Creamy Pumpkin soup with cashews

It’s curious how a person can live several years in a country, and don’t go out from the city where he or she lives.  I have lived in Moscow until the age of seven, and I have never been to St. Petersburg…until this summer. Yeah, after knowing that I was going to come to Russia, my lovely cousin (I don't know which blog I must link: this or this?)organized a weekend trip to St. Petersburg because she knew that I have never been there before.  

The journey was tiring because we took a night train, which means that nobody slept very well (an armchair is not the most comfortable place to sleep), but I don’t complain because seeing the city worth it. St. Petersburg in summer is full of tourists, with wide roads and old but restored buildings that looked very picturesque. Unfortunately, I was wrong with my weather prediction, and I spent the two days roasting in trainers and long jeans because it was 25ºC (which means that you have the feeling that it’s like 35ºC).

I could explain how beautiful the city was, but I think you will enjoy more seeing it by yourself =) Probably a Russian recipe would have gone better with the post, but I have got by on quick and easy dishes since I began school (you know, the difficult life of a student). So here is a quick and easy pumpkin soup with cashews, tofu and panch phoran. Don’t you love this wonderful vegetable? I have on mind more pumpkin recipe (like the raw shredded pumpkin with raisins and cinnamon I had today for lunch), so if you are a pumpkin lover too, be on alert.

A vegetarian café in St.Petersburg. Me drinking a cup of tea (yeah, it's what I am looking at) and my cousin. The room where we stayed. I would like to have a balcony like this. Out breakfast: a huge amount of fresh fruit. Blackberries, raspberries, cherries, prunes from the closest market. A Japanese restaruant called "Two chopsticks". I ordered the vegetarian set. Delicious! Last day, in the theathre.

 

Creamy Pumpkin soup with cashews When I saw SusanV recipe Cauliflower Dal with Panch Phoran, I knew I had to try this spice blend. Panch phoran is used in Bangladesh and Eastern India, and it’s composed from cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard and kalonjii in equal amounts. I didn’t have kalonjii, so I omitted it. I could say it a panch phoran….my way It’s difficult to explain its tastes or smell, so I will only say: try it. Combined with the sweetness of the pumpkin, the creaminess of the tofu and the nutty note of the cashews, it won’t disappoint you. Recipe from: original recipe Serves: 2-3 ½ medium pumpkin 1 peeled apple ¼ bloc firm tofu 2-3 tbsp cashews 1 cup water ½ cup milk (I used soy milk, coconut milk would taste great too) 1 tbsp panch phoran (or to taste) 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 tbsp oil 1tsp salt Extra cashews for decoration Chop the pumpkin, the apple and the tofu. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the panch phoran, until it becomes fragrant. Add the chopped ingredients and sauté for a couple of minutes. Put the water to boil, and add all the ingredients. Cook on a low heat for 20-30 minutes without the lid (or only partially covered), or the milk can boil over. Put it all in the food processor and puree until it becomes a smooth cream. Add more salt if necessary. Serve with some extra cashews on top and a drizzle of oil.

Orange Garam Masala Bundt cake and Moscow parks

I think I deserve applause: I have survived my first week of school! After three month of doing nothing (reading doesn’t count as work for me), I assure you that it was not easy. This week has been very different from my usual summer weeks:  very little cooking, very little Internet (and no TV, but I don’t watch it in summer either. Does anybody else think that TV is unnecessary when you have a computer?), no photographing, no running or cycling. Hat kind of life is that?

Instead, I have spend half of my time  in front of the laptop, writing my research project about Russia and the Soviet Union — and I only wrote less than ten pages — and the other half at school lessons (many of which are tedious, boring and endless). I like studying (well, I like studying some things), but I am fed up with studying the varieties of the Spanish for four years in a row. I want to go to the university. Now.

Somo shots from the museum-park-sanatorium. More photos of Moscow parks at the end of the post.

 Luckily, this morning I went running. Otherwise I would have gone mad. I have the feeling that I have a creative crisis. Those of you who are bloggers: which is your everyday inspiration that helps you to go on with your project? The other day I was reading Lara Ferroni’s post, who said that sometimes she must remind herself why she is doing that, why exactly is she blogging. That sometimes she just doesn’t find that spark she needs to sit down and write. And I felt much identified.

I have had a lack of creativity lately. Like a mental block. I want to write, but every time I try to begin with a new post, the words don’t flow. I write, delete, write and delete again. And then I ask myself if what I am writing will interest someone. I am talking enough about food? Or maybe too much?  An excessive amount of photos?   

