Pureed Brown Rice Pumpkin Soup

I am not sure of whether to call this brown rice pumpkin soup or brown rice pumpkin porridge.  I made this for my little girl when she was having diarrhea and vomit since everything went into her mouth, it came right out.  I thought if I pureed the porridge, it would go down easier on her.  But guess what?  She refused to eat it, not even a taste test.  The only thing she would eat was Popsicle and of course she could have as many as she wanted since that was the only thing she would eat and won't throw up.

So, I was the one that finished this soup.  I loved it actually, it was sweet and tasted like brown rice.  Now I know what was the difference between white rice porridge and brown rice porridge.  Brown rice taste really stood out. This is suitable for baby, toddler or older people as it's very nutritious and easy to swallow.

Ingredients:

Serving for one:

One handful of brown rice, washed

Few pieces of cut pumpkin, cut into tiny pieces

1/4 cup of ground pork

Water

Salt to taste

Method:

1.  In a saucepan, add in water and brown rice.  Water for cooking porridge, about double or triple the water needed to cook rice.

2.  When boiling, add in ground pork, and scoop out whatever foam that float to the top.  Add in pumpkin and stir.  Simmer in low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally.  

3.  When cooked, season to taste with salt.  Add a little chicken powder if you want.  Pour into a glass blender and puree until smooth.  Serve.

Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes

I saw this Pumpkin Sesame Cakes in a Chinese cooking show recently.  It was a pumpkin recipes special and it featured this and a steamed variety.  For the steamed one, the cooking host shaped the dough into a little pumpkin and then steamed it until cooked.  She served it with some sort of sweet syrup.

I was attracted to this pan-fried version as it looked really tasty.  What's more I am also a big fan of sesame seeds so of course I had to give this recipe a try.  I was also curious of how it would taste like.

I gave it a bite to let you see the texture inside of this cake.  It tasted like nian gao, since it was made of glutinous rice flour I guess.  Slightly chewy and not bad at all.  Mine was not sweet enough, I would prefer it to be sweeter.

Remember to pan-frying it in low heat pan so that you won't burn the sesame seeds.  Sesame seeds burn easily in high heat.

Before pan-frying

Method:

Pumpkin,  cut the skin off, cut into half, seeded and save the seed to roast.

Cut pumpkin into slices.  Steam for 30 minutes or until soften.  Mash with a fork. Squeeze out the juice. Mix in some brown sugar, stir well.  Then add some glutinous rice flour until a dough is formed.  In a plate, spread out the white sesame seeds.  Roll the dough into a cylinder shape, cut and slightly roll it flat with your hand.  Coat both sides with sesame seeds.  Pan fry in low heat until golden brown on both sides.  Drain on paper towel.  Serve.

2 cups smashed pumpkin , 3/4 cup (less sweet)  to 1 cup of brown sugar (sweet).  I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and it was not sweet at all.  I think the original recipe was made without adding any sugar.

Spiced Pumpkin Walnut Cake

I cannot get enough of this cake, it is soft and moist and left you wanting more.  This is almost like my Best Ever Pumpkin Cake except it's has a little more egg with added walnut and one additional spice.  This cake is smaller and I used a 8-inch square pan to bake it.  I created this when I used 1 cup of the pumpkin puree to make the cookies and left with one more cup of pumpkin puree.  I loved pumpkin cake above all others, more than pie, cookies, soup, etc.  So of course I got to make it into a cake.

If you have canned pumpkin puree at home, give this recipe a try.  I am waiting for the Libby's canned pumpkin puree to go on sale so that I can stock up and make more of this cake.  YUM! YUM!  Oh yeah, need to buy more of the chopped walnuts too.

Ingredients:

(A)
2  large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil or other neutral oil)
1/2 (15 ounce) canned or 1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
(B), sifted or whisked
1 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

(C)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray a 8-inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour for baking.

2. In a big mixing bowl, whisk or beat together (A).

3. Then, add in (B) and stir together with a spatula until smooth and well blended or beat to blend well.

4.  Add in the chopped walnuts, lightly mix in.

5. Pour into the greased square pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted to cool completely on a wire rack.  Best enjoy the next day.

Stir Fried Pumpkin with Eggs

Never did I know that stir-frying pumpkin can be so scrumptious.  I saved some of the pumpkin fresh from a pumpkin that we carved earlier.  I had pumpkin porridge before and I really liked it as it was sweet and filling.  But I know my girls don't really fancy porridge so I thought I would try something different.

