Pumpkins drying on a sunny Swiss veranda in October

We harvest 20-40 pumpkins from our Alpine garden every October, dry them for a month on the warm stones of the veranda to harden them off, then store them in a cool dark area for winter eating. We grow them at 1,100 metres altitude, on dirt mixed with a good dose of the neighboring farmer’s cow dung. These are happy pumpkins!

They are always lovely, lasting about three to four months, but the best is always the first one we cut and use in pumpkin pie. I made one for Scottish friends David and Evelyn from Geneva last weekend, and promised that rather than just sharing the instructions/recipe, I would post them here.

My recipe is an adaptation of my old recipes from the US, for Thanksgiving, but with Swiss ingredients and fresh pumpkin, something I never had access to when I lived in the States.

One small or half of a medium-sized pumpkin like those in the photo is needed for a pie. I use a cleaver to cut them into quarters and cook them in the pressure cooker, usually a couple hours before I need them. If you’re buying at the supermarket, you”ll need a couple good slices. Better: buy whole or slice pumpkin from a farmers market.

One of the secrets of a great pie is a perfect crust, which takes practice. This is why I try to bake pies regularly, to stay in practice. And because they are so delicious!

Pumpkin pie, using fresh or stored pumpkin

pie shell

1 cup white flour (farine fleur)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening with some butter, Astra 10 is good as it is 10% butter
(note: this hardens in the refrigerator, where it should be stored once opened, so take it out 15 minutes before you need it. The Migros equivalent stays soft)
4-6 tablespoons cold water

If you’re already a dough pro, just read the words in bold. If  you’re a novice, the details should help.

Stir salt into flour. Use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the shortening until half the dough is the size of peas and the rest is larger balls.

Using a fork to toss the dough from underneath, sprinkle the water one tablespoon at a time to dampen the dough. It should be sticky enough to hold together without crumbling, but if you add too much water it becomes gooey.

Using  your hands, form into a ball.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour on the working surface, flatten the ball using the palm of your hands, not your fingers, until it is 1/2 inch or a couple centimetres thick. Roll out with a rolling pin, from the center, until the dough is about an inch or 2-3 cm larger than your pie pan. I run a large plastic spatula under the dough once or twice while rolling it out, to make sure it’s not sticking to the surface. Sprinkle flour on the work surface as needed to keep the dough from sticking.

Pick up the dough by draping half of it over the rolling pin, which makes it easier to transfer into the pie pan: place the rolling pin over the middle of the pan and your dough will be in the right place.

Filling

Mix, in order given:

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 110 grams sugar, preferably light brown sugar but Muscado from Swiss supermarkets works
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon powdered ginger, or very finely slivered fresh ginger
• 340 grams freshly cooked pumpkin: 20 minutes in a pressure cooker or 30 minutes boiled in small amount of water
• 1-2/3 cups condensed milk: 2 tubes, available in Swiss supermarkets

Pour into pastry shell. Bake 15 minutes at 210C/425F. Reduce heat to 190C/350F and bake 25-30 minutes more. If the top or crust brown too quickly, lay a sheet of cooking foil loosely over the top.

Check for doneness by inserting a sharp knife into the center. It should come out clean.

Cool on a rack. Best served cold, accompanied by a light drizzle of cream or a spoonful of good quality plain yogurt.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C / Mark 7 / 350° F.

Put 8/10 of corn in a food processor. Blend until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add cream and corn from food processor. Beat gently until smooth.

Fold in remaining corn kernels and chives. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pour mixture into smaller baking dish. Put smaller baking dish into larger one. Pour hot water in bottom dish, about half-way up.

Bake for 30 minutes or until flan sets.

First local strawberries of 2010 in Lake Geneva region.

Breaking news: we have local strawberries and rhubarb!

Whoof, spring is here, even if the mercury can’t seem to rise quite to the heights we would like.

I was worried last week at this time. Be patient, the Mara des Bois will come in time.

First local rhubarb.

For local vegetables, green is the word. There are salads of every type, especially pourprier, rosette, arugula, baby spinach, chervil, and numerous other mixed wild greens.

Lots of sorrel to make your salmon sauce or soup. Jump on the dandelion greens while they’re plentiful. Nettles arrived on the scene this week.

Root vegetables are still in: celery root (celeriac), baby beets and carrots.

There are plenty of fat red radishes and spring onions. Jerusalem artichokes are still on the scene, as are parsnips and new potatoes, especially the raclette types. Oodles of varieties of potatoes.

There are plenty of baby leeks, broccoli and cabbages. Nice tender kohlrabi is available as well, along with Swiss chard and delicious fennel.

Wild mountain garlic leaves, to be used like an herb.

For other fruit, you’ll have to buy French or Italian products. Italian and Spanish oranges are excellent this year.

There are actually Florida grapefruit available, despite all the catastrophic predictions.

French strawberries are in abundance, as are, of course, the Spanish ones.

Sandrine Chapuis' lovely mix of wild greens and wild flowers.

Yellow kiwis from New Zealand are excellent this year, and Alphonso, well, I still have my love affair with Alphonso mangoes. I bought a dozen today for CHF2 a piece. They may be ugly, but they have a special place in my little heart. French rhubarb is available, although not in vast quantity.

Quite a variety of herbs, considering the fact that winter still hasn’t decided to really leave.

I’m not a flower specialist, so I don’t know the names. I’ll just show you the photos; they speak for themselves. There are however tulips and forsythia galore.

