We’re into the season of veggie harvest and hearty soups! Food writer Chris Perrin brings two new vegetarian recipes to the table (haha!) to keep good company with your soup bowl… If you’ve been following his tasty contributions here each month, you’ll know that Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Pumpkin Panini and Apple-Seitan Sandwich

Despite the fact it signals the end of the growing season, Fall is the time for one last culinary celebration. Gone are the spring vegetables, the tomatoes, and the peaches. Still, every autumn, the Earth erupts forth in a great bounty of fruits and vegetables in such great quantities that the ground must know it will produce nothing for the next five or six months.

Okay, that might be a little overly dramatic, but how else can you explain the flood of apples, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, and other gourds that invade grocery stores across the country every October? The problem, though, is that most of Fall foods are usually thought of as desert (pumpkin pie) or are much maligned (cranberry “sauce” from a tin can.) Even the most inventive thing done with the mighty apple tends to be chopping it up and throwing it into a salad.

Photo: jslander

That all changes today. Today, we are going to elevate Fall fare into the fantastic. We are going to make sandwiches! (And they’re going to be veg friendly, too.)

Pumpkin Panini

Pumpkin is a nutritious vegetable that really does not get the credit it deserves as a savory ingredient. When roasted it has a satisfying, meaty flesh that has a subtle earthy flavor and is not nearly as sweet as you might think. This particular sandwich is paired with good mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and basil for a pumpkiny twist on an Italian favorite.

• 1 small sugar pie pumpkin or about a pound of regular pumpkin
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 16 sundried tomatoes
• 12 basil leaves
• 1 loaf of vegan bread, cut into half inch slices
• 4 tablespoons of vegenaise or mayonnaise
• 1 medium tomato, sliced thinly
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella (vegan or regular)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the Pumpkin

Wash the outside of the pumpkin thoroughly and pat dry. Cut into quarters and remove the seeds and stem. Coat with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Bake the pumpkin for forty minutes or until fork tender. Remove and set aside to cool. Once cool, cut into thin slices roughly the same width as the tomato. You may choose to remove the pumpkin’s peel or leave it on as you choose.

Make the Spread

As the pumpkin is roasting, prepare the sun dried tomato mix. The idea is to have a chunky spread, not a sauce. To make it, put the sun dried tomatoes, two tablespoons of the tomatoes’ oil, and the basil into a food processor and pulse. Add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time until it reaches a consistency you like.

Make the Panini

Construct the sandwiches by taking a slice of bread and spreading a tablespoon of vegenaise on one side and a quarter of the shredded cheese on the other. Starting this way will help to water proof the bread for the cooking ahead.

Stack the pumpkin, one-quarter of the sun dried tomato spread, and two slices of tomatoes on the cheese side in that order. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the tomato and top with the other slice of bread.

Finally, to make this a panini, pull out a skillet and coat in a bit of your favorite nonstick cooking spray or olive oil. When the pan gets hot, put two sandwiches on it and press them with a second skillet or a cookie sheet weighted down with cans. Cook this way for two minutes, then flip sandwiches and cook them weighted down for two more minutes. If the mozzarella is not fully melted, put the sandwich in the oven for a few minutes.

Serve with pumpkin bisque for an awesome pumpkin meal.

Apple/Seitan Sandwiches

Photo: mharvey75

Many years ago, before I stopped eating meat, my friend V introduced me to this sandwich, which she made using good mild summer sausage. I have changed it to use seitan, my favorite of the vegan “faux meat” products.

• 1 package store bought seitan
• 2 tablespoons sausage spice mix or 1 tablespoon each of black pepper and thyme and a pinch of red chili flake
• ½ cup of Dijon mustard
• ½ cup of apple cider vinegar
• Hard rolls or French bread cut into quarter inch slices
• 1 apple, cut into long slices
• 4 slices Swiss cheese (vegans: use vegan parmesan)

The first thing to do is change the flavor profile of the seitan slightly. Because seitan is an Asian dish, it is normally flavored with soy sauce, but that flavor can be lessened by boiling the seitan. Also, boiling tends to soften seitan and make it easier to chew.

