Hollowing out your Pumpkins

The penultimate Saturday in October. The wind and rain buffeted the dog and I as we traversed the local fields near our house. We were caught in the back end of a storm called, rather non-threateningly one might add, Storm Brian. The first birds of winter drifted over our heads as we turned for home.

Later that day a very important and special guest was arriving at my home. Thoughts therefore turned naturally what I would make us. There were a  lot of Pumpkins in the local supermarket and Halloween was not too far away. That meant the two course meal I would prepare was distinctly Pumpkin- themed.

On the player was Van Morrison's underrated, and meditative album 1980 album "Common One". There are some albums that you can remember exactly where you were and exactly what things happened during that time. In this case I bought the album towards the end of the first semester of the final year of my Politics Degree. A degree that seems a lifetime ago now. Events from around this time in my world included getting punched in the mouth by a random passer by on a night out in my University Town. Another happening saw me attend a 21st birthday party in my hometown, which culminated in the Birthday Boy sucking whipped cream from a plastic phallus and winning us all free drinks in the process.

So the soup. The ingredients were as follows:

A tablespoon of  Dried Basil
A tablespoon of Dried Oregano
4 Chopped Tomatoes.
The cubed flesh of a medium-sized Pumpkin..
A diced Red Onion.
1 Small Clove of Garlic sliced finely.
Olive Oil to cover bottom of my Le Cresceut.
Half a pint of Vegetable Stock.

The soup was a variation on a Pumpkin and Tomato Casserole recipe that I had first road-tested in October 2009 during my reckless, and never to be repeated, "Fat Elvis" Years.

The method was as follows:

First I fried the vegetables and herbs in Olive Oil for 40 minutes. I did this on my Le Cresceut on a medium heat. I made sure to stir the food regularly to stop it sticking to the bottom of the Le Cresceut.

I then added the vegetable stock and simmered everything with the Le Cresceut lid on for another 35 minutes on a low heat.

I then left the ingredients to cool before blending them and serving the soup with toasted Brown Bread and Pumpkin seeds.

My dining partner for the soup summed up the taste better than I in that on paper she didn't expect the ingredients, particularly the Pumpkin to be tasteful but in fact it was a rich and flavoursome soup because of the herbs and seasoning. I would add that it was a soup that had an Italian feel and was a perfect tonic to the howling wind and lashings of rain that clattered against my house in the Autumn Evening.

Orange Skies- the soup sits on my table ready to eat with some freshly toasted bread just behind it.