This is another low-fat, high-fiber meal that fits perfectly in to any weight loss plan. All these ingredients are available in April.

4 to 6 scallops per person

Instructions

Preheat broiler or grill.

Wash, top and slice strawberries. Put into a medium-size saucepan. Cover with Balsamic vinegar, until vinegar is about 2.54 cm / 1 inch above strawberries. Add Szechwan pepper to taste.

Bring strawberries and Balsamic vinegar mixture to a boil, then turn heat down to medium, stirring from time to time. Cook until it forms a sauce of a syrupy consistency, with bits of strawberry in the “syrup”. This usually takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut off any woody-looking ends on asparagus. Spread on a broiler pan/roasting tin. Salt and pepper to taste. Use a metal spatula to distribute salt and pepper evenly.

When broiler is hot, put them under broiler, turning from time to time. I like mine a little crunchy, which usually takes about 5 minutes cooking times, depending on the diameter of course.

In the meantime, brush a cast iron or Swiss Diamond frying pan with olive oil. Heat until oil just starts to steam.

Add scallops. Cook 2 minutes, then turn and cook 2 minutes on other side. They should brown, but not burn. Browning helps keep the juices in.

Serving

Arrange scallops and asparagus on individual plates. Evenly distribute strawberry and vinegar sauce over asparagus.

The Marmiton site for French cooking covers the cuisine of every administrative department in France. Most recipes are in French, but there is an English section which is a great introduction to the techniques of French cooking.

Photo courtesy of Sezgin Ismail.

Marmiton refers to this part of their site as Let’s Cook French. It includes classic French dishes, beginner lessons, and much more. I love their Kids in the Kitchen section, where Monsieur Parmentier, who has a stereotypical French accent, gives easy but intelligent video cooking lessons to children.

The recipe below does not appear in the English section of the site, but they’ve kindly given me permission to translate and adapt it, since I didn’t manage to put my hands on any other recipe for Swiss Easter cake.

Read below for recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C, thermostat setting 6, or 350°F.

Can be prepared ahead of time: Pour rice into a large pot. Add milk and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil.

Lower heat and cook slowly for 30 to 40 minutes until it forms a gluey soup.

Stir often to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan. If it starts sticking, immediately lower the heat.

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

Put butter, sugar and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth with a wire whip or electric hand mixer.

Add one egg yolk and beat thoroughly. Do the same with the other two egg yolks.

Add lemon peel. Continue mixing until dough becomes a pale, yellowish white.

Add almonds, crème fraîche and rice soup. Mix well.

Gently fold beaten egg whites into cake batter.

Put pie crust into large pie tin. Prick with fork. Brush apricot jam over entire crust.

Evenly distribute batter onto the pie crust.

Place in preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from pie tin. Cool until it is just warm. Gently slide cake onto a cake rack to cool.

Photo courtesy of Ma P'Tite Cuisine.

Ingredients

Preheat oven to 220°C / 425°F.

Butter a baking dish that can also be used on stovetop. Add wine and garlic.

Arrange filets in a baking dish. Salt and pepper.

Bake for about 8 minutes or until fish is cooked but still firm. Carefully remove fish and set it aside.

Use cooking juices in baking dish to make sauce. Add butter, mustard and egg yolk.

Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly with a wire whip. Add parsley. Warning: If you turn the heat too high and quite stirring, you will end up with scrambled eggs instead of sauce!

Arrange perch on serving plates, preferably warm. Pour sauce over fish and serve immediately.

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The Vertig’O restaurant in the Hôtel de la Paix in Geneva has a Michelin star and a 16/20 in the respected GaultMillau restaurant guide.

Vertig’O also has a great pastry chef in Emmanuel Lebled.

Every month or so, the restaurant publishes a leaflet which includes a recipe from the restaurant. This recipe for cinnamon pear crumble is adapted from their October 2009 leaflet, but it is still seasonal as we anxiously await the fruits of spring.

I’m sorry not to have converted the quantities this time around, but it became extremely complicated, so I dropped the whole idea. I think it’s high time we all bought a set of metric scales! If all else fails, refer to my post about metric conversions. For equivalents of the weight of specific foods such as butter, almonds, and different kinds of flour, you can also consult Recipes4Us.

The recipe is in three parts. Start by making the crumble topping. Poach and then caramelize the pears. Finish off by arranging all the ingredients in a baking dish and baking. Timing is important, since the crumble is best served warm.

Recipe: Cinnamon pear crumble

1. Make the crumble

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Mix all the above ingredients together. Knead with hands until it forms a crumble.

2. Poach the pears

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Mix water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and boil slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it forms a syrup.

Add star anise, orange peel and lemon peel to syrup.

Peel pears. Remove core and any hard parts. Over low heat, poach them slowly in the syrup.

When soft (but not falling apart), remove them from heat. Leave pears in the syrup until the they cool off.

3. Sautée and caramelize the pears

Ingredients:

Pour enough pear liqueur over raisins to cover them. Leave to soak.

Remove poached pears from syrup. Dice.

Put sugar in saucepan. Heat over low heat until it forms a caramel, stirring constantly and being careful that it doesn’t burn. Add butter and pears.

Turn heat higher, and caramelize, stirring constantly and making sure pears do not burn.

Add raisins and rum. Flambé.

Remove from heat. Cool at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 150° C.

When pears are cool, put them in a baking dish. Cover with crumble.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or yogurt sorbet.

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