Pumpkin Soup (to warm you through the night)

It was around Halloween, I'd dodged the local trick or treat posse/ rude boys (take your pick) and bundled myself onto the bus. It was the weekend, time to take a step away from the inferno of an intense week and have a night out in a place that was very familiar but, most importantly, on this particular evening it was a night out that was chock full of things that were exciting, new and wonderful.

The next morning the weak Autumn light crept through my lounge curtains and although I felt a little drained I also felt rejuvenated and positive. Slowly I acclimatised and thoughts turned to cooking a soup to set me up for the week as my batteries recharged following the best evening out I had experienced for some time.

I had purchased a large pumpkin the day before from the local fruit and veg shop, it's the best place around for fresh fruit and veg, cakes, obscure canned products, liquorice allsorts and exotic flavoured Lion Bars. Plus you can get a week's supply of decent fruit and veg for under fifteen quid. Beat that mainstream supermarkets.

The first job was to prepare the Pumpkin and I achieved this by taking a sharp knife and slicing the top and the bottom off the Pumpkin. I decided not to do a carving with the parts of the pumpkin I didn't use in the cooking as I got a grade F in GCSE Art and so didn't trust my carving skills. Instead I removed from the Pumpkin all the seeds and the stringy flesh. Next I proceeded to halve the Pumpkin and cut the flesh from it which I then cubed and set to one side.

Next on the list to prepare were two white onions which I topped and tailed and then diced. After that came the preparation of two Sharon Fruit, thank you again local fruit and veg shop. Sharon Fruit have a short season between October and December and to get the best out of them you should ripen them for around a week after purchasing so that they taste very sweet. I topped and tailed these two Sharon Fruit, removed the thin cores and then cubed them.

Now it was time to cover the bottom of my Le Cresceut with sunflower oil and add the Pumpkin, Onion and Sharon Fruit pieces. I also added two table spoons of coriander and two table spoons of curry powder. I stirred the ingredients together, put the Le Crescent lid on and sweated the food for around twenty-five minutes on a medium heat stirring occasionally so that the food did not stick to the bottom of the dish.

After twenty five minutes I added seven hundred millilitres of vegetable stock and simmered the food for another half an hour. I then turned off the heat and left the food to cool for a time.

Later on I blended the contents of the Le Cresceut and returned them back to it. I added 300 millilitres of sweetened soya milk and warmed the food through. I served it in a bowl with a dash of curry powder thrown on top; the results were very satisfying. Pumpkin on its own has quite a bland, plastic taste but when given life by the Curry Powder and the sweetness of the Sharon Fruit it takes on a new life and is rich and tasty.

I had prepared so much soup that it lasted me until the middle of week and gave me lots of energy as I pushed through the working week with renewed purpose.

Golden Brown: a hint of curry powder helped spice this winter dish up a lot