At the beginning, I didn’t think about posting this recipe. I thought it was something too common for the blog. But when I tried it, I immediately knew that I had to share this. And the praises of my family confirmed it.  I use bananas in my baked goods as a blinder quiet often. A part from blinding them, bananas give them extra flavor and moistness. But it also makes them heavier and denser. This bund cake is moist and spongy and light at the same time. I loved the cake, but I am not sure about the icing. The original recipe called for cashews, but I didn’t have so I used pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  It was OK, but I think that cashews would have worked better. You can try with an easy orange icing  instead. As regards the original recipe, I changed a few things. First of all, this was a Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake, and it used lemon zest and juice.  I have also used a combination of sunflower and olive oil, and substituted the agave with honey and sugar. And of course, the spicy touch of the garam masala** (see below). By the way, I must thank Renae for her fantastic present: a box full of spices and some other yummy things (the espresso beans have already disappeared, he he). You are a darling! The garam masala spices mix I used in this recipe is the one you sent me.  Orange Garam Masala Bundt cake Inspired by this recipe from Bitter Sweet. 1 cup soymilk Zest of one orange ½ cup orange juice ½ cup honey (or agave if you don’t eat it) ¾ cups sugar ¼ cup sunflower oil ¼ cup olive oil 3 ½ cups wheat flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ¾ tsp baking soda ¾ tsp salt 1 tbsp flaxseeds 2 tsp garam masala Icing 1 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds (I used a mix) 1/4 cup honey ¼ cup soymilk (begin with less, and add as needed) 1 tsp vanilla extract Preheat the oven at 175ºC (or 350ºF) Mix the soymilk, the zest and the juice and leave it to stand for five minutes. Add the honey (or agave), the oil and mix. Now combine the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and garam masala. Grind the flaxseeds and add them too. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Combine it well, but do not over mix it. Pour the dough in your bund cake pan. Bake for about one hour. Let it cool. For the icing, just combine all the ingredients and blend until completely smooth. Blend it during several minutes if needed. Pour it over the cooled cake. ** From Wikipedia:  “Garam masala, from Hindi garam, "Hot" and masala "mixture", is a basic blend of ground spices common in Indian and other South Asian cuisines.[1] It is used alone or with other seasonings.[..] The composition of garam masala differs regionally, with wide variety across India. Some common ingredients are black & white peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, long pepper (also known as pippali), black cumin (known as shahi jeera), cumin seeds, cinnamon; black, brown, & green cardamom, nutmeg, mace, star anise and coriander seeds

As I promised, here is more photos from Russia. This time, the theme is Moscow parks. It there is something I like about Russia is its parks. Some of them are as big as forests, with tall trees and lots of vegetation. And the best is that some of them are almost in the center of the city, so you always have a park not very far away from home. I’d give my right arm to have one of those parks near home here, in Spain. While I was in Moscow, I went running a couple of times to the closest park (called “Neskuchniy sad”, or “non-boring garden”) and it really like running in a forest. A  forest in the middle of the city. There are also parks outside the city or in the outskirts, which are at the same time museum, like Tsaritsino park or the Arkhangelsk museum-park-sanatorium.

Pelmeni recipe and some photos from Russia

My diet hasn't been an exemplar one during this holidays: although usually I had a good breakfast, my lunch and dinner were disastrous. I skipped lunch many times, or substituted it with a couple or three of sorbets: ice cream is incredibly cheap and it is sold everywhere (yeah, even in winter). When the weather was not good a cup of coffee would do. Nevertheless, I managed to make some shots of my decent meals.

My shopping. This was the only time I found soymilk. I also bough bread with dried fruits, kvas, beans and zucchini paté.

Fresh sauerkraut, bought in a market.

Zucchini paté.

I will upload the best photos of the trip on Flickr.  I have already uploaded some of them, but not all yet. Be patient ;) Although, I think that I have almost exceeded my bandwidth
limit xD

I definitely miss Russian food. Don ’t misunderstand me: there are some products which I discovered while living in Spain I couldn’t do without. But now many of them are even easy to find in Moscow: I saw in many supermarkets a bottle of Carbonell extra virgin olive oil, exported from Spain, and even a bottle of vine of Vilafranca del Penedès, a place 20 minutes from the town where I live (I don’t like vine, but I found it curious). And Spanish ham (jamón), which costs a fortune there (almost 100€/kg in some places) is obviously not a problem for me.

But Russian food is not as easy to find here. One possible solution is to cook it yourself. In Russia nobody would make pelmeni from scratch because you can find them in every supermarket or grocery store, as well as nobody would make  its own sauerkraut (it is sold in all the markets), kvass (Russian bread drink) or mors (a berry drink). But I am not living in Russia at this moment, so here is my recipe for veganized pelmenis. Enjoy.

From Wikipedia: Pelmeni (Russian: пельмени — plural, пельмень pel’men’ — singular) is Russian national dish (Siberian cuisine), a type of dumpling consisting of a filling that is wrapped in thin unleavened dough. […]The filling can be minced meat (pork, lamb, beef, or any other kinds of meat), fish, and mushrooms. The mixing together of different kinds of meat is also popular.

