Corn Pudding

Tonight I made this Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash. I love foods that get made inside other foods. That is just so cool. And I love squash, and chives, and corn. This dish really didn't take a lot of prep work, though it does need quite a while in the oven. And if you spill the pudding as you pour it in, like I did, you will have to spend some time scrubbing the burnt pan. But it was good, I totally recommend it, and my picture is even not that bad!

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque

My co-worker made this dish and said it was good, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque is a vegetarian soup inspired by a West African peanut soup.

The recipe calls for one pureed sweet potato and one chopped into the soup. Initially, I had a horrible time with the sweet potatoes. I microwaved them for 6 minutes and I think I cooked them too much and they were impossible to peel. They became mush in my hands. I see now I could have just scooped out the flesh and thrown it into the blender. Instead, I wrapped up the potatoes for another meal, and took the broth off the stove.

The next day I tried again with new potatoes and armed with the advice that i should just puree both the potatoes, so i was less concerned with their consistency after microwaving.

This soup came out fantastic. I was really surprised at how filling it was. Also, I used cilantro as a garnish and it just complemented the soup so nicely.

Definitely recommend trying this.

Chickpea Stew with Six Vegetables

Hello Fabulous Cookers
I have been cooking a lot but haven't posted in a while. I just got the cookbook World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey out the library.

This book is like a bible for vegetarian cuisine. It is over 750 pages long, and she dedicates a lot of time to describing various ingredients and spices. There are color photos in the middle that depicts everything from tofu varieties to different grains, etc.

I made Chickpea Stew with Six Vegetables. There are over 17 ingredients in this recipe, and I have to admit I didn't get them all or follow all instructions. For example, she is very much into fresh chickpeas, which involve a lot of soaking for many hours. I used canned instead. I left out the saffron, cayenne. She recommends eating it with a spicy Harissa sauce, which I left out.

It was very delicious and hearty, but I bet it would have more kick with all of the other ingredients.