Roasted Pumpkin Soup#Soupswappers

It's our day of posting for soup swappers, our host of the month is   Ashley of Cheese Curd in Paradise choose the theme  Pumpkin and Squash Soups. 

Made this Roasted  Pumpkin Soup, which is vegan , gluten free and also healthy. 

Serves 6 -7
Ingredients
5 Cups Vegetable Stock
500 Grams Red  Pumpkin
1 Head Garlic
2 Tablespoons Olive  Oil
Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
1 Medium Onion
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
A Juice Of One Lemon
1 Tablespoon Honey
Chopped Parsley for garnishing

Method

Place the pumpkin in a aluminium foil and toss olive oil over it. Seal the foil and place it in a baking pan. Roast it at 200 degrees C  at 30 to 40  minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.  Then cool it completely.  You can roast  the onion and garlic  too in the oven.  But I, roasted the garlic and onion in the sandwich toaster. 

When the pumpkin, onion and garlic cools.  Peel them and blend them.

In a pan add the stock and the blended puree with salt to taste.  Boil it, when it comes to a rolling boil, reduce the flame and let it simmer for 5 minutes on low flame.  Then add the honey, thyme and black pepper to taste, stir it well and bring it to a boil again.  Taste for salt and spice.  Take off flame add in the lemon juice.  

Serve hot garnished with parsley and enjoy this vegan and gluten free soup. 

Labels : Soup, Roasted Red Pumpkin, Healthy, Vegan, Gluten free, Soupswappers

An InLinkz Link-up

Prawns In Hoisin Sauce#FishFriday

Hoisin sauce is a sweet n sour Chinese sauce. Though its literal meaning is "seafood", Hoisin sauce does not contain fish.

This goes to our event for Fish Friday Foodies, theme for November is Stir-Fry. Our  Karen H Kerr, asked us to create a stir-fry featuring seafood. 

Ingredients, 
1 Cup Prawns - Peeled and de-viened
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
3-4 Garlic Cloves - Chopped
3 Spring Onions - Chopped
½ Cup French Beans - parboiled
1 Medium Capsicum - Cut in slices
3 Green Chilies - Cut in slices
½ Cup Baby Corn - Cut in slices
2 Teaspoon Hoisin Sauce
1 Teaspoon Hot Chili Sauce
1 Teaspoon Honey
½ Teaspoon Soy Sauce

Method
Heat olive oil in wok. Swirl it around. Add the garlic, green chilies and fry them for half a minute
Add spring onions and capsicum and mix till they are soft. Take it off the pan.
Add the prawns to the pan. Allow to cook from one side then flip it and let it cook from the other side.
Add all the veggies, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili sauce and honey to the prawns and mix for about 4 minutes. Adjust salt.
Serve hot with steamed rice, garlic bread, boiled noodles or fried rice. 

My Notes:
Vegetables  like carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, etc can also be used.

Labels: Chinese, Fish, Hoisin sauce, Prawns, Asian Cuisine, China, Fish Friday, Stir Fry 

An InLinkz Link-up

Quatre-Quart Bundt Cake#BundtBakers

This classic French cake, the Quatre-Quart, is also known as a pound cake elsewhere. It's a simple and can be enjoyed as a tea cake.

Made this cake for the community rosary  held in my house.

Ingredients5 Eggs
250 Grams Caster sugar
250 Grams All Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking powder
250 Grams  Butter - melted - I used salted
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C  degrees  Grease and flour two 7 inches bundt  tins. 

Whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in the flour and baking powder, then the melted butter. Spread the cake mixture into the prepared bundt tins. 

Bake in the preheated oven until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. 

When it cools dust it with icing sugar and serve.

Labels : French Cuisine,Pound Cake, Bundts, Tea Cake, Bundt Bakers
Sending this to Bundt Bakers our Host is Lara from Tartacadabra http://tartacadabra.blogspot.com

Almond-Brown Butter Bundt Cake by Katin špajz
Baba Rum Bundt Cake by Merce's Cake
Brioche Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
Bundt Cake Quatre-Quarts Breton by Patyco Candybar
Chez Panisse Almond Bundt by Sweet Sensations
French Opera Bundt Cake by Tartacadabra
Île Flottante (Floating Island) Bundt by Food Lust People Love
Quatre-Quart Bundt Cake by Sneha's Recipe
Tarte Tatin in a Bundt Pan by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Tropézienne Bundt Cake by Patty's Cake

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about #BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

Chocolate Babka#BreadBakers

Chocolate babka, a dense, rich yeasted loaf swirled with an equally rich chocolate filling, is a classic eastern European Jewish bread. 

