I found myself cooking for twelve strangers last Thursday. Amanda fucking Palmer was in town. A couple of months ago, she asked if any fans had
a) a living room that could fit 12
b) food that could feed 12 bellies
and well, my apartment is tiny. So I sent off an email and thought nothing of it until I got a reply. This is what I cooked for a woman that continues to inspire me.
Zucchini slice, that I had previously blogged about and hadn’t pictured. Fred from the Nervous Cabaret thought it was a bread of some sorts. I was stoked that he didn’t realise it’s main ingredient was (drum roll please) a vegetable.
Pumpkin and tatsoi pasta. A uber healthy shot of baked pumpkin (butternut squash), tatsoi sauteed with garlic, pine nuts, sliced sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil and goat cheese. Substitute a cream sauce with olive oil and the left over oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. I know you think that the prep work is crazy but I roasted the butternut a couple of days before and sauteing the tatsoi took 5 minutes tops. You can use spinach or any leafy green.
Roasted mushrooms in tomato and chickpea sauce. Easy as. Two cans of pureed tomatoes, one can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, washed mushrooms with the stalks removed. Oven at 180 C (350 f) for half an hour. Garnish with basil. Done!
And at midday, I had this:
And at the end of the day, it was gone.
Preheat your oven to 180 degree Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). Cut your pumpkin into even pieces.
Toss the pumpkin in a baking tray with salt, pepper and olive oil.
Check on your pumpkin in 45 mins. If you can easily pierce it with a fork, it’s done. Set aside.
Mince three cloves of garlic. Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add garlic, sizzle and stir for half a minute.
Add the frozen or fresh spinach and stir until wilted. Add a couple of squeezes of lemon. Set aside, separate from the pumpkin.
Bring at least a liter of water to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and the pasta. I used my big pot the night before to make chicken soup and it was still in the fridge, hosting the leftovers. Whoops. So, I cooked my pasta in a wok. Should have been a Girls’ Scout with resourcefulness like that.
Measure out your 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup butter. You need to be real specific about this. We’re making a roux, which is harder to pronounce than do.
Completely melt your butter then add the flour and mix furiously with a wooden spoon.
Keep mixing until it turns slightly brown and smells like nutmeg. Check on the pasta, making sure it’s just done, drain when it’s cooked.
Add roughly a cup of milk to the roux and using a whisk, stir furiously until lumps are gone. Add the spinach mixture and a handful of cheese. You should have a slightly runny consistency, like thick cream. If not, add more milk and whisk, baby, whisk. Take the white sauce off the heat.
Gently mix the spinach white sauce and pasta in a pan. Bung it into a bowl, sprinkle pumpkin and pine nuts on top. Be careful when mixing the pumpkin because it can break easily. Season with salt and pepper.
First, grab your capsicums. If you’re a clean freak, give them a good scrub. I figure that you’re going to peel off the skin, so what’s the point.
Turn a gas stove or a grill (boiler) on. If you’re using the stove, put any wire rack you have over the direct heat to minimise mess. Put the capsciums on there. Turn every couple of minutes.
Roast marshmallows.
Once the capsicums have reached an all round blackness, take it off the heat and put in a bowl. Cover with cling wrap.
Wait until the capsicums are cool, about half an hour. The steam makes the skins slide off.
Peel. Don’t wash them unless you want it flavourless. You can core capsicums by running a knife around the stem and pulling them off. Take off all the white pith and slice into chunks.
Thanks goes to Roanna Gonna for not burning the house down while wearing a “chef’s uniform” and inhaling marshmallows.
