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For lunch today, I made Black Bean Pumpkin soup, from a recipe that I found at Smitten Kitchen:
I made a few changes (why do I hear Wonky giggling in the background?):
I used 1 pound, 8 oz. of my homemade pumpkin puree. (I'm using up that white pumpkin that I don't care for in my baked goods.
I deleted the 1/2 cup minced shallot--(I'm not sure why shallot is used with onion, and I was not going to find them in a small town grocery store.)
I reduced the cumin to 1 1/2 tsp. (I want to be able to taste the sherry!) I added it later, along with the pepper.
I used 14 oz. diced tomatoes in very little juice, so I put it all in.
I deleted the salt (There was plenty in the black beans, as I could not find low-sodium in this store, and I did not want to take the time to cook my own.)
I used 2 Tbs. olive oil in place of the 4 Tbs. butter. (I'm saving butter for a recipe where it is essential.)
I used 1 Tbs. of Penzey's beef base with 4 cups boiling water. (Plenty of salt in there as well.)
I did not add diced ham or sherry vinegar. (I have neither in the house.)
The soup is delicious--and the reduced spice is just right for me. It's a healthy soup, although somewhat high in sodium but does not taste salty. I can reduce the salt content next time by cooking my black beans from scratch. I'm looking forward to having this soup for lunches into the coming week.
I saw this article reviewing different kinds of pie pans and thought it might be timely here. I would disagree with their assertion that one pie pan should do it all. I like to use ceramic for my pumpkin pie and streusel-topped apple pie, but I use a flat metal pan that has a wide rim to catch juices when I bake a blueberry or peach pie. I'm not sure that rimmed pie plate is even made anymore. My mother had them, and years ago, I bought two at a hardware store when I was in graduate school (one of those independent, carries a lot, in the neighborhood stores that no longer exist). I found another one at a garage sale and snatched it up. In addition to catching spills, the rim also supports the crimped crust.
Underneath the pie, I use a round pan, the size of a pizza pan, that has a 4-inch or so hole in the center. It was left in this house when I bought it, and it is great for catching spills and allowing the center of the pie to get direct heat through the hole. I bought a non-stick version from the old Chefs Catalog.
I'm also a proponent, when baking a pumpkin pie, of cooking the filling--without the eggs--until starting to bubble, then putting a bit of the filling in a small bowl, whisking in an egg, then whisking it into the off-the-burner filling. Whisk in the rest of the eggs, one by one, then fill the warm blind-baked crust. This technique, adapted from Cooks' Illustrated, helps the filling bake evenly in much less time.
On Wednesday evening, I baked a new recipe from Bob’s Red Mill: “Gluten Free Fall Harvest Apple Bread.”
As I do not need to bake gluten-free, I substituted 1 ½ cups AP flour and ½ cup barley flour for their 1:1 gluten-free flour. I reduced the sugar from ¾ to 2/3 cup. I used buttermilk rather than regular milk, and I substituted 2 tsp. boiled cider for 1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar (it was clearly there to "sour" the milk). The recipe did not specify whether the apples should be peeled, but I did so. I used one Winesap and one small Jonathan. It baked well, and it came easily out of the pan with no falling apart. (I used THE Grease on the pan). I'll add a note tomorrow on taste and texture. The bread is very low in saturated fat, only 3.5g for the entire 9x5 loaf.
Promised Note: It made a tasty bread that holds together well--just don't expect to slice it thinly. The apple mixture and the cinnamon went very well together.
