I’ve been reading Living magazine for years. Before I started subscribing, I was watching Martha’s tv show. The first apple pie I ever made was from her recipe. The first time I ever made chicken stock, I followed her instructions. Yes, I’ve been a long-time fan, but for some reason, I had never before made a 'What’s for Dinner' meal in its entirety. Do you know that article that appears every month? It’s always at the back of the magazine, and I usually have to flip there first just to see what’s for dinner this month. There are always four recipe cards that are perforated, and three cards make up the main part of the meal, and one card is dessert. The look of those removable, perforated recipe cards has been repeated many times by advertisers, but in 'What’s for Dinner,' the two pages on either side of the cards show more photos of the meal and a prep schedule. I almost always remove the cards and store them in a file unless it’s a rare meal that doesn’t interest me. So, I have dozens of these meal plans and have tried single recipes from them here and there, but not until last weekend had I actually prepared one of these complete meals. The meal I prepared is from the October issue, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I'd be making all four items. Three of those are shown here today, and I’ll post dessert soon.
The first dish was roasted pumpkin soup, and I found the cutest, little, bright orange pumpkin at the farmers’ market. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as bright in color on the inside, but it was still delicious. Pumpkin slices were roasted with onion wedges, a clove of garlic, and two shitake mushroom caps. Once roasted and cooled, the skin was removed from the pumpkin, and everything was pureed with some stock. The puree was then brought to a simmer as more stock was whisked into the mixture, and then it was kept warm while cheese flautas were prepared. For the flautas, a cilantro pesto was made from sauteed garlic and pepitas, cilantro, lime juice, and olive oil. The pesto was spread on corn tortillas and was topped with shredded monterey jack cheese. The tortillas were rolled up and then fried until golden. Earlier in the day, I made a roasted salsa verde to serve with the flautas. The third item on the menu was the black-eyed pea salad with baby greens. Black-eyed peas were tossed with a vinaigrette made from tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro, red-wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and olive oil. The peas were then spooned over a platter lined with spinach and baby greens.
The pumpkin soup was not a sweet kind of soup at all, and too much sweetness is my usual complaint about pumpkin or squash soups. The onion, garlic, and those two mushrooms gave it good, savory flavor. The black-eyed pea salad was varied in taste and texture, and the peppery baby mustard greens matched nicely with the peas and vinaigrette. And, those cheese flautas with cilantro pesto? Those crispy, cheesy, rolled tortillas were, of course, a hit. Pulling the whole meal together was simple because the soup and salad could both be left aside without worry as the flautas were prepared. It was a well-planned meal, and every part of it was suited to the season.
For this pumpkin almond flan, I pulled a book from the shelf that’s from an Austin favorite. Fonda San Miguel has been serving excellent, interior Mexican cuisine since 1975, and I’m fortunate to live just a few blocks away. The restaurant is located in a hacienda-style building that has been remodeled with huge hand-carved wood doors from Guanajuato, Mexican tile, gorgeous punched tin lanterns, and rustic leather equipales. The owners are also art collectors, and their many displayed paintings by renowned Mexican artists are rotated throughout the year. In 2005, they created a book, Fonda San Miguel Thirty Years of Food and Art
, containing many of the dishes served and photos of much of the artwork. As stated in the book, the goal of Fonda San Miguel is to present intriguing Mexico at its best through the food, art, and decor.
In my opinion, they serve the best Mexican food anywhere, and the only other restaurant I’ve visited that is on par is Rick Bayless’ Frontera in Chicago. The sopa de elote with poblanos (corn soup) is a dish I’ve enjoyed in the restaurant and made from the book, and it’s fantastic. Their ceviche is always outstanding, and the freshly made salsas, tortillas, and margaritas are several notches above standard tex-mex fare. At the restaurant, the Sunday brunch includes four large tables with salads, warm vegetable and egg dishes, roasted chicken and pork made with a couple of different sauces each, and a dessert table. For dessert, there’s always a flan or two, along with several other tempting items, but it disappears fast. The version in the book is almond flan, and I chose to add pumpkin.
