Butter and Butternut Pumpkin Pasta

A great pasta and also an ode to the anchovy. I love them – salty and a flavor enhancement for everything. Anchovies are great if you want to add a more natural salt to a recipe. If you add them to your cooking, especially sauces, they will dissolve and become a well rounded saltiness, no fishy aftermath. I love them so I use them whole too.

This was pretty much a throw together of everything I had left, but it turned out a lot better than I had expected. An easy, partially vegetarian eat.

Ingredients

Serves two - three

250g fettuccini

80g butter

2 cloves garlic

½ medium onion

300g butternut pumpkin

100g walnuts

½ lemon

2 tbsp parsley

¼ cup olive oil

1 shallot/scallion

1 tsp chilli flakes

Pinch of cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by coating pumpkin with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook in preheated oven for twenty minutes at two hundred degrees Celsius. Next, cook the pasta with olive oil and salt. In a separate pan heat the walnuts with chilli flakes and cumin to release the flavors and set aside. With the pan still slightly herb coated, add the butter and cook on a medium heat, adding onions and garlic, browning slightly. Follow with chopped anchovies and quickly remove from heat.

The next step is to add all ingredients to the butter sauce, retaining some of the pasta water to help coat pasta with a thicker sauce, adding olive oil to taste. Using the lemon juice, coat pasta an add salt and pepper. 

Braised Beef in Red Wine and Juniper Berries

Having had an overheated summer and a half working oven, I've really put cooking with the oven on the back burner. I decided to give the old cooker a go and success, she works! Kind of.. So I decided to cook a dish that always gives me comfort when it's cold.

Proper braised beef, not the quick cooked, readily available, over saturated market option at every second restaurant in New York, is a well kept diamond. 

Two VITAL non negotiables for braising beef are anchovies and juniper berries. The anchovies soften, dissolve and enhance a strong flavor in all meats, especially beef. Juniper berries on the other hand almost create a nostalgia without even knowing it. The berries when cooked with the beef give a woody, bitter sweet taste that takes you to a time of wholesome, hardy eating. It makes you feel like you're eating around a fire in middle of the woods, on a cold winter night. Over the top? No.

So here's what you need to get started, 

1 Pound of Topside Beef

1 TBSP of Juniper Berries

1 Brown Onion

3 Carrots

4 Anchovies

5 Garlic Cloves

3 Bay Leaves

½ TSP Cayenne Pepper

½ TSP Chilli Flakes

3 Parts Red Wine

1 Part Beef Stock

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 TBSP Butter

The quantities above will vary depending on how many people you’re cooking for and or taste preference. I personally like my wine darker, garlic and anchovies more plentiful and the robust heat from the cayenne.

Two notes before cooking;

     Dry beef with a paper towel before browning – the beef won’t brown as nicely

2.            It is important to smash the juniper berries and garlic cloves to release flavors

Start by browning the beef in a pan, making sure all sides are sealed and well browned. After, keep the pan hot and pour one cup of red wine over it. The wine hits the heated pan and collects all of the wonderful flavors. Pour the stock immediately into a baking pot and the follow with the rest of the above ingredients. Dice the carrots and onions as you like.

I’d like to say three hours is fine for braising, I baked at 350F and achieved a wonderfully soft meat. If you've got time, continue to bake until the meat melts. It’s also important to make sure that if you’re cutting the beef into cubes that each piece is of equal size, to help braise at an equal rate.

Back in Sydney I used to buy whole topside, cut through the middle and stuff it with watercress, mustard seeds and garlic, it was a dream in a tagine.  Cooking meat in a tagine makes for amazing braising. One of the best culinary investments ever made!

After an hour and a half, bake your accompanying vegetables. I chose baby beets, potatoes (skin on), carrots and garlic. Covering all the vegetables in hot mustard seed oil and salt, bake for an hour and a half, the potatoes respond really to baking when the skin is intact with a little olive oil and the beats and carrots keep their sweetness in the center and are wonderfully soft on the outside.