I stir fried zucchini with this recipe and we all loved it, so why not try it with pumpkin.  It was my first time cooking a stir-frying pumpkin and it was so yummy.  The fish sauce gave this dish an extra boost.  If you have extra fresh pumpkin at home, give this dish a try!  I took this picture at night, so it did not look very appetizing, but don't be fooled by it's look, this is a dish I will make again and again.

Ingredients:

1/4 of a medium Pumpkin, julienne

1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften in warm water and drain

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 large eggs, beaten and seasoned with soy sauce and white pepper

(A)

Fish sauce to taste

Salt (optional)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. chicken stock powder

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the beaten eggs, stir-fry until cooked.  

2.  Scoop the eggs to the side of the wok, add in garlic and dried shrimps in the remaining oil, stir-fry until garlic is slightly golden and dried shrimps are fragrant.  Add in pumpkins and mix all together and stir-fry well.

3.  Stir-fry until pumpkin is cooked and soften.  Season with (A).  Serve hot!

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds

I always wanted to roast some pumpkin seeds.  My opportunity came when I had a bag of pumpkin seeds given by a library event (pumpkin carving) that we went to.  I loved green tea flavor and so automatically I wanted to try green tea flavored roasted pumpkin seeds.  This is definitely good and make a great snack.  Me and my girls all loved it.

Since this was slow roasted for an hour, we can certainly pop the whole thing in the mouth.  It's totally edible with extra fiber and crunch.  You can taste the green tea and salt.  Of course if you choose to just eat the seed, you can do that too. I did that while watching my korean drama.  LOL!

Ingredients:

1- 1 1/4 cup whole pumpkin seeds (cleaned, remove pulp and strings, wipe with paper towel and let dry)

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1/2 Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. green tea powder or matcha

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 275'F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl and spread it on the foil lined baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Let cool and store in an air-tight container.

(Double the recipe for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds)

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

What can represent Fall season more than pumpkin?  I just want to make something with pumpkin this time of the year.  I saw this pumpkin cookies recipe on joyofbaking Website and decided to give it a try.  The reason was simple because I never make it before.  This cookie is just like what it stated, soft and cake like in texture.  I certainly would prefer a more chewy one or crispy one.  I used sugar instead of brown sugar as stated in the original recipe, I wonder perhaps it might caused my cookies to be none chewy.  I also omitted the cream cheese frosting.  Anyway, my girls loved it nonetheless so I was glad.  Evy will bring this as her school snack.

As for me, I would love to play and experiment with this recipe some more, as I wanted a crispy pumpkin cookies instead of soft and cake like.  It's like eating a tiny piece of cake on the next day.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:


(A)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

(B)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (260 grams) light brown sugar (I used sugar instead of brown)

1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil or corn oil (or other flavorless oil)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (215 grams) canned pumpkin puree

Method:

1.  In a bowl, sift together (A).

2.  Use a electric hand mixer or stand mixer and beat together eggs and sugar until light and smooth.  Add in the rest of the (B) ingredients, beat until blended.

3.  Add in sifted (A) and beat until combined.

4.  Use a cookie scoop and scoop into a parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake in preheated 325'F oven for 15-18 minutes.   Move to cool completely on wire rack before storing.

Best Ever Pumpkin Cake

Like many others, I don't really like my pumpkin cake with a lot of spices. But I do like the fragrant of cinnamon powder but not too much. So, I created this recipe to suit my personal taste. This pumpkin cake is moist and soft and totally delicious. My keeper pumpkin cake recipe thus far. Bonus is very easy to make and absolutely divine.



Ingredients:

(A)
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(B)
2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour for baking.

2. In a big mixing bowl, whisk together (A).

3. Then, add in (B) and stir together with a spatula until smooth and well blended.

4. Pour into the bundt pan and bake for one hour. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted to cool completely on a wire rack. Best enjoy the next day.

Pumpkin Cake

I happen to try some delicious store-bought pumpkin cakes at my friend's house recently which prompted me to make one myself. Since now is the season for pumpkin, the Libby's 15oz canned pumpkin is on-sales for $1 each. So, I grabbed some. After some research, I decided to try the Pumpkin Cake I posted at allrecipes.com.



The alternation that I made was I cut down the sugar to 2 cups. It turned out just nice for me, not overly sweet. I omitted the allspice because I don't have any and I also omitted the walnuts, easier for the kids to eat.


This cake is delicious, best eaten the next day when the crust has soften, easier to slice too. I store my cake in air-tight container.


Just want to show how moist and soft this pumpkin cake is! The spices are not too overpowering, just nice. A very festive cake indeed!


Lastly, while presenting you with this Pumpkin Cake, I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year! For those who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to you too! :)