The Right to Be Alive: Pumpkin

Showing posts with label Pumpkin. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Halloween 2014 - Garlic & Pumpkin Fried Rice

This year the pumpkin plants in the garden just did not have a female flower. All males. Thus, I had to buy a pumpkin for this year's Halloween meal for the little young man.

To check on how to bake the pumpkin, click on LINK.

This year we used some uncooked popcorn for the pumpkin's eyes, nose and mouth. We also used two wooden chopsticks as horns!

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Ingredients:

1. 3 cups of cooked rice
2. 1/2 clove of garlic (sliced thinly)
3. 4 tablespoons of cooked pumpkin
4. Sunflower oil
5. Sea-salt

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1. Heat wok or frying pan.

2. Once it is heated up, drizzle some sunflower oil.

3. Once the sunflower oil is heated up, add the garlic. Stir-fry until fragrant.

4. Add the pumpkin and stir-fry for about 2 to 3 minutes.

5. Add the rice and sprinkle some sea-salt.

6. Mix everything together and stir-fry for another 5 minutes.

7. Scoop the rice into the pumpkin. Cover the pumpkin with the pumpkin lid.

Bon appétit!

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Stir-Fried Pumpkin & Potatoes

Ingredients:

1. 1 large pumpkin (cut into chunks)
2. 4 large potatoes (skin peeled and cut into chunks)
3. 1 large big onion (sliced into thin pieces)
4. 5 cloves of garlic (sliced into thin pieces)
5. Sunflower oil
6. Sea-salt

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1. In a heated large pot, pour about 1/4 cup of sunflower oil.

2. Add the pumpkin, potatoes, big onion and garlic into the pot and close the lid for about 1/2 hour or until the potatoes have softened.

3. Continue to stir the dish on medium-low heat until all the pumpkin chunks have mashed up and potatoes have softened.

4. Add sea-salt to taste.

5. Scoop up onto serving dish.

6. You can serve with rice or noodles or even eat it with bread.

Bon appétit!

Monday, 19 November 2012

100% Home-Made Pumpkin+Potato Soup

Ingredients:

1. 1 large pumpkin (cut into cubes)
2. 3 large potatoes (skin removed and sliced into cubes)
3. 4 tablespoons of butter (softened at room temperature)
4. 3 big onions (sliced into thin slices)
5. 1/2 bulb garlic (outer layer removed)
6. 2 cups of chicken broth
7. Sea-salt
8. Sunflower oil

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1. Heat a wok/frying pan.

2. Drizzle some sunflower oil into the wok/frying pan.

3. Add the pumpkin, potatoes, big onions and garlic and stir-fry for about 5 minutes.

4. Close the wok/frying pan with a lid and allow to simmer until potatoes soften.

5. Once the potatoes have softened, pour the mixture into a blender/food processor. Add the 2 cups of chicken broth and blend until everything is well blended.

6. Pour the blended mixture back into the pot and allow to boil. Add the butter and sea-salt.

7. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

8. Serve the soup with some buns or bread.

Bon appétit!

Thursday, 1 November 2012

A Halloween Fried Rice!

I was too tired to blog last night and here I am one day late! Oh well, better late than never.

A few days before Halloween, I did a Halloween pumpkin fried rice for Joel.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 pumpkin (Mine was from the garden and it wasn't very big. You can also use a big pumpkin.)
2. 4 cups sushi rice (Cooked on the day before and kept in the freezer)
3. 6 home-made chick-pea patties
4. Sunflower oil
5. 1/2 bulb of garlic
6. Sea-salt

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1. First of all, cut off the top of the pumpkin so that it looks like a little pot with a lid.

2. Then put this in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes at 200C. Bear in mind that the top part will be cooked faster and you would need to take it out from the oven after 10 minutes. (Make sure that the 'handle' of the pumpkin lid is facing upwards. Refer to the picture below)

3. Once it has soften, scoop out the pumpkin and set aside in a bowl.

4. Set aside the pumpkin.

5. Heat up a wok/frying pan.

6. Slice the 1/2 bulb of garlic into thin slices.

7. Drizzle some sunflower oil onto the heated wok/frying pan.

8. Throw the garlic in and fry until slightly browned.

9. Mash the home-made chick-pea patties until they resemble bread crumbs.

10. Pour the chick-pea crumbs into the wok/frying pan and fry until fragrant.

11. Add the rice and the scooped-out-pumpkin-meat and mix all ingredients thoroughly.

12. Add sea-salt to taste. Continue frying for about 5 minutes.

13. Scoop the rice into the pumpkin and close the lid.

14. Serve warm.

Bon appétit!

Yes, my pumpkin did not look scary at all! I totally suck at carving. I should have asked Miss MCS for some tips!!!

The little young man totally enjoyed his dinner and told me that this was the best dinner EVER! That made my day. The hard work was worth it.

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Container Garden - An Update (2nd Anniversary)

A very happy 2nd anniversary to the container garden! I have learned much by just gardening and planting my own vegetables. The garden has been a place of refuge (and stress too when things just die!).

The exceedingly 'long' ladyfinger/okra!

The end of the year is drawing near. The year-end monsoon will be here soon. And the garden is in the process of winding down. I am not sowing anymore seeds EXCEPT some leafy vegetables which thrive in rainy weather.

The large sunflower was one of the triplets. At the back of its huge head, were two of its siblings.

The unopened Zinnia!

Ladybird feasting on the aphids!

Cherry tomatoes!

Look at who was feasting on my cherry tomatoes! Death to them all! :P

Capsicums! I was surprised as I thought they had died in the freak storm. :)

This is my first time planting pumpkin. And I was so surprised that this too survived the storm. This is the male flower.

This is the female.

I helped the pumpkin to have 'sex'. I was afraid that the ants and insects would not be 'helpful' enough in transferring the pollen from the male to the female.