A Cloisters Inspired Feast

Baked sweet apple & salted pumpkin stuffed with pork, bacon & anchovies, drizzled with salted caramel.

After taking an escape trip up to The Cloisters, I was left feeling inspired to create the perfect dish to welcome the season and an onslaught of fall eating. While sitting up at a beautiful wine bar in the surrounding park gardens, I penned together a sumptuous dinner to share with friends on a cozy fall’s night.  I have never had a festive American fall before and wanted to have an inaugural feast, marking the occasion. The meal had to embody all of my favorite comfort foods but also reflect fall.

I have included a few photos from the day to paint the picture. I took up a picnic of baguettes and apples and found picturesque places to rest and soak up the surroundings.

The Recipe

The recipe serves for an average of four people.

Ingredients

2 Fuji Apples

1 Pie Making Pumpkin

1/2 Pound of Minced Pork

6 Rations of Bacon

4 Anchovies

2 Cloves of Garlic

A Bunch of Baby Spinach

A Handful of Arugula

4 Field Mushrooms

1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

1/2 tsp of Nutmeg

Salt and Pepper

1 tbsp of Salted Caramel

1/4 Cup of Olive Oil  

Salted Caramel

Butter

1/2 Cup of Raw Cane Sugar

2 tbsp Molasses

2 tbsp Bacon Fat

1 tsp of Balsamic Vinegar

1 tbsp Honey

Salt to taste

Method

Start by preheating the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  I have chosen Fuji apples because of their sweetness and even more so for the quality when baked; you are always left with a firm, but sweet treat. The choice of the pie making pumpkin came by accident, but worked for the best. I initially wanted a pumpkin you could eat entirely. However the firmness of the pie making pumpkin provided for extra heat and insulation when baking. 

Start by coring the pumpkin and then covering the outside with salt and olive oil. Rubbing the outside will help heat and cook the insides evenly. Take both apples, wrap them in baking paper and tie a piece of cooking string around the middle. This will help collect and contain the juices the apple releases.

While baking, make the stuffing. Start with frying up the bacon. The use of bacon provides lubrication and needed oil for the stuffing. Fry until crisp and chop into small pieces to add to the minced pork. I always like to add anchovies because they provide a natural saltiness to any meat dish without overpowering. The anchovies eventually dissolve and meld into the meat. Dice them with garlic, mushrooms and arugula and add to the mixture. Finish by adding the baby spinach, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. This must always be done with hands, as to achieve a finer melding of flavors. Sit the stuffing aside to marinate.

Bubbling Salted Caramel 

On a low heat, melt a small knob of butter. When heated, add cane sugar and cook until a dark syrup has formed. Soon after, add the remaining ingredients and continue to cook on a low heat until the mixture thickens. I chose to include polar opposite flavors to create a caramel to reflect how sweet and savory fall can really be. It works extremely well against the pork stuffing too. Leave it to sit and meld also. 

After baking the apples for 20 minutes, take them out and core them, leaving ample room for the stuffing. Stuff tightly and place excess on top. Leave to sit for 10 minutes, and then remove the pumpkin after 35 minutes of baking in total. Stuff the pumpkin and place both apples and pumpkin back in the oven and bake again for another 25 – 30 minutes. Always check with a thermometer or a skewer to test the inside of the pumpkin, as there is double to cook.

Stuffing Semi Baked Apples

When cooked, place all three items on a thick chopping board to plate. Reheat the salted caramel and drizzle generously; allowing the caramel to pour over and cover the skins, it looks magnificent. Don’t forget to replace the pumpkin top after you drizzle the beautiful caramel.

This fall platter should be served with something lighter, to create a balance against such a rich center piece. I cooked traditional Brussels with Worcestershire Sauce and cane sugar on a bed of arugula. This fall feast should be enjoyed with a beautiful pinot noir, again something warm, but light against sheer decadence.   

Enjoy! 

Marty Tsang

Brussels Ready!