Pumpkin soup and seeded honey bread

Roasted pumpkin #1

Pumpkin soup

PUMPKIN SOUP
one large pumpkin
olive oil
juice of half an orange
boiled potato (if you want the soup to go further)
light brown sugar
nutmeg
pepper - to season
orange juice
salt - to season
soured cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Cut a pumpkin in half and deseed. Set aside the seeds for the bread
Deeply score the pumpkin.
Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the pumpkin, then generously season with pepper and salt.
Drizzle the pumpkin with olive oil.
Bake in the oven until the pumpkin flesh is soft - this should take about 30-40 minutes.

Roasted pumpkin #2

Scoop out the pumpkin flesh, and blend with the orange juice, and potato if using. To thin the soup, you can add water, or preferably stock for extra flavour.
Serve with a dollop of soured cream.

Probably best to keep an eye on the soup when heating...

With a dollop (or two) or soured cream

For me, bread has always been one of those foods where the only quantities used are "a handful of this", "a dash of that", and "whatever looks right". Alternatively, start off with 50g flour per serving.

BREAD
white or wholemeal flour, for a heartier loaf use rye flour
a teaspoon of yeast / 7g sachet
seeds, you can use the pumpkin seeds from earlier, along with sunflower seeds and sesame seeds
honey
olive oil
warm water

Mix together the flour and the seeds.
Stir the yeast into an espresso-sized cup of warm water. It's important to add this to the mixture as soon as possible, because the yeast immediately reacts with the water, and is at its peak to work with the flour.
Pour the yeast water into the flour until you have a dough begins to come together.
Add oil to the dough-ish mixture until you have an only slightly sticky dough.
Flatten the mixture, and add the honey. I used about three teaspoons worth.
Fold the dough into an envelope shape, so all the honey is in the middle. Like a card if we're going to continue with the envelope metaphor.
Work the dough, and add more flour if it becomes to sticky.
Put in a lightly floured bowl, and cover with cling film.
Leave to rest in a warm place until the dough has doubled. This is usually about one hour.
Once the mixture has risen, work it... Knock the air out of the dough.
Then leave to rise again for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 220C.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled tin, or freeform on a baking tray.
Brush the dough with milk or beaten egg (for gloss) and sprinkle with salt.
Put in the oven.
After 20 minutes on 220C, turn the heat down to 180C. Cooking the bread for a short time on a high heat allows a crust to form, but if it is too high for too long the top of the bread will be burnt whilst the inside will be underbaked.
The bread should take about a further 40 minutes to cook. The bread is cooked if you hear a hollow sound when knocking the base.

Engadiner Nusstorte

I'm in Germany's Black Forest, so it's only fair that I make a recipe from Switzerland.
Engadine Nusstorte translates as Engadine Nut-cake. Engadine is the area the cake is from.

Ingredients:
300g plain flour
150g caster sugar
180g unsalted butter- cold and diced
1 egg + 1 yolk

200g granulated sugar (you could use muscavado or soft dark brown for a more chewy and bitter texture and taste)
225g walnuts- roughly chopped
110ml double cream
2-3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp water

Steps:
Firstly you need to make the pastry:
Rub the butter into the flour, and once you have breadcrumbs, mix in the sugar, egg and yolk.
Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for one hour.

Then heat the sugar with water.
When the syrup is completely melted, stir in the walnuts.
When the walnuts are completely mixed into the syrup, add the cream and honey and bring to the boil (to thicken it).

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a cake tin.
Roll 2/3 of the pastry out and lift onto the cake tin- the pastry should go up 2-3 cm on the side of the tin.
Prick the pastry which is in the base of the tin.
Pour the mixture evenly, and the roll out the rest of the pastry to create a pie lid which you lift on top of the mixture.
Press the two patry layers together and paint with milk or egg yolk for a glossy topping.
Cook in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.

NB: as with many other ingredients, local is best. The walnuts we used in the recipe were from the Rhine meadows.

Sticky ribs

Nothing like sticky ribs in the Winter to remind you of Summer!

800g pork ribs (most people tend to use baby pork as they're more tender)
5 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
pepper
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp reggae reggae sauce
3 crushed and finely sliced garlic cloves
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp herbs
4 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tbsp chinese five spice
1 tsp crushed chillies (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C.
In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients.
Rub the marinade all over the ribs and put in a hot baking tray.
Cook the ribs for an hour.

Notes
Try tea-smoking the ribs as well as using the marinade for a quirky flavour.
Put the ribs on a rack which is sitting on a baking tray with tea leaves. Rub the tea leaves before using.

Don't marinate the ribs overnight unless you have a subtle rub because there is not much meat on the bone, and the taste of the pork will be overridden.