pumpkin

March 16 2025

Glazed butternut squash steak with ratatouille and kale chips

andrestover Uncategorized Maitsev Tartu, pumpkin, kale 0

At the Maitsva Tartu Food Festival, a vegetarian main course is strictly recommended. I chose roasted pumpkin for this, for which Joosep prepared a wonderful coffee-BBQ glaze.
The six components of the dish were the same as the duck fillet main course.
In recent years, I have started making fried pumpkin in the fall, either with cheese or just fried. I like this dish and that is why I decided to prepare such a selection for the vegetarian main course at Café Crepp Maitsva Tartu.

Authors of the photos used: Silver Gutmann, Joosep Sepp, and Andres Tover.
Display design: Joosep Sepp.

Preparation time: 3-4 hours, about 15-20 minutes of food display.
Level: Not too complicated
Serves: two

Preparing the pumpkin
Ingredients:
Four slices of butternut squash. We also made this dish with butternut squash, which tastes just as good. So you can also use four slices of butternut squash to prepare the dish. The thickness of the slice should be about 2-2.5 cm.
Sea salt for seasoning

Preparation:

Cut the butternut squash into four sectors or the butternut squash into four slices about 2.5 cm thick.
Peel the pumpkin slices and grill on a ribbed grill or fry in a pan over low heat until the pumpkin is browned in stripes. After grilling or frying, the pumpkin should be semi-soft, but not completely soft. When soft, the pumpkin is difficult to handle. Season the pumpkin lightly with sea salt while grilling.

Ratatouille
Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini
1 medium eggplant
2 tomatoes
1 large red or yellow bell pepper
2 medium red onions
3-4 crushed garlic cloves
A bunch of fresh thyme for seasoning
Ground black pepper and sea salt for seasoning
Olive oil for cooking ratatouille

Preparation:

Cut the vegetables into 4 mm thick slices.
To assemble the ratatouille, stack the zucchini, tomato, bell pepper, red onion and eggplant slices on top of each other. Stack the resulting vegetable bundles upright in a baking dish or smaller heatproof pan until the baking dish or pan is tightly filled with vegetables.
Crush the garlic and shake over the vegetables.
Sprinkle everything with black pepper and sea salt, place thyme sprigs on top of the ratatouille, pour in olive oil, and bake tightly under foil at 200 degrees for 90 minutes.
The resulting ratatouille can be eaten as is or made into eggplant cones for serving.

Eggplant slices for making ratatouille cones (cornucopia)
Ingredients:
One oblong eggplant
Sea salt for seasoning
Cooking oil for frying

Preparation:

Cut the eggplant lengthwise into slices about 5 mm thick. It is best to use a special cutter or mandoline for this.
Fry the eggplant in a ribbed pan with cooking oil until nicely browned on both sides
Season with sea salt and use to make ratatouille cones

Raratouille sauce (vegetable coulis)
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants peeled and cut into pieces
1 large tomato cut into slices
1 medium red onion cut into slices
1 medium zucchini cut into pieces
1 medium bell pepper cut into pieces, seeds removed
(you can also add a piece of eggplant, but it is not necessary)
3-4 medium garlic cloves
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
200 g parmesan cheese
200 ml whipped cream
Sea salt and 0.25 tsp black pepper to season
0.5 tsp oregano to season
50 g butter

Preparation:

Cut all the vegetables and place in a cooking pot with the butter.
Brown the vegetables for 5-10 minutes.
Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
The vegetables will release enough liquid to be stewed. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are almost tender.
Season with salt, pepper and oregano.
Add the whipped cream and carefully blend the sauce with a hand blender. Blend the sauce as smooth as possible.
Place the sauce back on the stove, stirring constantly, as the sauce will immediately splatter on the stove.
Add the grated parmesan, mix, and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
The sauce is ready. If the sauce is not smooth enough, blend it again with a hand blender, but it is better not to do this because the cheese in the sauce will stick to the blender.
Use the sauce to serve the main course.

Kale crisps
Ingredients:
Kale
Fine sea salt
A little cooking oil for spraying or drizzling

Preparation:

Cut off the strongest leaf stems from the kale, place the kale pieces on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, and sprinkle with a little cooking oil and sea salt.
Bake in the oven at 130-150 degrees until the kale is dry and crispy. Stir the drying kale from time to time so that the drying occurs evenly. When the kale is almost dry, leave it in the cooling oven to harden.
Store in an airtight container and use as a snack or as a decoration or crispy component for food.

