22 October

As the calendar starts points towards October I feel a great amount of joy. It not only that time of the year when we Bengalis have our biggest festival - Durga Pooja or the entire country is into Navratri and Diwali celebrations but it also means my most cherished festival Christmas is not far behind. 

But before December October and November are the months which remind me of the beautiful fall time I had experience while living in Atlanta. We used to go on so many roadtrips in the Blueridge parkway region. I absolutely used to love those vibrant fall colors enveloping the rolling hills. 

But fall didn't only mean roadtrips or camping for us, it also meant Halloween, thanksgiving and baking some amazing stuffs with the seasonal pumpkins. The house would smell like a bakery - cinnamony, spicy , warm and bright. Those delicious pies and breads would make everyday of autumn so much more enticing. India doesnt really have a vibrant fall season. But still those experiences linger on in my mind and owing to lockdown situation last year I did have some time on hand to try a few autumnal recipes for the first time in India. 

• Do you leave the skin on when roasting pumpkin?
• It depends on the type of pumpkin and on your preference. I prefer leaving the skin on as it helps hold the shape.

• How do you ensure the roast pumpkin isn't soggy?
• To prevent sogginess, you need to roast the pumpkin at high heat. I baked it at 200 degree in my convection oven.

• What do you do with the seeds?
• When making roasted pumpkin do not discard the seeds. They can be later roasted with spices to make a delicious healthy snack!

19 October

This year the autumn in Maharashtra doesn't feel like autumn at all. It feels like we are stuck forever in the monsoon season itself. Rain , rain and more rain is enough to drive us crazy. Thus to cheer myself up I checkout the vibrant fall pictures my friends are sharing on their social accounts from across the world. As much as I love Indian festivals around this time, I love the feeling of colorful autumn, thanksgiving and a white Christmas of the states. It takes me back to the time I was staying in Atlanta and how vibrant the entire place used to become during the fall season - the prettiest of all seasons! I remember the road trips along the Blue ridge parkway and the stunning visuals it presented. I couldn't peel off my eyes even for a second from the vista on both side of the road. I think I will create a separate blog post to revive the memories of a log cabin stay during the autumn in Chattanooga, Georgia.

So you get the drift. I am very much transported back to those red, yellow and magenta days whenever I hear the word fall or autumn.  And it has been my longest standing desire to prepare fall recipes. So this year I have been experimenting a few recipes with the fall theme on mind. I tried incorporating pumpkin in many of the recipes. And I found an interesting thing when I was doing research on the fall recipes. I liked all the pumpkin recipes which were more south east Asian interpretation of the American fall staples. I felt they are more zesty and flavorful. I might be totally wrong in this case, but going by the recipe ingredients this is what I felt. I never knew before this that even in Thai cuisine there is a pumpkin soup or a fall harvest salad. The ingredients they had used to make their versions aligned more to my Asian taste buds.

I am not at all a salad person. At least I was not at all a salad person before the lockdown. The only reason is that its too much of a work and the phycological thought process is that when it doesn't have a bread or rice in it, it is not going to be filling enough. But that notion changed during the lockdown when we started to focus more on healthy eating habits. Thus I started experimenting with different kinds of salad bowls. This particular salad was thought of as part of an Instagram contest (yes Instagram is kind of taking over my life, which I feel I need to restrict for good!) We wanted to create something fresh and feisty and different form the usual salads. It had to define our personality. That's very cheeky I know but yeah that's how the food should be. Its a reflection of myself I feel. And the Thai versions of both the harvest recipes - pumpkin soup and Autumnal salad felt like what would perfectly suite my palate.

When we think fall ingredients a few things instantly come to the mind - butternut squash, sweet winter pumpkins, crisp apples, pears, sweet potato and so on. They are so lovely ones that you can not just go wrong with any combination you choose.

