Pumpkin Soup (南瓜濃湯）

It is fall and time for pumpkin harvest.  My mom used to cook pumpkins when I was small and I loved its sweetness and its texture.  In my first Halloween in US, I tried to cook the big orange American pumpkin in the way my mom did,  I was disappointed because its taste was totally different from what I remembered.  In recent years,  the Chinese markets in LA have the green and smaller Japanese pumpkins (see picture below) on sale and they do have the same sweetness and texture as the ones I had in Taiwan.  According to Wikipedia, it's called "Kabocha" in North America and it has the following description which I think is quite accurate:  "It is similar in texture and flavor to a pumpkin and sweet potato combined."

Last week, I tried to make the creamy pumpkin soup for the first time. After reviewing a few online recipes, I decided to use a simple recipe from Allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9191/pumpkin-soup/) with some changes based on my own preference. The result was quite satisfactory so I made it again today in order to get accurate measurements to write the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 small Japanese pumpkin (about 3 cups of pumpkin cubes)
1 small onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 can of chicken broth
1 cup of half and half
2 Tbsp sugar, 3/4 tsp salt for seasoning
1 cup of water

Steps:

1. Remove the pumpkin seeds, skin and cut it into inch-size cubes.  Note-  Kabocha's skin is very very hard and very difficult to cut when it is raw. I learned a trick to make the task easy from a Taiwanese celebrity chef. First boil water in a large pot that is big enough to submerge the pumpkin entirely in the water. After the water is boiling, turn off heat, and put the pumpkin into the water and close the lid for 5 minutes.  Flip the pumpkin and let it sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes. By now the skin should be soft enough to be poked through with a fork without much force. Take the pumpkin out from the hot water, let it cool for a while, then remove the seeds, slice, remove the skin from each slice, and then cut into cubes.

2. Steam the pumpkin cubes in a Rice Cooker for about 30 minutes (I put 1.5 cup of water in the rice cooker and let the rice cooker go through its Cook/Warm cycles). The pumpkin should be very soft when it is done.

3. chop the onion finely and mince the garlic cloves. In a sauce pan, heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil, then sauté onion and garlic until they turn light brown.

4. Puree three cups of pumpkin, along with the sautéd onion and garlic, and one cup of chicken broth, using a blender or a food processor.

5. Put the puree into a pot, bring it to boil in medium-to-low heat. Add 2 Tbsp of sugar and 3/4 tsp salt for seasoning. Add one cup of Half-n-Half.  Add more water until the desired thickness is reached. (I added another cup of water).  Simmer for another 5 minutes and the soup is ready.

Moussaka from Lebanon (地中海茄子)

Over the weekend we went to Old Town Monrovia, to see Arrival, an interesting Sci-Fi movie.  After the movie, we strolled into a new Mediterranean restaurant nearby, and fell in love with this vegetarian appetizer, Mousakah (how it's named on the menu).  It's served as a cold dish, along with warm pita bread.  As it turns out, what we had in the restaurant was a streamlined version of the dish known as Moussaka from Lebanon (how it's named online), vs the Greek Moussaka, an eggplant casserole dish.  We tried to recreate the restaurant version of this dish and patterned our recipe below after two online recipes (1 and 2), but we left out the chick peas and oven baking.  We also followed the restaurant owner's suggestion of using vegetable oil, in place of olive oil.  The result is quite satisfying!  BTW, it's easy and quick to make this dish.

1. [Prepare the ingredients] Rinse and cut 3 Chinese Eggplants (or 1.5 regular eggplant) into ~1/2" cubes.  Slice 6-8 cloves of garlic.  Slice 1 large (or 2 smaller) onions (1/2"- 1" long slices).  Cut 1 green bell pepper (or half a green and half a red bell pepper) into ~1" long slices. Dice 1-2 tomatoes (into 1/2" cubes).  Note- Regular eggplant might take longer to cook.  
2. Add 1-2 Tbsp of veggie oil into a saute pan, add 1/4 tsp salt, turn on medium-to-high heat, pour in the eggplant cubes, stir, mix, and cook till it's almost soft (4-5 minutes). Take the eggplant cubes out and set aside.  Note- As the main ingredient for this dish, eggplant's texture is the key to this dish's success. Don't overcook eggplant at this point (if not sure, under-cook it).  If under time pressure, conduct this step at the end of Step 3.
3. Add 1-2 Tbsp of veggie oil into the same saute pan, turn on medium-to-high heat, add the garlic and stir till fragrant.  Add the onion and stir till almost translucent (2-3 minutes).  
4. Add bell pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes.  Now, season with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp of paprika, and 2 Tbsp of tomato paste.  Stir and mix evenly.
5. Add the almost-cooked eggplant into the pan.  Add 1/2 cup of water.  Stir and cook till the eggplant cubes are soft, but not mushy (2-3 minutes for Chinese Eggplant, maybe longer for regular eggplant).  Turn off heat, season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika. 
6. Chill and serve as a cold dish, with warm pita bread.  See picture below for the outcome in our kitchen.