Yields: 1 loaf
Ingredients
For the dough

2¾  Cups All Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Level Granulated Sugar
11 Grams Fresh Yeast
2 Small Eggs
½ Cup Milk
½ Teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
75 Grams Cold Unsalted Butter- cut into small cubes 

For the Chocolate filling:

1/4 Cup Caster sugar - I did not add
¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa powder
75 Grams Dark chocolate - melted
50 Grams Unsalted butter - melted
50 Grams Chocolate chips or chunks 

For the sugar syrup 
¼ Cup Water
¼ Cup Granulated Sugar 

Method

Making the dough

 Place flour, sugar, yeast, and  in a food processor  and mix on low speed until combined. Add eggs,  milk and mix on medium speed until dough comes together, 2-3 minutes. Add salt, then butter, adding a few cubes at a time, mixing until incorporated. Continue mixing for about 10 minutes on medium speed, until dough is completely smooth, elastic, shiny, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. During mixing, you will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Place dough in a large bowl brushed with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and  it to rise once risen then leave in the fridge for at least 6 - 8 hours or overnight.

Grease one loaf with oil and line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper with the sides hanging out.

To make the filling

Melt the chocolate and butter, then add the cocoa powder and mix  together until you have a spreadable paste.

 Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and shape into a rectangle measuring 15 x 11 inches. 

Position dough so that a long side is closest to you. Using an offset spatula, spread half of the chocolate mixture over the rectangle, leaving a ½ inch border all sides . 

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the chocolate. 

Shaping the dough 

Use both hands to roll up the rectangle like a log, starting from the long side closest to you and ending at the other long end. 

Press to seal the dampened end onto the log, then use both hands to even out the roll into a perfect thick long roll.

Rest the on its seam side down. 

Use the knife to gently cut the roll in half lengthwise, starting at the top and finishing at the end, essentially 

dividing the log into two long even halves, with the layers of dough and filling visible along the length of both halves. 

With the cut sides facing up

gently press together one end of each half, then lift the right half over the left half. 

Repeat this process, but this time lifting the left half over the right, to create a simple two-pronged plait / braid. Gently squeeze together the other ends so that you are left with the two halves, intertwined and the babka is ready to go into the baking pan. 

Carefully lift the babka into a loaf pan. Don’t worry if there are gaps in the pan since the braid will rise and will eventually look fine, even if you feel like it’s messy at this point. 

Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour  to rise( this dough will not double in size- it will rise a little). 

Preheat oven to 190°C, making sure to allow plenty of time for it to heat fully before the babka has finished rising. Place the pan on middle rack of oven, and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean with no dough attached. 

While the babka is in the oven, let's make the syrup. 

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring water and sugar to a boil. As soon as the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and set aside to cool. 

As soon as the babka is out of the oven, brush the syrup over it. Use all of the syrup, even if it looks a lot. 

Let babka cool until it is warm, then remove from pans and let cool completely before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Just out of the oven and super delicious Babka.. see the swirls, irresistible..

As the babka is baking my house is filling with the aroma of chocolate, yum yum!!

My Notes

Since this dough is a brioche dough / a buttery  dough. 

After  the first rise, it’s highly recommended to place it in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight, so it sets properly and is easy to work with. Mine rolled out so smoothly and beautifully after refrigeration.

 To make the filling 
I have seen many recipes using sugar too.  I have not added it  , since even chocolate chips is added in the filling and I did not want a too sweet babka.  If you want add 1/4 cup caster sugar.  Choice is yours. 

Even though I did not add the sugar in the filling this is so sweet and divine to taste..

This babka is super delicious. 

Check here to see the Nutella Babka Buns recipe. 

Lables : Breads, Bread Bakers, Yeasted Cake, Chocolate Babka, Eggs, Butter, Brioche, Jewish

This month, the Bread Bakers are making yeasted cakes, a theme chosen by Archana of The Mad Scientist Kitchen.
Almond Stollen from Baking Sense
Baba-au-Rhum from Ambrosia
Chocolate Babka from Sneha's Recipes
Cranberry Lardy Cake from Food Lust People Love
Drozdzowe from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Hartford Election Cake from All That's Left are the Crumbs
Orange Yeast Cake from Cooking with Renu
Yeasted Lemon Cake from Gayathri's Cookspot
Yeasted Orange Cake from The Mad Scientist Kitchen
Yeasted Pound Cake from Karen's Kitchen Stories
Yeasted Transylvanian Cinnamon Sugar Cake from Sizzling Tastebuds

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Our theme this month is Yeasted Cakes.