Fall salmon pot pie

A salmon and mushroom pie hidden in a pumpkin. That’s Halloween on the plate.

This month :

Hannah of Rise and Shine was our October 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she challenged us to bake our own double crusted savory pot pies. Using any from-scratch crust and filling we choose, we were allowed to get completely creative with our recipe, showing off the savory flavors and fillings from our own home or region.

So let’s go for Japanese season produce and even tofu for a dairy free pie :

Autumn/Fall is the season of kabocha pumpkin, salmon, mushrooms (shiitake).

Kabocha pumpkin crust : 1/3 boiled kabocha flesh, 1/3 flour, 1/3 whole wheat flour. Plus a little baling powder, salt, chili flakes and enough of the squash cooking water to for a dough.

The fresh ingredients.

Gravy : I stir-fried onion, garlic, the feet of the shiitake with salt and black pepper. Then added the shiitake hats, the peas. To cream it, passed in the blender : 1/2 block of silky tofu, 1 glass of white wine, a tbs of potato starch. I’ve added the fish and parsley raw.

Baked 45 minutes.

The crust is perfectly cooked. The inside is a little curded (I should have added the wine to the onions to avoid it), but it looks nice.

Cress and parsley pesto on the plate.

Hokkaido red peas

赤えんどう豆 aka endo mame. Red peas, from Hokkaido.
I’ve found these in a depachika. It’s the under-ground flour of a department store where there are many specialty shops of food, ready to eat, fresh and ingredients. I had never used these peas.

After soaking a few hours.

And boiling 45 minutes. I could then use them for 3 dishes.

Japanese style : reheated on low heat, 15 minutes, with enough broth to cover, a piece of kombu seaweed, soy sauce and kurozato black sugar. Let cool. They can be kept about a week in the fridge and served as side dish for Japanese meals.

Aka endo mame okayu (more here)

Indian-Japanese fusion style : stir-fried with onion, garlic, ginger and chana dal massala powder. Plus a few shishito peppers.

Served on reheated shirataki noodles.

Bunny panisses

Panisses are chick pea based appetizers and street stall snacks from the South of France. They exist in different shapes but I guess the bunny style is rare. My recipe is also alternative. Normally you need chick pea flour that I didn’t have. So I found another way.

Soak a cup of dry chick peas. Put them in the blender with 2 tbs of olive oil. Add enough water to get a creamy sauce. Simmer on /medium low heat, stirring till you get a cooked thick paste. That takes 15 to 20 minutes. Add salt, and flavoring if you want. It has to be well dried.

Spread on cooking paper. Let cool. Put one hour or more in the fridge.

Cut and fry or stir-fry in olive oil.

Serve hot, with salt or a sauce of your choice.

Harissa for instance.

I joined white cucumbers and basil leaves. These are fried garlic chips. I fried them as I was testing my oil heat.

I also fried the cut out bits. I flavored them with that toppings.

Both were yummy.

Chickpeas three ways for a casual Summer lunch

Transforming a bowl of freshly boiled chick peas into 3 dishes.

Falafels. It’s better to make them from raw chick peas, but I’ve mashed boiled ones with a little potato starch for binding, added randomly spices, mint, lemon balm, and the brown thing is the ground of sobacha.

Pan-fried.

Chickpeas in a tomato tabouleh with… what was in the fridge, sweet corn, ninniku no me (garlic stalks), bell pepper, green soy beans, mint too. And harissa.