Vegan pelmenis with seitan and adzuki beans It must be said that this is a laborious dish. As laborious as it would be making raviolis or dumplings from scratch. You must make the filling, the dough, assemble it.  It involves some kneading, which some people fear so much (although I think it’s a good way to work out without visiting the gym). If so much steps overwhelm you, you can cook the seitan, the beans and make the filling the day before. Using canned beans also makes it easier. But all the work worth it. The filling is superb (although I should say it): I had to make a bid effort to don’t eat it by spoon, because after trying it I couldn’t stop. It was addictive. Traditionally it is served with “smetana” or sour cream, but you can try with vegan mayo, mustard or even ketchup. In my case is like having a plate of steaming homesickness. -1/2 cup white flour -1 ½ cup whole wheat flour -4 Tbsp corn flour (*I used this because this flour is finest than wheat flour and it makes the dough more elastic) -3/4  cup milk/water (*I used soy milk) - 1 tsp salt -1 Tbsp oil - 2 Tbsp ground flaxseeds + 5 Tbsp water - extra flour for kneading -250 g cooked seitan (half of the recipe below) -1 onion, finely chopped -1 cup cooked adzuki (*you can use any beans of your choice. I think that chickpeas would taste great here) - Breadcrumbs (*I used garlic and parsley flavored breadcrumbs) -A few Tbsp of non dairy milk -salt and black pepper to taste Dough Mix the ground flaxseeds with the water. Add the milk and oil. Set aside. Now mix the dry ingredients: the flours and the salt. Make a hole in the middle and add the wet mix with flaxseeds, milk and oil, mixing with a spoon. The dough must be firm enough to handle it but not too much, because you will add more flour while kneading it. Knead it very well on a floured surface. If it sticks too much, don’t fear adding flour on the surface and on your hands every time. To prevent from adding too much flour, add some vegetable oil on your hands: the dough will stick less to your hands and it will become more elastic. Knead it until it doesn’t stick to your hands and it is elastic enough to roll it easily. Leave it to stand while you make the filling Filling  Put the cooked seitan in the food processor, and pulse for a minute or so: it must ground, but you don’t want a seitan powder. It must have some texture. Mix it with the finely chopped onion in a bowl. Add the cooked beans (adzuki beans in my case) and mix again. Take 1/3 of the mixture and put it in the food processor again, adding a few Tbsp of milk, and a Tbsp or two of breadcrumbs. Process again, until it becomes a paste. Add salt (if necessary) and black pepper to taste. Return it to the bowl with the rest of the filling. That will give extra moistness to the mix, and it will hold better. Assembling Divide the dough in 4 or 5 parts and make a ball of each. Roll the dough: it should have more or less the thickness of a pasty. Sprinkle some flour on a plate, and put the pelmenis as you make them. With the help of glass make circles of it. Put about 1tbsp of the filling in each circle, and close the borders. Cut the remaining dough of that borders with a glass (see photo below). It also helps to close them better. Now, you can freeze or cook them. Cook them as you would cook raviolis or any other pasta: put them in boiling, salted water. There must be enough liquid so they don’t touch (take in account that they will increase in size after cooked) or stick together. Cook them for about 5 min after they come to the surface. They keep very well in the freezer.

Photos: pelmenis step by step

The flaxseeds with the water.

Adding the wet ingredients to the dry.

Kneading

About 250g of seitan and one onion, chopped

The seitan in the food processor.

Mixing all the ingredeitns of the filling.

The dough circles for the pelmenis.

You can use any glass for it.

You should have something similar to this.

The pelmenis ready to be frozen.

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Beefy (and nutty) Seitan I don’t know if it really had a “beefy” flavor because I omitted so many things that I doubt it: I didn’t use a “beef” vegan bouillon, and I substituted the walnuts with sunflower seeds, the nutritional yeast with chickpea flour and omitted the onion powder, the marmite, the sage (I added a pasta seasoning mix instead) and the worchestershire sauce. I don’t know how it must have tasted, but mine was full of flavor (despite all the ingredients I skipped), the nuts added a nice crunchy texture and the baking gave to it color and firmed it outside, while inside it was still moist. Just how I think seitan must be. Definetly, a successful seitan recipe! Inspired in this seitan recipe from Beans&Greens 1 boullion cube (or to taste, depending on how strong is the flavor of the bouillon. It would be great to use a “beef” vegan bouillon, but I couldn’t find any, so I used just a vegetable one) 1 tsp salt 1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten ¼ ground sunflower seeds 2 Tbsp of chickpea flour 1/2 tsp pasta seasoning (you can really use any seasoning mix you like) 1/2 tsp garlic powder 3 Tbsp olive oil 1 tsp tomato paste Bring 4 or 5 cups of water to boil and add the bouillon and salt. Mix the dry seitan ingredients: gluten, sunflower seeds, chickpea flour and spices. Add the wet ingredients: one cup of the broth, 1 Tbsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of tomato paste. Knead it well. I left it to stand for 10 min, and it firmed up a little bit, so it was easier to cut. Flat the dough. Cut it. I cut mine in rectangular pieces (about 5cmx2cm), but you can make square pieces if you prefer it. Simmer on very low heat for one hour. Turn off the heat and leave it to stand in the stock for 30 or 40 min (although if you leave it for a longer time it won’t happen anything) Bake it for another 20 or 30 min at 170º (or 350ºF), on an oiled baking dish. Kristin recommends storing it in the fridge with the remaining bouillon. I used half of mine and froze the other half: it will keep in the freezer for month.

Seitan before baking