To do this, bring a pot of water to boil. Use water, not broth, but flavor the water with sausage spice mix. Boil the seitan for about 5 minutes. Take it out of the water and bring back to room temperature.

While the seitan is cooling, mix the mustard and the cider vinegar in a bowl with a whisk.

Construct the sandwiches by covering the bottom of a roll or a piece of bread with seitan and adding a piece of cheese, a few slices of apple, and topping with the mustard/vinegar mix.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

Photo: trekkyandy

My friend Paul, who cooks professionally at a local hotel, is always on the hunt for recipes that put a tasty twist on the traditional.

Last year, at Thanksgiving, he made an amazing pumpkin pie — we’ve been having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make it even better, ever since.

What’s the result when two food-obsessed minds are put to work on one recipe?

A rich and delicious pumpkin pie for a special holiday dinner, that’s what!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Make (or buy) a single pie shell. Cook it as usual, and set it aside to cool while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling, as below:

Ingredients

1 ½ cups sour cream (sorry, but no — the low-fat kind won’t do!)
1 ½ cups cooked pumpkin (solid-pack canned, or homemade with liquid drained off)
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg (best if fresh-grated from a whole nutmeg)
¼ ground ginger (or a pinch more, if you like ginger as much as I do!)
¼ salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Gently heat 1 cup of the sour cream in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Whisk together the pumpkin, egg yolks, brown sugar, spices, salt, and the remaining ½ cup of sour cream until it’s combined — then whisk it into the hot sour cream in your double boiler. Continue to cook over simmering water, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and reached 170°F. (Paul actually uses a thermometer for this step; but I just “ballpark it” at about 6 or 7 minutes of cooking time.)

Remove from heat and cool quickly — take the top of the double boiler (the pot with your pumpkin mixture in it) off the bottom pot of hot water and put it into a bowl of ice water for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat the egg whites in a clean glass bowl with an electric mixer, just until the point where they will hold soft peaks — don’t over do it!

Fold the beaten egg whites gently but thoroughly into the cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell, levelling out the top with a knife or spatula. Bake at 375°F about 40 or 50 minutes (this will depend on how much moisture was in your pumpkin, as that can vary) — until the filling is set, and just a bit puffed up around the edge of the pie.

You can serve this pie at room temperature — cool it on a rack for about 2 hours — or make it a day ahead and serve it chilled. If you’re going to keep it in the fridge overnight, do let it come to room temperature first, then cover the cooled pie with a piece of plastic wrap for storage.

No, that’s not a real pumpkin. But that is where this idea came from, a witch-in-a-pumpkin who caught my eye at Victorian Trading Co. (It’s a lantern, it’s a figurine, whichever works for you.) And if the style of this piece looks a bit familiar — yes, it’s by Bethany Lowe Designs, a hand-painted pulp piece with that vintage style they do so well…

Now, I’m not totally crazy about having the word “Halloween” written on the front of the pumpkin, but the whole piece does spark off an idea.

Try this one on for size — a hollowed-out pumpkin for a shadow box!

If you’re at all like certain members of my family (who shall remain nameless to save a blush), sometimes the pumpkin carving gets a bit too excited and there’s an unintended cut — whoops! that ol’ Jack-o-Lantern suddenly loses the whole big space between his nose and his left eyebrow!

So, instead of turning the poor battered pumpkin in to a pie right away, why not keep on cutting and hollow it out for a shadow box to display some Halloween-theme ornaments?

Slip in a few rubber spiders and a bit of faux spider-web from the dollar store, or a tiny black cat figurine, with a few gnarled bare twigs pruned off a hdden part of that shrub you don’t really like much anyway, maybe a few bright autumn leaves…

Voilà!… you’ve got yourself a spooky table-top display for Halloween!

(See, this is why we have to go “window shopping” so often, guys — the crafty ideas are out there everywhere!)

