^ Don't underestimate the cooking game potential here. I have a suspended pumpkin vine in a section of my backyard, like this.
I closed a long-term jogging flirtation on a drizzly, cold day last May by inviting her for homemade pumpkin soup. It was miserable: I could tell if she didn't have a horse-sized Dalmatian to wear out she never would have left the house. When she mentioned she was going to buy Canned Pumpkin Soup on her way home to warm up, I realised I had the ingredients pre-roasted from the night before and could work Food Prep Game on her.
As such, for any of you guys who enjoy cooking with a girl, here's my recipe.
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Warming Pumpkin Soup Makes 4 large bowls
Ingredients
1 kg Pumpkin, cut into chunks or wedges (I grow Japs)
1 brown onion
2 apples (granny smiths are common, I prefer pink ladies)
2-3 garlic cloves
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
salt / pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh or ground)
1 litre vegetable stock (chicken stock will work)
Garnish:
15g hazelnuts
15 sage leaves
Method
1. Preheat oven to a moderate temperature.
2. Peel pumpkin, onion, and garlic. Peel, core and quarter apple. Cut pumpkin and onion into chunks.
3. Put Pumpkin, Onions, Apple and Garlic into a bowl with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Toss. Sprinkle over cinnamon, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Toss again until well-coated.
4. Place in baking tray and cook until nicely-roasted. Usually about 80 minutes in my oven. I do this the night before if I intend to make soup, as roasting simply means
throw the ingredients in and forget about them if you're sure of the times in your oven, so it's easy to add in a pan if you're cooking your night-time meal anyway. Roasting is the key to great pumpkin soup.
5. Remove from oven and place ingredients into large saucepan or pot with the stock. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to a simmer and let the soup reduce for 15 minutes.
7. Use a stick mixer or food processer to blend soup until smooth.
Her task in all this: I let her make my preferred garnish and supervise her for building intimacy purposes: 25 grams of hazelnuts in a dry frypan for 5-10 minutes until unevenly-browned, then rub skin off in clean tea-towel. Place a little bit of butter in the frypan, then fry 15 or so sage leaves from the garden until crisp. Combine on top of soup when serving.
Sticks of sliced apple will work in a pinch. I don't eat cream fraiche, sour cream, or cream myself but recognise they'd compliment the flavour.
It's a very filling soup and will warm her entire body up from the core out. On a cold day, you end up with a very relaxed kitten whose taste and smell senses are tingling from the hominess of a warm kitchen... game on!
Quote:Quote:
The poll of more than 1000 Australians found 53 per cent of respondents revealing that the best way to get in the mood for romance is to share a home-cooked meal. This compared with 32 per cent who said a foot massage would put them in the mood and 40 per cent who liked to share a few drinks with their partner.