This can be passed off as a both a fall and a summer salad. Its a feisty salad which will tease your taste buds with the spiciness of the bird's eye chilli, sweetness from the honey dressing, citrusy burst from the tropical fruits, buttery tropical vibes from saffron coconut prawns and to balance it all off the earthiness from the toasted nuts. It basically is a warm fall salad that will keep you cozy on a chilly fall night.

Marination Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients for Salad:

• Fresh Prawns with tails - 20 
• Peanuts - 1/4th cup
• Walnuts - 1/4th cup
• Pumpkin Seeds - 1/4th cup
• Onion - 1/2
• Cherry Tomato - 6
• Lettuce - 1/2
• Apple - 1
• Pineapple - 2/4th cup diced
• Mosambi/Sweet Lime - 1
• Salt

Ingredients for Prawn Marination:

• Saffron Strands 
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Bird's eye chilli - 1 chopped
• Coconut paste (Optional) - 1 tsp
• Lime juice - 1/2 tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Shredded Coconut - 1/2 cup

Ingredients for Dressing:

• Honey - 2 tsp
• Lemon Juice - 1/2
• Fish Sauce - 1/2 tsp
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Ingredients for garnish:

• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds -  2 tsp
• Bird's eye chilli - 2 chopped

Equipment:

• Thick bottom skillet/ non stick skillet

Method:

1. Start by cleaning the prawns. Devein it, take the head off and leave the tail. It preserves the shape of the prawn.

2. Now marinate the prawn for 30 minute with marination ingredients mentioned above expect the shredded coconut.

3. While the prawns are marinating, dice the apples. In a bowl take 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp honey and add the apples. Toss everything well and let it rest.

4. Now prepare the nuts. Take a skillet and heat it on medium. Once hot toss the walnuts first until they are fragrant and toasted. Same way toast the peanuts and the pumpkin seeds. Now keep both of them aside to cook down.

Note: If you are using toasted pumpkin seeds no need to toast it again.

5. Slice the onions. In the same skillet on medium, dry roast the onions for about 2-3 minutes, tossing them around with a spatula. Take them off heat and let it cool down.

6. Dice the sweet lime and the pineapples. 

Tip: If either of them are sour, then just add a bit of sugar and let it sit till the sugar melts.

7. Time to prepare the prawns. Heat the skillet, add a teaspoon of oil. Spread the shredded coconut on a plate or any flat surface. Now take one prawn at a time and coat it with the shredded coconut on both sides. Tip them in the oil and keep the flame on medium so that the coconut doesn't get burnt. Turn both sides and fry them nicely till it gets a light golden brown hue. Patiently fry all the prawns for not more than 30 seconds each side. Keep them on a paper towel to soak the excess oil.

Note: Adding saffron is optional. But it gives a very nice flavour to the fried prawns.

8. Now prepare the dressing. In a bowl take everything mentioned under dressing and give it a good mix. 

9. Now its time to plate everything. Start by laying down a layer of lettuce in the platter. On top of it arrange all the fruits, onion, halved cherry tomato, prawns and the toasted nuts. Drizzle the dressing on top generously. Toss everything in.

10. Finish off by garnishing it with pumpkin seeds, chopped bird's eye chilli and sesame.

Pro tip: You can even add some cheese on top to make it more luscious.

You can pair this feisty autumn salad with any autumn soup of your choice. I had served it with the Thai Spicy Coconut Soup. Check out the recipe here.

5th October

I am not very fond of thick soups and prefer clear soups. So much so that I don't even like any traces of cornflower or any such thickening agent in my soups. When I say clear it needs to be a clear light soup. Thus when asked to make pumpkin soup for an ongoing contest in Instagram, I was in two minds. Pumpkin soup is rarely clear, rather never clear, its usually a thick creamy soup. And as I said, I am not very fond of thick soups. So the question was how to make it palatable so that I will not hate it after I make it. I started looking at traditional pumpkin soups on the net. 