To begin, sugar is caramelized in the baking pan, and letting it reach a dark amber color results in a rich, complex flavor in the end. The caramel is set aside while the flan base is mixed in a blender. Sweetened condensed milk, eggs, slivered almonds, vanilla, and milk were pureed together. To this, I added about a cup of roasted pumpkin puree with some cinnamon, cayenne, and ancho powder. The blended mixture was poured over the cooled caramel, and the pan was baked in a water bath. Couldn’t have been simpler.
One common criticism of flan is that it can be too eggy. In this case, the almond, pumpkin, and spices provided such a flavor boost that the egginess of the custard was not the focus. The finished, chilled flan popped right out of the pan, and the caramel was poured over top. It was off the charts delicious. Spiced pumpkin, ground almonds, and vanilla together in the smooth, creamy custard with that dark, lovely caramel pooling about it made one fine dessert. In fact, it was a lick the plate kind of dessert. For anyone visiting Austin, the restaurant should definitely be on your list, and the experience of the place is beautifully presented in the book.
On the last day of winter, it seemed like a good time to finish off the pumpkin ravioli that I had made weeks ago and left in the freezer. Back when winter started, I roasted a big, blue pumpkin that had the brightest orange flesh, puréed it, and put it to a couple of different uses. One of those uses was pumpkin-cinnamon rolls which are a big favorite of Kurt’s and mine. Obviously, the pumpkin was also used for ravioli, and some of it remains in a tub in the freezer. The filling for the pumpkin ravioli included puréed pumpkin, a scant amount of toasted bread crumbs, an egg, shredded parmigiana reggiano, and a few scrapes of nutmeg on the microplane. I made a standard pasta dough with flour and eggs, and mixed it in a food processor rather than by hand. (My pasta-making education came from Marcella Hazan via her excellent book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, but I took the liberty of using the food processor to speed things up a bit.) I rolled out the pasta into sheets with a hand-cranked Imperia machine, and plopped the filling by the teaspoonful along the length of the sheets. Then, folded the sheets in half lengthwise over the filling and cut the ravioli with a fluted pastry wheel. The fresh pasta was boiled briefly and topped with browned butter, fried sage leaves, and a few curls of shaved parmigiana reggiano and was delectable. Kurt and I agreed that is our preferred way to prepare pumpkin ravioli, but it is very rich. It makes a great first course or primo. The remaining ravioli went into the freezer, and we enjoyed the browned butter and sage topping again a few weeks later. Last night, to use the rest of the ravioli before Spring arrived and made pumpkin seem out of place for dinner, I tried serving them with a gorgonzola sauce. I made a béchamel with finely chopped sage and melted gorgonzola and parmigiana reggiano into it. The ravioli were topped with the sauce and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and a little more parmigiana. This version of the ravioli was also delicious, and freezing the ravioli works fine, but nothing can beat the taste and texture of fresh pasta on the day it's made.
I’ve been reading Living magazine for years. Before I started subscribing, I was watching Martha’s tv show. The first apple pie I ever made was from her recipe. The first time I ever made chicken stock, I followed her instructions. Yes, I’ve been a long-time fan, but for some reason, I had never before made a 'What’s for Dinner' meal in its entirety. Do you know that article that appears every month? It’s always at the back of the magazine, and I usually have to flip there first just to see what’s for dinner this month. There are always four recipe cards that are perforated, and three cards make up the main part of the meal, and one card is dessert. The look of those removable, perforated recipe cards has been repeated many times by advertisers, but in 'What’s for Dinner,' the two pages on either side of the cards show more photos of the meal and a prep schedule. I almost always remove the cards and store them in a file unless it’s a rare meal that doesn’t interest me. So, I have dozens of these meal plans and have tried single recipes from them here and there, but not until last weekend had I actually prepared one of these complete meals. The meal I prepared is from the October issue, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I'd be making all four items. Three of those are shown here today, and I’ll post dessert soon.
