Ginger Pumpkin Muffins

For dessert, Marian selected a Ginger Pumpkin Muffins for the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors. Muffin can be eaten as breakfast or as tea time snacks. It is a great lunch box item.

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You may used fresh pumpkin puree or canned ones. It brought back the pumpkin pie flavours of fall. You may bake this in mini muffin tins or regular muffin tins.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar (recommend to use only 6 tablespoons as we find this recipe to be on the sweet side)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins, or currant or craisins
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 5 tablespoons water
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, fresh or canned

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Source: this recipe is adapted from American Cancer Society

Makes 24 mini muffins or 12 regular size muffins

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Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Under normal circumstances, I will end a series of the community kitchen meet up with the dessert but for this week’s South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors, I will start with dessert.  The reason is, Charlene started off the day’s cooking with a quick briefing on baking.  Charlene observed some very common mistakes in her several seniors kitchens and she decided to share them with this kitchen.

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Baking is unlike other cooking that you can estimate the ingredients and more or less in fine.  Baking is science as the right amount of ingredients are crucial for the reaction of the of the processes to achieve the right texture in the baking goods.  Here is a summary of the briefing.

  • One must use a dry ingredient measuring cup to measure dry ingredients.  To measure flour, use a spoon to scoop flour into the measuring cup until it overflows.  Then, use a knife or spatula to level the flour.  Do not tap the measurement cup as this will compact the flour and yield more flour than needed. Do not scoop the floor directly into the measuring cup and try to level the flour by pressing against the wall of the flour container as this will also compact the flour.
  • One exception in measuring dry ingredient is measuring brown sugar.  You have to pack the brown sugar and the brown sugar should take on the shape of the measuring cup when you turn it out.
  • When measuring liquid, place the cup on a flat surface and check the liquid amount at eye level.

So, with the above fresh in mind, Ken and Frank started working on the Spiced Pumpkin Bread recipe.

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This Pumpkin Bread recipe is adapted from Vern Bertana and it makes 2 loaves.  This bread freezes well.  Wrap the loaf with saran wrap and place in a ziplock back and store it in the freezer until you have company.

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Pumpkin and Potato Stew

I usually park at the Minoru Park parking lot when I go to the Caring Place Community Kitchen. It’s just a short walk away. Today, I was greeted by some awesome full bloom cherry blossoms in Minoru Park. It was a breath-taking sight. The cherry blossoms never fail to marvel me.

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There were many people armed with cameras at the Minoru Park. How can I miss out this opportunity.

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I like the fullness of this variety of cherry blossoms. Do you know what is the name of this variety?

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Back to the Community Kitchen, Minoo shared a Pumpkin and Potato Stew along with the Broccoli Salad I blogged earlier. This is such a simple recipe that Zoe helped Minoo to prepare the dish while Minoo ran to the store to get the beans which she missed out in her grocery shopping.

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The Pumpkin and Potato Stew is a one pot meal which is complete with protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and fiber. A good recipe for a lazy day.

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 3 to 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 can chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce
  • 1 tomato, chopped (optional if using tomato sauce)
  • 1 can pumpkin puree
  • 1 can of beans (butter beans or Lima beans), rinsed and drained
  • salt, sugar and pepper to taste
  • chili and paprika to taste (optional)

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Yellow Cake with Pumpkin

Minoo shared with us two recipes from the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, wife of the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. This book is available in Costco for about $15.

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Minoo had been introducing this book to the community kitchens as it’s recipes incorporate vegetables and fruits in the puree form. In this way, kids will not know they are eating vegetables and fruits which has been masked. Having kids to eat nutritious meals is one of the biggest challenge during meal time.

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This book has a chapter which covers on how to puree and freeze vegetables and fruits in small portions for convenience usage later. This is good for small families which often have to toss away rotten vegetables and fruits simply because they cant finish eating them. Puree food is also good for seniors, easy on digestion and gentle to their palate.

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The Yellow Cake with Pumpkin turned out moist and had a very ‘pumpkinish’ colour. We also added some flax seeds for extra nutrients. We had extra to bring home and Arkensen finished them all.

Ingredients

  • 1 (18 oz) box yellow cake mix
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg white
  • 6 oz nonfat lemon, banana, or vanilla yogurt

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Bistro Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Lorna had requested a creme brulee making demo in the Gilmore Park Church community kitchen quite sometime ago. I can’t think of anyone who does not like creme brulee even though it is not exactly the most healthiest dessert around. Karen remembered Lorna’s wish in this week’s cooking meet. So, Karen made not the normal type of creme brulee but two: a Bistro Pumpkin Creme Brulee and a Low Fat Creme Brulee (yippee!).

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The Bistro Pumpkin Creme Brulee is made on the stove top. However, this creme brulee does not have a silky smooth custard as traditional creme brulee but it’s quite grainy instead. It’s more like a pumpkin pie filling. Try it for a change particularly around Halloween. It’s a change from the normal creme brulee.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin or cooked mash sweet potatoes
  • 2 1/4 cups whipping cream
  • 1 vanilla bean, split in half or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 7 egg yolks
  • 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Pork Neck Bone and Japanese Pumpkin Soup

Julie is back from Taiwan and Vanessa immediately catch hold of her to demonstrate in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is Pork Neck Bone and Japanese Pumpkin Soup. In this time of the year, pumpkin and winter squashes are abundant in the farmer’s market.

Pumpkins are orange because they contain massive amounts of beta-carotene which turns into vitamin A in our body. Vitamin A is essential for good eye sight.

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Ingredients

  • 3 lbs pork neck bone
  • 10 cups of water
  • 1 small Japanese pumpkin (Kabocha), cut into chunk
  • 1 inch knob of ginger, slice
  • salt and white pepper to taste

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Pumpkin Tempura

Tempura refers to Japanese classic deep fried batter dipped seafood or vegetables. Common vegetables used are bell peppers, sweet potato, okra, carrot, eggplant, potato, lotus root, cucumber, mushroom, bamboo shoot, zucchini, etc.

Cora made pumpkin tempura in this week’s cooking class. She got some mini pumpkins which is very sweet, almost like sweet potato.

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The pumpkin tempura was awesome and they just disappeared as fast as they came out from the wok.

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Ingredients

  • 1 mini pumpkin, cut into thin slices
  • Tempura mix
  • ice cold water

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Click link below for cooking instructions.

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