That's when I came across is amazing Thai version of the pumpkin soup. The creamy soup is a very interesting. Instead of the popular American pumpkin soup, the Spicy Coconut Pumpkin soup which traditionally made in Thai cuisine and loaded with fresh citrusy flavors from the lemongrass and kaffir lime.

It ticked all the boxes of the flavor profile I felt I would love- sweet, spicy, tart and a lil salty. It is made with pan fried onions, red pumpkin, pepper cloves, a hint of cinnamon, star anise, galangal, coriander root, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, chunks of fresh coconut, turmeric, garlic cloves, birds eye chili, lemon juice, fish sauce and finally coconut milk. It is filling, warm and comforting. It eventually turned out to be just a perfect autumn soup after all! 

Even if you miss a few ingredients here and there just do a dare to yourself and play around with some of the herbs to get something even more appetizing and unique.

Ingredients :

• Red Pumpkin - 1 cup, peeled and cubed
• Onion - 1 sliced
• Garlic cloves - 3-4 , chopped
• Ginger/ Galangal - 1/2 inch, finely chopped
• Lemongrass - 1/3 rd stalk , bruised
• Bird's Eye Chilli - 2
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp or Turmeric Root - 3/4th inch
• Kaffir Lime Leaves - 4-5
• Coconut - 6 -7 pieces
• Peppercorn - 4-5
• Star Anise - 1 petal of the star
• Cinnamon powder - 1/4th tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp or Coriander Root - 1 tbsp. , diced
• Thick Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
• Fish Sauce -  2 tsp
• Lime Juice - 2 tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Refined oil - 1 tbsp.
• Vegetable Stock - 2 cups (approx.)

Method:

1. Cut all the vegetables as mentioned above and keep it ready for next step.

Note: I used two different types of pumpkin here as you can see in the image. One with a light yellow shade and the other red. You can use any color of pumpkin to make this soup but the more it is pigmented the more vibrant the soup will look.

2. Take a pan and heat the oil on medium. First add the sliced onions. Sauté for a minute.

3. Then add the ginger, garlic and bird's eye chilli and sauté again for a couple of minutes.

4. Now add the remaining - dry red chilli, coconut pieces, pepper corn, star anise, pumpkin pieces. Sauté for about 3-4 minutes and let the pumpkin start to sweat.

Note: I have added two different type of chillies. The dry red ones for color mainly and the bird's eye chilli for the heat. You can vary the spice level as per your taste. The one I made was considerably spicy and maybe too much for kids.

Note 2: If you are using turmeric root, add at this stage and sauté it with rest.

5. Add 2 cups of vegetable stock or water to the pan . Add salt, sugar, kaffir lime leaves, bruised lemon grass, turmeric powder, cinnamon powder, coriander and fish sauce. Fold everything in and bring it to a boil.

Note: we are not adding too much liquid at this point because pumpkin itself also gives off water.

Note 2: If you feel that adding both kaffir lime leaves & lemon grass might be a bit too much citrusy, you can skip either of them and add only one.

6. Turn the heat down and let this simmer covered for about 10 - 15 minutes or till the pumpkins are mushy or easily break under the pressure of a spoon.

Note: If you are using raw turmeric root, then remove it now. Also remove the lemon grass.

7. Now slowly add the coconut milk and give it a stir to mix in. Let it simmer for about a minute on low flame.

8. Now take it off heat and let it come to room temperature before blending it. Add the lime juice now to the blender. Preferably first pulse it in batches and then one final time blend it all in. You can add more water/ stock if you want a runny soup.

9. Now sieve the entire thing through a juice strainer to get that beautiful smooth finish.

Garnish it with some roasted pumpkin seeds, bird's eye chili and a nice swirl of coconut cream. Serve it hot or cold as per your liking.

Pro Tip: Sweet potato or carrots can also be used in this recipe replacing pumpkins. It can also be paired with roasted shredded chicken or prawns for some additional proteins.