Pumpkin soup with crème fraiche, toasted walnuts and rosemary

 

 When life gives you lemons, sometimes it also gives you lots of pumpkins, and you make pumpkin soup because it seems Thanksgiving-ish.Thank you pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin soup with toasted walnuts and rosemary
Adapted from “Sunday Soup” by Betty Rosbottom
Note: The original recipe called for a more convoluted way of cooking pumpkin than I usually use, so I went with my standard method of cutting the pumpkin in half, scooping out the seeds and stringy bits, drizzling the inside with olive oil and roasting, cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 30 to 40 minutes at 425 degrees, depending on size, until flesh is tender. Discard skins and cut into chunks or puree. The original recipe called for a 5-pound pumpkin, but all ours seem to be weighing in at 3 pounds, so I supplemented with some canned puree to make up the difference.

Ingredients
2 tablespoon butter
1½ cups chopped leeks
5½ cups roasted pumpkin, cut in chunks or pureed
6 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1½ cups crème fraiche, divided
⅓ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
6 fresh rosemary sprigs for garnish

Method
In a large heavy pot, melt butter. Add leeks and cook until softened. Add roasted pumpkin, chicken stock, rosemary, salt and cayenne. Bring to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before pureeing mixture. Stir in 1 cup of crème fraiche and heat through. Serve with an additional dollop of crème fraiche, walnuts and a rosemary spring. Serves 6 first-course portions.

Rating: It seemed like it could hardly go wrong, and it didn't. Nice and creamy, with the teensy-weensiest bit of heat balancing out the sweetness of pumpkin and rosemary. Pretty too. I'd make it again, with squash if necessary if the squirrels don't plant more pumpkin patches next year.   

Those pumpkin seeds got tossed with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and Tajin and roasted for 25 minutes at 375. Free snacks, another bonus.

 

Crab rangoon pizza

 

There are cheese pizzas and then there are pizza ideas that are potentially cheesy. I first heard of crab rangoon pizza when some of the Fong's Pizza locations in Iowa closed and commenters were lamenting the demise of a source of this pizza variation. A little research indicates this oddity has spread and has been available on the menu locally at Day Block Brewing, where the beer list is likely to make cheesy ideas seem less of a stretch.

Crab rangoon pizza
The recipe started with an amalgam of several recipes I found online and my standard crab rangoon wonton recipe, and then I experimented a few times until I came up with something workable. Dinnerthendesert.com and the Brownie Bites Blog were among the more useful sources. You can either use purchased sweet chili sauce or make the recipe that follows.

Ingredients
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon onion powder
1 (4.25-ounce) can crab meat, divided
2 green onions, chopped, divided
½ cup grated mozzarella
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
5 to 6 tablespoons sweet chili sauce, divided
Premade wonton crisps for garnish
1 prebaked or parbaked pizza crust

Method
Preheat oven to 425. Combine cream cheese, garlic, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce and onion powder in a small bowl. 

Set aside 2 tablespoons of the crab meat. Stir the rest into the cream cheese mixture. Set aside a generous tablespoon of green onions for garnish. Put the rest in the bowl with the cream cheese mixture and mix well.

Place prebaked crust on a pizza pan, or else parbake a crust on a pizza stone. Spread cream cheese mixture over crust. Top with remaining crab meat. Sprinkle cheeses over the top and drizzle with some sweet chili sauce. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes (for a parbaked crust) or 10 to 12 (for a prebaked crust like a Boboli) or under golden brown. (Remove from oven and top with wonton crisps, remaining green onions and some more sweet chili sauce.

Sweet chili sauce
From dinnerthendessert.com

Ingredients
¾ cup sugar
⅓ cup white vinegar
⅔ cup water
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Method
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and cook until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. You will have tons leftover, so if you don’t use sweet chili sauce often, you might want to cut it in at least half. 

Rating: Can there be an authentic crab rangoon pizza? (Or even authentic crab rangoon, when you think about it.) I have no idea whether this is anything like the original restaurant version, because I've never had it. But since it seems we're unlikely to eat inside a restaurant any time soon, I figured I might as well try it. The first version I made had way too much cream cheese, and the crust clearly couldn't stand up to all that moisture. So we dialed back the cream cheese the next time and used a prebaked crust. I'd say this version works well enough, at least as an oddity. If we survive long enough, perhaps some day we'll run across it on a menu.