05.10.09: Pumpkin Pie and Green Chard

Autumn made yumsome: she's been meaning to try this savoury punkin' recipe, courtesy of Sophie Conran, for nearly a year, and now the time is right.

Pumpkin, sage, feta cheese, parsley and filo dough made for a decadent Sunday eve pie-high, while the punkin' seeds toasted up nicely with salt and pepper for compulsive snacking. Steamed chard from yesterday's market in Richmond snuggled up steamily to its richer plate-mate, while figs, thin slices of baby fennel, and mixed leaves commingled contentedly nearby in anticipation of a balsamic drizzle.


HE SAYS: I likey this pie. I was especially enamored with the crusty topping (you could put filo pastry on top of a smelly sock and I would eat it). I do think though that maybe next time we could try butternut squash (my favourite gourd) instead of fresh pumpkin (nothing like the tinned variety, trust me) which was a little bland for my taste buds however much the cumin tried to raise the taste stakes. I, like Her, peppered it with ample hot sauce and it tasted so goood.

SHE SAYS: Make no mistake, this is not a weekday meal - peeling and preparing the pumpkin is fiddly and takes plently of elbow grease. The result was good, but quite overpowering in the cheese dept. – too rich. Some Crystal hot sauce cut through the heavy savour, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the crisp sheets of filo on top. Not sure I would make this again, but I'm glad I tried it. (A lighter goat cheese, and less of it, would be more suitable, and perhaps some ras-al-hanout in place of the cumin seeds would brighten up the flavour.) The chard was amazingly sweet, esp the stems, and I added nothing to it, not one bit of anything. Salad was as refreshing as it was meant to be, bringing welcome crunch and aniseed insouciance to the meal.

26.05.08: Spinach pie and spelt pasta with fresh sauce

Stuffed! He spent the afternoon making spinach pie, packed between papery, buttery layers of filo with the aforementioned spinach, feta, ricotta and a touch of parmesan. She jumped into the fray with a ho-made sauce of fresh baby plum tomatoes, white wine, capers, a big handful of basil, some chopped garlic, prosciutto, onion, and portobello mushrooms - spooned over some semi-fresh spelt pasta bought at the Richmond market. The salad of cucumber, grapes and leaves was rebelliously simple.

HE SAYS: The wet bank holiday at least enabled me to spend some time making the spanakopita that I hadn't attempted in about a decade without any guilt about missing out on frolicking in the non-existent sun. I set aside 3 hours to leisurely put this baby to bed, and so glad I did as it's quite a production. After creating the spinach filling I noticed the ricotta that we'd frozen and defrosted was not looking like it should, i.e. looked like a puddle of water; I had to nip out and get an emergency ration quick smart. When all the filling was prepared, the buttering and layering of the filo dough went smoothly and cooking was a breeze.

The result was very tasty and decadent and will be a nice lunch for the rest of the week. Her pasta was also great, very fresh tasting. The tomatoes hit the perfect sweetness and the capers and dash of white wine added just enough tart and savoury tang needed to round out the overall flavour. The posh bacon, sorry, prosciutto, didn't hurt neither. Salad was very green looking due in part to the inclusion of some green grapes that were camouflaged to the eye but not to the tastebuds.

SHE SAYS: The spinach pie was extraordinarily rich and delish - it's meant for lunch this week, but it sneaked onto the dinner plate somehow (whistles and looks away). The pastry was perfectly crackly and buttery, the filling herby and moist. My sauce was no slouch, either - can anything with prosciutto in it not be tasty? But even aside from that cheat, the tomato sauce itself was sweet and yumsome. The pasta gets a cheerful thumbs up, despite being a little pricey. The cool green crunch of the salad made just the right counterpoint to all the luxurious flavours and textures.