). But now that they serve brunch (!) we're going to have to alter our ways a bit and show up on a weekend.

Brunch is served from 9am to 5pm every Saturday and Sunday, so if you're lazy like us and prefer to loll about in a warm bed until 11am or so, you can still take your time getting your act together and not miss brunch. Or have an early supper, if you prefer.

Recently, we tasted a couple of their brunch offerings.

I'm a huge fan of okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake filled with cabbage and seafood. Ejji's okonomiyaki contains clams, scallops, and shrimp and is topped with okonomiyaki sauce (a sweet and tangy concoction that's a bit like ketchup + Worcestershire), Japanese mayo, scallions, and bonito flakes. It's delicious and filling and a perfect brunch dish. As I'm typing this, I kind of wish I had one right now.

Ejji also has fried ramen topped with a creamy and perfect miso egg and kimchi in a umami-filled sauce with a touch of sweetness. Be sure to get some of Ejji's green (hot) or red (hotter) sambal  on the side, to spice things up a bit or a lot.

Photo credit: Ejji Ramen

There's also a Ramen Breakfast Bowl made with bacon-corn broth, corn, two kinds of egg--poached, and tamago (a thick Japanese omelette that you may have enjoyed in nigiri form)--plus applewood-smoked bacon, and sausage made from Kurobuta pork, a luscious and fatty meat from heritage Berkshire pigs. We haven't tried it yet, but it looks kind of amazing. (And really filling!)

Happy Anniversary to Ejji Ramen! We're so happy you're in our area and we look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with you. And we'll be in for brunch soon. :)

Ejji Ramen
529 E Belvedere Ave
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 435-8688



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Mexican Blini

Why is it that buttermilk only seems to come in quarts? Most recipes call for a cup, maybe two, of the stuff, but there are four cups in a quart. What to do with the leftover buttermilk?

I happened to be thumbing through one of my many cookbooks, Vegetarian Planet, and found a recipe for masa cakes that require 1 2/3 cups buttermilk, plus masa, corn kernels, and a few other ingredients we already had on hand.

I don't know why I don't use that book more often. It's terrific.

We also had various other oddments in the fridge. A bit of smoked trout. Some leftover tomatillo salsa. Pomegranate arils. Rather than serve the masa cakes as a straight-up sort of Latino thing, I topped them with smoked trout and sour cream and made them blini-ish. Of course, they were nowhere near as delicate as a properly made blini, but they sure did taste good. And isn't that all that really matters?

Mexican Blini (adapted from Vegetarian Planet)

2 eggs
1 2/3 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons melted, cooled, unsalted butter (divided use)
1 1/2 cups masa harina
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup corn kernels, thawed if frozen
Tomatillo salsa (recipe follows)
Sour cream
Smoked trout (optional)
Pomegranate seeds
Chopped parsley or cilantro

Beat the eggs and add the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of the butter. Gradually stir in the masa, flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Stir well until the mixture forms a mass. Stir in the corn.

Add the remaining tablespoon of melted butter to a large skillet over medium heat. Make small patties with the masa dough, about 3" in diameter, and place in the hot pan. (If you have too many patties to fit without crowding, make them in two batches.) Cook until the undersides of the cakes are browned, 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook 4 minutes on the other side.

To serve: puddle some of the tomatillo salsa on a plate. Top with 2-3 masa cakes. On each masa cake, place a dollop of sour cream, a bit of smoked trout, and garnish with the pomegranate seeds and parsley or cilantro.

Tomatillo Salsa

4-5 tomatillos
2 jalapeno peppers
3 scallions
Handful fresh cilantro
1 small clove garlic
1-2 teaspoons brown sugar
Pinch cumin
Salt, to taste

Remove husks from tomatillos, rinse them and cut into quarters. Stem and deseed the jalapenos (leave some seeds in, if you want more heat). Remove root end from scallions and chop remainder into 1" pieces.

Put tomatillos, jalapenos, scallions, cilantro, and garlic into a blender and puree. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in the brown sugar, cumin, and salt. Cook about 5 minutes, until mixture darkens. Taste for seasoning, adding more sugar or salt if you think it needs it. It should mostly be tart, but not sour.



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Be One Korean BBQ

We are carnivores, so we love us some Korean BBQ. We've been going to Honey Pig, which we like a lot, but sometimes we don't want to get on the beltway and eat in another county. So we looked to Baltimore City for a solution. There's a Koreatown of sorts in Station North around Maryland Ave/21st Street with several notable restaurants like Nak Won, Nam Kang, and Joung Kak. We decided to skip the tried and true and try the new-ish BeOne, in the little shopping center on Maryland between 20th and 21st. And with that we found our new favorite Korean BBQ joint.

We went for a few kinds of meat including bulgogi and pork neck. The bulgogi was scrumptious, tender and lightly fatty, with lots of sweet and garlicky flavor. The pork neck was a completely different animal (obviously), unseasoned and chewy. It's not for everyone.

We also had a pork and squid combo, and boneless kalbi (short rib). Squid gets a little tough on the grill, so again, it's not for everyone.