The witch-in-a-pumpkin Halloween light is at the Victorian Trading Company — while supplies last — and if you miss out, there are lots more of those whimsical home decor treats to be enjoyed from Bethany Lowe at TheFind.

Tired of the same-old same-old Thanksgiving decorations?

You can’t go wrong with the classic turkey (or a cocky classic rooster, for that matter), but here’s a fun new twist on the rustic Autumn yard art.

No carving.
No mess.
Reusable for years to come, of course, and very affordable at $11.95 (or less) at Gardeners.com.

Just push these simple iron silhouette pieces — turkey or rooster — head, wings, legs and tail — into a squash or a pumpkin, or any similar large round vegetable, come to that… Instantly, you’ve got an amusing vegetable sculpture to strut its stuff on your front porch or lawn!

Pumpkin carving is a rather strange kind of seasonal tradition, when you come to think of it — but so much fun for all ages!

Our family likes to make a bit of a party of it, with a big pile of pumpkins of various shapes and sizes, one or more for every member of the family from Grandpa down to the toddler (with a little help from Mom). We usually do our pumpkin carving out on the porch or front lawn, to cut down on the mess in the house, then rush indoors to share a big jug of hot chocolate — good times!

Lowes Project Center offers a pretty good guide to making Jack-o-lanterns. It includes a tool list, tips for carving freehand or carving with the use of a stencil. Not only that, they’ve got a few full-size pumpkin-caring stencils you can download to print out, if you’re stuck for ideas.

Oh, one more tip — you can get some really cool effects if you pick some areas and don’t cut all the way through the pumpkin in those places. Just take off the tough outer skin, and then whittle away enough of the inner pumpkin flesh so there’s still a thin layer instead of a wide-open hole. The light inside your pumpkin will shine softly through this thin wall of pumpkin, making a diffused glow. It’s great for putting a blush on the cheeks of your Jack-o-Lantern, or giving him some complicated tattooes, or even doing an intricate abstract design.

Pick a Perfect Pumpkin

Start by choosing a pumpkin that’s firm, fresh, and not over-ripe. Avoid any with soft spots or obvious bruises. If you can, buy from a roadside farm stand to get the best quality in the best condition.

Ready to carve a scarey face?

Pumpkin Carving

Kraft Foods has some pumpkin carving tips and techniques for you, as well as free jack-o-lantern stencils.

And then there’s Me on a Pumpkin software that turns your favourite photos into “stencils for creating original and breath-taking pumpkin carvings,” so they say!

Children who are too young to handle a knife can be encouraged to create a painted pumpkin. Or the kids can draw on their Jack-o-lantern’s face with a marker and let a parent or other handy adult do the actual carving.

Keep your Jack-o-lantern fresh…

(In case you wonder why you’d want to bother, check out PumkinFresh.com for truly scarey pictures of a rotting pumpkin!)

Keep Halloween pumpkins in a cool place and don’t let them dry out. For example, you might wrap it in a damp towel and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to carve.

(Pumpkin Masters say that you can revive a shrivelled-up jack-o-lantern by soaking it in water for several hours.)

Once they’ve been carved, pumpkins — any cut-up vegetables, for that matter — will last longer if they are kept somewhere that’s cool but just a little bit on the dry side.

We used to preserve our Halloween art by washing down the inside of the carved pumpkin with diluted bleach and then smearing on a thin layer of petroleum jelly.

Now there’s a new spray called Pumpkin Fresh that’s said to make jack-o-lanterns last longer by discouraging mold and insects as well as keeping moisture in — basically what we did with the old Javex and Vaseline.

Jack o’ lantern Leftovers!

Don’t forget to put those vegetable remains into the compost when Halloween is over.

Oh, and save those pumpkin seeds to roast for a tasty, healthy snack!

One way to prepare pumpkin seeds for eating is to wash and dry the seeds, then toss them with a small amount of olive oil and the seasonings of your choice and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300°F for about 30-45 minutes. Shake with salt, if you like. Let the toasted seeds cool before storing.