Mad Tea Party

Ever since someone told me about pumpkin tea, I became thrilled to make my own tea blend. The tea used for the original blend was black tea, but I opted for rooibos, cause it is less strong and can be enjoyed even before sleep.

I chopped pumpkin, dried the slices in the oven, added spices, made a cup of tea...and was disappointed how faint the taste was. So I added much more tea and spices...I do know why tea blends always smell stronger than they taste ;)

After having tried the pumpkin tea, I really felt like creating other personal blends as well, so I dried apples and peeled oranges, mixed tea with different spices.

Maybe I should apply for a patent. Vail's Original Tea Blends. No artificial flavours!

In this sense, have a nice, cosy evening with your favourite tea blend!

~Vail~

Pumpkin Quiche

Autumn is on its way and with it comes the craving for pumpkin again! Apart from the traditional pumpkin soup, this quiche is one of the pumpkin dishes I really enjoy making and eating the most, so here comes the recipe:







What you need:

for the short pastry:

* 250g flour
* 130g butter or margarine
* 1 egg
* 3 tbsp milk
* salt

Prepare the short pastry (add salt, cold butter, egg and milk [in the same order] to the flour and knead well) and wrap it up in cling film. Put it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes, then roll it and prepare the baking pan.

for the topping:

* 700g pumpkin
* 200g tomatoes
* parsley
* salt, pepper, ground chili
* creamy goat cheese
* 200ml milk
* 3 eggs
* 100 ml cream

Preheat oven to 200°C. Chop the pumpkin into dices and heat a bit of olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the dices until soft, and season with salt, pepper and ground chili. Dice the tomatoes and removed the insides. Beat the eggs with a whisk and add the milk and the cream, as well as some salt and pepper. Arrange the pumpkin, the tomatoes, the chopped parsley and the goat cheese on the dough.
Pour the egg-milk-cream mixture over the tart and bake it for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
~Vail~

Pumpkin Soup With Ginger

By the end of summer, or rather the so-called rainy season, I always long for autumn to come. Autumn still is my favourite season and it's pumpkin time! I was excited to finally be able to cook pumpkin soup again, but this time I tried to experiment a little.

And here's the result: Pumpkin soup with ginger, curry and cinnamon!

A nice yet hot combination :)



What you need:

* pumpkin (I use the normal pumpkin, called "potiron" in french, because I like it much better than the famous Hokkaido pumpkin)
* water
* vegetable stock
* tomato puree
* fresh ginger
* salt
* pepper
* curry spice
* cinnamon

Remove the shell and cut the flesh into pieces. Do the same with a little bit of ginger (don't take too much as it has quite a strong taste) Put everything in a pot, pour water over it until it covers the pieces and add the vegetable stock in powder form as well as some tomato puree. Let it boil, then reduce the heat and wait till the pumpkin is soft. (shouldn't take too long)
Mix everything until you have a nice texture, then season it with hot curry powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
If you like, you can also add a bit of cream.
Enjoy~ :)


PS: In case you wondered what is in the soup on the picture: it's the leftover eggplant slices from my lunch. ;)

~Vail~