Cheese crisps
Ingredients:
200 g coarsely grated cheese. We used Andre Grand cheese, which has a great taste, but making cheese crisps from it is not so easy.
We used Andre Grand cheese, which has a great taste, but making cheese crisps from it is not that easy.

Preparation:

Grate the cheese coarsely.
It is recommended to make cheese crisps in a pan, not in the oven.
Use a non-stick pan, sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on the pan. The layer should not be thick, rather, let there be relatively large “holes” between the cheese strips. Too thick a layer will create a tough crisp.
Fry the cheese over medium heat without stirring until the cheese is lightly browned.
Let the cheese crisps cool slightly and carefully lift them from the edge onto kitchen paper, which will absorb the excess fat released from the cheese. If the cheese crisps are still soft, it is worth frying them for a little longer.
Let the cheese crisps cool and break them into suitable pieces.

Coffee BBQ Glaze:
Ingredients:
80g tomato paste
5g cooking oil
3ml apple cider vinegar
0.5 tsp dried basil
0.25 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp very finely ground coffee
0.5 tsp Sea salt for seasoning

Preparation:
Mix together tomato paste, oil, vinegar, coffee and spices, heat untilt boils. Store in the fridge and use it as a pumpkin glaze.

Food presentation:
Ingredients:
Grilled pumpkin slices
Ratatouille sauce
Ratatouille
Eggplant slices
Cheese crisps
Kale crisps
Sprig of thyme for garnish
Coffee BBQ Glaze

Preparation:

Roll a 3-4 cm thick slice of ratatouille into a cone and place in the oven at 180 degrees for about 5-10 minutes.
Brush the pumpkins with a thin layer of coffee-BBQ cream and fry in a pan with a little cooking oil until brown on both sides. Be careful, the pumpkin tends to burn easily with this glaze.
Remove the pumpkin from the pan or lift the pan from the stove and stand the pumpkin on its edge so that it does not fry further.
Use the sauce while it is warm. Place 3 tablespoons of the sauce on a plate, and draw into a comma shape. Place the wide end of the comma towards the sauce ratatouille at the narrow end.
Arrange the pumpkin slices upright on the wider side of the sauce “comma”.
Place a cheese crisp between the pumpkin slices and a kale crisp on both sides of the sauce.
Place a sprig of thyme on the pumpkin slice and serve immediately.
Ready!!

October 31 2024

Pumpkin Pancakes

andrestover Desserts pumpkin 0

This year has been a generous harvest of pumpkins. It is especially nice when good colleagues ensure that it is possible to prepare different pumpkin dishes in autumn.
This year I decided to make pumpkin pancakes. They are fluffy, soft, and full of flavor. It is good to eat them with honey and butter.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Level: Easy
Quantity: About 10-12 pancakes

Ingredients:
250 g wheat flour
270 g of pumpkin puree (pumpkin puree can be prepared easily in two ways, the first way is to put the pumpkin (seeds and pith removed) cut in half and into the oven for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees and scrape the pumpkin pulp with a spoon into a bowl and crush it with a hand mixer. The second way is to put the peeled and cleaned pumpkin pulp into the kettle with about 50 ml of water boil on medium heat for about 30 minutes and crush the soft pumpkin with a hand blender)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
350 ml of milk
1 egg
0.25 teaspoons of sea salt
3 tablespoons of sugar
Cooking oil for frying

To serve, liquid honey, a piece of butter, and fresh blueberries

Preparation:

Mix flour, pumpkin puree, sea salt, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, flour, milk, and baking powder in a bowl.
Mix the dough until smooth. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
Put 60-65 ml of pancake batter into the pan and fry until golden brown on each side for about 1 minute. Stack the pancakes, put a piece of butter on top of the top pancake, and pour liquid honey over the pancakes.
Serve pancakes with blueberries.
Ready!!

October 20 2024

Autumn baked vegetable and baked vegetable soup with goat cheese

andrestover Soups, Vegetarian dishes Beet, bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, fennel, garlic, onion, potato, pumpkin, carrot, chili 0

Every year in autumn, I make a baked dish of seasonal vegetables. I prepared it this year as well, but I expanded this activity so that the day before, I made puree soup with goat cheese from the remaining vegetables.

