Sugar Pumpkin Soup

Minoo used the sugar pumpkin given by the Richmond Sharing Farm to make a warming soup for the colder fall weather.

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This Sugar Pumpkin Soup has a gingery and citrusy flavour with a spicy kick.

Ingredients

  • 1 sugar pumpkin
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass
  • 1 to 2 hot chili peppers
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 to 3 cups vegetable stock
  • juice from 3 oranges
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons minced ginger
  • sour cream or creme fraiche for topping
  • herbs of your choice for garnishing (chives or cilantro)

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Source: South Arm Multicultural Community Kitchen

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Canning Zucchini, Squash and Tomato Ratatouille

With the abundance harvest of zucchini, Ian made a Zucchini, Squash and Tomato Ratatouille. This is very similar to the Mixed Vegetables Relish he did in an earlier workshop. However, since there is lesser variation of vegetables, this can be cooked together instead of individually.

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For this Zucchini, Squash and Tomato Ratatouille, Ian used various kinds of tomatoes, i.e. tomato sauce, sun dried tomato and fresh tomato.

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Ian told us he uses the organic tomato sauce from Costco for pasta or cook it down for pizza topping.

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Ian also used the above canned tomatoes for this recipe.

Ingredients

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Ian’s recipe as above, plus chopped onions.

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The zucchinis were huge. Just remember to remove the core as they are spongy.

Source: Ian Lai

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Canning Mixed Vegetable Relish

Ian Lai conducted another food preservation workshop at the Garratt Wellness Center organised by the Richmond Food Security Society. For this workshop, Ian decided to make a Mixed Vegetable Relish from the glut of vegetables he got from the Richmond Sharing Farm.

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The vegetables includes zucchini, squash, chard and carrot.

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We managed to can 14 x 1 liter jars of the Mixed Vegetable Relish for the food bank. This Mixed Vegetable Relish can be used to make a vegetable lasagna or making it into a soup by adding stock and your favourite grain.

Ingredients

  • squash
  • zucchini
  • carrot
  • onion
  • tomato paste
  • can dice tomato
  • assorted chili pepper (Nanami Togarashi), a Japanese spice mix which is available from Fujiya Japanese store. Ian jokingly said that this is his favourite spice mix for 2010.

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You may click on the image of the package to have a larger view.

Ian does not provide a specific measurement for this recipe. In fact, Ian told us that he cooks by feel and he is a not a strict recipe follower.

Source: Ian Lai

Yields 14 x 1 liter jars.

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Baked Butternut Squash Fries

In the Squash workshop, Karen also shared with us a Baked Butternut Squash Fries from Hungrygirl.com. She used turban squash for this recipe. A drizzle of balsamic vinegar adds some tang to the fries.

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Karen told us that she had tried about seven methods to bake fries but none of it can achieve the deep fried fries texture. Although we cannot get the deep fried fries texture, but we can compromise with some good tasting and healthy fries.

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Squash, Corn and Lemongrass Soup

The Greenhouse Social Club of the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project met once again on the last Thursday of the month for a cooking workshop. Arzeena is the organizer for this workshop and Karen Dar Woon will be the demonstrator for this workshop. Karen is the chef for the community meal at the Gilmore Park Church. The Gilmore Park Church community meal ended end of November and will resume in January. Karen can now concentrate on her own catering business in the month of December which is a very busy month for her. I enjoy Karen’s workshop as she always shares cooking tips with us.

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The star ingredient for this workshop is Squash. Above are a few of the squashes for the workshop. The large white squash is called Blue Magic. The smallest one is Acorn Squash while the remainder two are Japanese Squash or also known as turban squash.

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The first recipe for this workshop is called Squash, corn and Lemongrass Soup. The soup is velvety, light and sweet with a hint of freshness from lemongrass and cilantro. We enjoyed the soup so much that we had second helping of it. The recipe is taken from Gourmet, November 2007 by Lilian Chou.

Ingredients

  • 1 fresh lemongrass stalk, root end trimmed and 1 or 2 outer layers discarded
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons grape seed oil
  • 1 3/4 lbs kabocha or butternut squash
  • 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (10 ounces; from 2 to 3 ears)
  • 5 cups water
  • cilantro leaves for garnishing

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Click on Read More for the instructions.

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