We also had the dolsot bibimbop (the one in the hot stone bowl) and couldn't resist the seafood pancake. And while we enjoyed the bulgogi the most of the BBQ items, the pancake was the best thing on the table. Huge, packed full of octopus, and super crispy, we couldn't stop eating it. Of course, we're all pigs and managed to eat pretty much everything on the table, including most of the large bowl of tofu soup, the eggs, and all of the various bowls of pickles and whatnot (panchan) that comes with. Among the panchan dishes we enjoyed the most was a rather horseradishy kimchi, and thin strips of fish cake in a spicy sauce. Hell, it was all good.

Service was pretty good, too, but the place wasn't at all busy on that particular Saturday afternoon, so YMMV. Be One didn't have the hustle-bustle that Honey Pig has, so we felt a bit more relaxed while we enjoyed our food. So, to sum up - food great, service pretty good, and we didn't have to drive to Howard County. Win. Win. Win.



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A Few Meals in Charles County

A couple weeks back we spent some time in Charles County as we attended the Potomac Snakehead Tournament with our friends Fran and Bill. For research purposes - we weren't doing any actual fish-wrangling. We heard that there were few choices for decent food in the area, apart from the usual chain restaurants. Most of those were in Waldorf, but we stayed a few miles down the road in La Plata where choices were even fewer. We did *not* want to dine at the Applebee's, even ironically, so we did a little research and came up with a place called Captain Billy's Crab House in Popes Creek.

It was a Saturday night and when we rolled up to Captain Billy's, the parking lot was packed and there was a line out the door. We put our name in at the hostess booth, got a buzzer, and went to sit outside and wait. It had been a hot day, but the evening was breezy and our wait was not unpleasant in the least. We got in some good people-watching and selfie-taking, and found that Charles County is pretty inexpensive. The guys went in to bring us drinks. For $18, they got two Sam Adams drafts and two jumbo pina coladas that weren't top shelf but weren't bad, either. In any case, it occupied us for part of our 40 minute wait.

Eventually, we were shown to a table and ordered some grub. Mr Minx and I were starving, having eating little more than some Trader Joe's muhammara and Triscuits in the 12 hours since our 8am breakfast. I declared as much to our waitress, who did an admirable job of taking care of us despite the hordes of people around us.

A while after we ordered,, our dining companions' side salads arrived. We were not prescient enough to know that the kitchen was backed up and hot food was coming out slowly, so we could only watch them eat. Our waitress, knowing we were hungry, brought us a conciliatory dish of hush puppies. They looked more like tiny potatoes than hush puppies, but they tasted great and we fell on them with gusto.

Some minutes later, she brought more apologies and a plate of steamed shrimp. Those were also quickly dispatched.

Finally, we received our entrees.

I ordered the fried oyster dinner with sides of excellent fresh cole slaw and rather characterless boiled green beans. The oysters were nicely cooked, and the batter had a good crunch--there was just too much of it, and I noticed pockets of raw batter here and there.

Mr Minx got the broiled seafood platter, which came with a plump crab cake, shrimp, scallops, and a fish fillet. It was the most expensive thing we ordered, at $30, but we figured that seafood on the Western shore, in a restaurant right on the Potomac, couldn't be bad.

We were wrong.

The shrimp and scallops were fine. Bill had scallops too, and he enjoyed them, but the crab cake was all shades of wrong. For one thing, it had bits of bell pepper in it. One expects incorrectly-made crab cakes in Pittsburgh, but not in Maryland. I'm sorry, but one simply does not put bell pepper in crab cakes. Crab imperial, ok. Not crab cakes. Not only that, the cakes were so full of breading as to be mushy, and I guarantee the crab was sourced somewhere in Asia. The fish was tilapia, which I wouldn't feed my dog. I don't know how humans eat it. Yeah, so it's marketed as a mild-tasting white fish, but farm-raised tilapia (which is pretty much all of it) tastes like its own waste products. That's not a mild flavor, sorry.

The fries were from a bag in the freezer, but they were palatable, and the apple sauce was good. Fran ordered crabcake sliders. Hers didn't have bell peppers, and she ate them, but I can't imagine they tasted any better than the crab cake Mr Minx had.

Still, our waitress' kindness went a long way, and despite issues, I'm going to say our meal at Captain Billy's was successful: we didn't go back to our hotel hungry.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Pancakes Plus, in beautiful downtown La Plata. I had read somewhere on teh Innernets that this place served the "best breakfast in Charles County," and while I've never had breakfast elsewhere in that area, I must concur.

The place is tiny - 8 tables and a dozen+ stools at an L-shaped counter - and it was packed. There were stools available at different places at the counter, so we physically moved them to one end so we could sit together. I indulged in a North-meets-South breakfast of scrapple, grits, and over-medium eggs with toast for less than $6. Everything was great, the coffee was impressively tasty, and the pancakes that both Fran and Mr Minx ordered were enormous. Side orders of bacon were generous. And we didn't need to eat again until late that evening.

Were I to find myself in Charles County again, I'd definitely go back for breakfast at Pancakes Plus. I'd skip Captain Billy's though, and see what there was to eat in Waldorf, instead. But I hear from a good source that there are some pretty good BBQ places dotting the county, so that might be a better option.





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