Baked vegetables:
Preparation time: About 2 hours
Level: Easy
Quantity: For four to six

Ingredients:
1 small cabbage cut into quarters
1 small red cabbage cut into quarters
5-6 smaller potatoes cut in half
4-5 thinner carrots
2 fennel, cut in half
1 very small pumpkin, cut into pieces as desired
5 small ones were considered cut in half
3 peppers cut in half
2 large garlic cloves cut in half crosswise
2 red Jalapeno chilies
5 shallots cut in half
80 ml of olive oil
Garnish with fresh parsley and dill
Season with sea salt, black pepper and oregano

Baked vegetagle Soup:
Preparation time: 30 min
Level: Easy
Quantity: For four

Ingredients:
About half the amount of baked vegetables
200 g of harder goat cheese, most of the goat cheese is used up in the soup, a little goat cheese for sprinkling on top of the soup
Optional: 100 g grated pecorino romano
200 ml of whipped cream
1 tbsp almond flakes roasted in a dry pan
A little fresh parsley to serve
Black pepper and, if necessary, sea salt for seasoning

Preparation:

Peel the vegetables you want to peel, I used carrots, potatoes, and beets with the peel. Cut everything into pieces of suitable sizes.
Put all the vegetables in a baking pan, sprinkle with olive oil, season with sea salt, black pepper, and oregano, and cover the baking pan with foil and bake at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes.
When serving, decorate the food with chopped dill and parsley
To prepare the soup, place about half of the vegetables in the cooking pot. Squeeze the garlic cloves into the soup. Add whipped cream, pecorino romano if you wish and chopped goat cheese.
Add about 300 ml of water, heat the soup until it boils, and blend it with a hand blender until smooth. Since the food contains beets, the soup will probably be relatively red. If the soup is too thick, add water.
Cover the soup with a lid and let it boil. Remove the soup from the stove and season with salt and black pepper if necessary.
To serve, toast the almond chips in a dry pan over medium heat until they are lightly browned.
Crumble the goat cheese on top of the soup, sprinkle almond chips, and chopped parsley on the soup.
Ready!!

September 1 2024

Seven vegetable tagine

andrestover National dishes, Vegetarian dishes bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, chickpeas, eggplant, Morocco, potato, pumpkin, tomato, turnip, zucchini, carrot, chickpeas 0

One of the most classic casseroles in Morocco. This dish can be considered as a variant of a one-pot meal. Pure Moroccan flavors and stewed vegetables. Some people make this dish with meat and chicken as well, I made it only as a vegetable version and served it with large-grain pearl couscous.

Preparation time: 1.5 hours
Level: Medium
Serves: two or four

Ingredients:
3-4 sliced garlic cloves
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
300 g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3-4 medium potatoes cut into sectors
One smaller turnip cut into pieces
Half a smaller head of cabbage, the root part removed and cut into sectors
5-6 smaller carrots
About 400 g of pumpkin with skin cut into pieces
One smaller eggplant cut into large pieces
Two small zucchini, cut into long pieces
2 bell peppers, chopped
Half a can of chickpeas
2-3 tbsp olive oil for frying
3 cm ginger cut into the small peaces
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground or whole fennel
1 teaspoon of turmeric
Sea salt for seasoning
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
350 ml vegetable broth
About 200 g of couscous

Preparation:

Cut the garlic into slices chop the onion and brown in olive oil in a stew pot.
Grind coriander seeds and, if desired, cumin seeds (you can leave whole), ginger and turmeric into a spice mixture and pour into the pan.
Stir and brown for a few minutes.
Cut the tomatoes in half and pour into the pan, add the tomato paste and fry for a few minutes.
Cut hard vegetables, potatoes, turnips, carrots, pumpkin, and cabbage into pieces.
Pour the vegetable broth into the food and add hard vegetables. Spoon the sauce over the vegetables, cover the pot with a lid, and simmer for about 20 minutes.
From time to time, pour the sauce over the vegetables.
Cut soft vegetables, eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers.
Add soft vegetables to the food and also add canned chickpeas.
Simmer under the lid for another 20 minutes, basting the vegetables with sauce occasionally. If the liquid tends to evaporate too much, add a little water.
Cook the cous cous. Boil water with couscous, and add a little salt. When it has boiled, remove the cooking pot from the heat and cover with a lid. Let the couscous soak for about 20 minutes, during which time the water will be absorbed and the couscous will be ready.
When serving, put a pile of kcous cous at the bottom of the serving dish and cover it nicely with vegetables. Put the sauce on top. Serve immediately, but this dish is also delicious the next day.
Ready!!

November 2 2023

Pumpkin Maple Syrup Cookies

andrestover Bakes, Cookies maple syrup, pumpkin 0

In November, it is necessary to make at least one baking that contains pumpkin. Pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon is a combination you just have to like.

Preparation time: 1.5 hours
Level: easy
Quantity: About 150 cookies

Ingredients:
220 g room temperature butter
250 g pumpkin puree
340 g wheat flour
240 g of brown sugar
180 g of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of baking powder
0.25 teaspoons of sea salt
0.25 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

Preparation:

Mix the butter, brown sugar, vanilla sugar and maple syrup. Mix until smooth
Add wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sea salt eggs, and pumpkin puree. Pumpkin puree is easy to make by yourself. Place the pumpkin section in the oven and bake at 200 degrees C for about an hour. Scrape the pumpkin mass into a bowl with a spoon, crush it with a hand blender if necessary, and use it to make bakes or pureed soups.
Mix everything into a smooth dough. The dough will be semi-liquid. Use a piping bag and spray cookies about 3 cm in size on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Leave enough space between the cookies, they will turn thinner and wider.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 11 minutes until the edges of the cookies are light brown and the first part is still soft.
Cool the cookies in the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before storing them in an airtight box.
Ready!!

October 12 2022

Pumpkin-minced meat cutlets

andrestover Uncategorized minced meat, onion, pumpkin 0

Tasty cutlets with a strong pumpkin flavor, which are very quick and easy to prepare. Pumpkin to be put inside the cutlet can be fried in a pan after grating for about 15 minutes, in that case the pumpkin inside the cutlets will be soft and the presence of the pumpkin will be perceived only by the taste. I put raw, grated pumpkin in my cutlets, which remained slightly crunchy after frying and not bad al all to taste, quite the opposite.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Level: Easy
Serves: Two to four

Ingredients:
100 g of grated white onion
350 g of grated pumpkin
300 g mixed pork-beef minced meat
1 egg
Salt and black pepper to taste
30-40 ml cooking oil for frying

Preparation:
Grate the onion and pumpkin with a coarse grater, mix with the minced meat and egg. Season the mixture with black pepper and salt.
Make good-sized cutlets from the mixture and fry in a thick-bottomed pan with cooking oil at medium heat for 3-4 minutes on both sides until the color turns golden brown.
Serve with salad, tomato or boiled potatoes. Sour cream or yogurt with a small amount of crushed garlic is a good sauce.
Ready!!

October 29 2021

Grilled pumpkin with parmesan and seeds

andrestover Side dishes, Vegetarian dishes parmesan, pumpkin, thyme 0

A delicious and simple way to prepare a pumpkin for everyday food, but also for serving to the guests.

Preparation time: 1 hour 10 min,
Level: easy
Quantity: for two

Ingredients:
4 slices of medium-size pumpkin
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
0.5 teaspoons of dried thyme
a handful of grated parmesan
a handful of seeds (pumpkin and sunflower seeds)
salt and black pepper for seasoning

Preparation:
Cut four slices of pumpkin, about 3 cm thick, and place in the oven pan
Pour over a small amount of soy sauce and drain with olive oil
Season with salt, pepper, and thyme
Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour until the pumpkin is slightly browned at the edges
Take the pumpkin out of the oven, shake over the grated parmesan and seeds
Garnish with chopped parsley
Serve warm with cottage cheese or enjoy as it is.
Ready !!

October 9 2021

Moroccan pumpkin soup with roasted chickpeas

andrestover National dishes, Soups, Vegetarian dishes cumin, Morocco, pumpkin, saffron, yogurt 0

Pumpkins are used quite a lot in Moroccan cuisine to make various stews and soups. I was having leftovers of pumpkin puree from pumpkin and decided to make soup from it, using classic Moroccan spices and chickpeas pan-roasted as an interesting crunchy addition.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Level: easy
Quantity: for two to four

Ingredients:
About 1L of pumpkin puree
200 ml whipped cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of saffron
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Greek yogurt to serve
One 400 ml jar of chickpeas
2 tablespoons oil for frying
0.5 teaspoons ground cumin to flavor chickpeas

Preparation:
1. Use or prepare previously prepared pumpkin puree: Cut the pumpkin in half, cover the oven pan with parchment paper and place the halves of the pumpkin cut side down on the oven pan. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees for about 1 hour, leave the oven to stand, and let the pumpkin continue to simmer. Scrape the pumpkin mass with a spoon into a bowl and crush with a hand mixer. It is quite watery, no need to add extra water.
2. Pour the pumpkin puree into the cooking pot, add the whipped cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Season and cook for a few minutes.
3. Drain the chickpeas to dryness, pour into a pan, and fry until lightly crispy with a little oil. Add the cumin and, if desired, a little salt.
4. When serving, lift the soup into a bowl, add the roasted chickpeas, shake a little more saffron and cumin powder on top of the soup. Serve with Greek yogurt
Ready !!

October 9 2021

Pumpkin pie

andrestover Bakes, National dishes, Sweet pies Canada, nutmeg, pumpkin, USA 0

The pumpkin pie is made on a crispy base, which is covered with flavored and sweet pumpkin puree and baked until the pie filling sets. Pumpkin pie is one of the specialty foods of the United States and Canada, which is eaten in the fall and especially on Thanksgiving. The pumpkin is cooked, pureed, spiced with sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pumpkin pie has been mentioned since the 17th century, but it gained real national significance in the 19th century during the American Civil War.

Preparation time: 1-hour pumpkin preparation, 1-hour pie preparation
Level: average
Quantity: one cake, 12-16 slices

Ingredients:
Crust:
170 g butter
200 g of flour
100 g of sugar
4 egg yolks

Filling:
about 2 kg of pumpkin (the excess can be made for example into puree soup), you need about 450 g of pumpkin puree
4 eggs
200 g of sugar
200ml heavy cream
2 heaping teaspoons vanilla sugar
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

whipped cream for serving

Preparation:
1. Cut the pumpkin in half, cover the oven pan with the baking tray and place the pumpkin halves face down on the oven pan. Preheat oven to 200 degrees for about 1 hour, leave into the oven to stand, and let the pumpkin continue to simmer
2. Scrape the pumpkin mass with a spoon into a bowl and squeeze with a hand blender. It is quite watery, no need to add extra water
3. Prepare the dough. To do this, chop with a knife or using an electric shredder or with flour to dry crumbs, add egg yolks and sugar and knead the dough
4. Shake the flour on the work surface and roll the dough into a slightly larger disc than the baking tin. Fold the dough disc in half, so it’s easy to raise it into a pie tin. Spread the dough into a pie tin and line it with the tin
5. Line the dough with parchment paper and pour in the dried peas to help keep the dough in shape during baking.
6. Bake the cake pan for about 20 minutes until it is brown and crispy
5. Make a cake filling while baking. Mix the whipped cream and eggs well, vanilla sugar and sugar, add the pumpkin puree. Season with cinnamon and grated nutmeg.
7. Pour the filling onto the baked cake base. Bake at 180 degrees for about 30-45 minutes until the cake hardens.
8. Allow the pumpkin pie to cool overnight before serving.
Serve with whipped cream
Ready !!

October 14 2020

Pumpkin-carrot soup

andrestover Soups butternut squash, cheddar, garlic, onion, oregano, pumpkin 0

October is a suitable month to make at home at least one dish that contains pumpkin. I made this version of the pumpkin-carrot puree soup. I used dried herbs, basil, oregano, a little thyme, black pepper, and a decent piece of cheddar cheese to season.

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Level: easy
Serves: four

Ingredients:
500-800 g of pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and deseeded
6 medium carrots
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1.5 teaspoons dried herb mixture (basil, oregano, thyme)
0.25 teaspoon of black pepper
Sea salt, but carefully, the cheese is sometimes quite salty
200 g of cheddar type cheese, but with Estonian Merevaik or other soft and easy-to melt cheeses suits also well.

Preparation:
1. No special broth is required. Peel and chop the pumpkin, place in a soup pot, wash the carrots, remove the ends of the carrots and add to the pumpkin.
2. Peel the onion and cut into four, peel the garlic cloves and add to the soup.
3. Pour enough water to cover the components. Add spices. Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes. It is not necessary to boil the carrots quite soft.
4. Crush the soup with a hand mixer evenly, grate the cheese and mix into the soup. Season with salt to taste.
5. Roast the pumpkin and sunflower seeds over high heat until lightly browned. Use them for garnish and also seeds taste good with the soup.
6. When the soup is ready, serve. Pour the roasted seeds on the soup. You can use also very crispy fried bacon pieces, which can be added to the soup with the seeds.
7. Sour cream suits well to the soup.
Done !!!