I am known amongst those closest to me to be a woman who loves to cook but also an extremely picky eater. It is these two things that led to this challenge.
With the help of my sister, I will cook every single one of the recipes from Allegra McEvedy's 'Around the World in 120 Recipes', aiming to do three recipes a week. Why this specific book you ask? Well, it's simple - we wanted adventurous and varying recipes and this book gets great reviews!!
Follow this blog and you will see how my tastes progress as I experiment and how we inspire our weekly menu. We're cooking each dish for a family of three adults and a toddler. Obviously some of the recipes won't necessarily be suitable for the toddler but we'll try and vary as many of them as possible so that she can enjoy the experiment too!
The whole household is looking forward to this challenge because, like many others, we have dug ourselves into a little bit of a food rut. With three working adults, all with their own favourite dishes, it becomes more and more difficult to come up with new and inventive dinners that aren't too time consuming to make.

So, challenge accepted! Lets see how this goes!

Thursday, 11 September 2014

Roast Pumpkin with Cumin (Morocco)

This recipe looked marvalously simple to make, as soon as we could track down a pumpkin. So, when Soph spotted one on the market last week, we decided it was time to try the Moroccan roast pumpkin.  
In my world, pumpkin only recently became something you eat. Mum used to make soups and breads with pumpkin and Soph had always been a fan, but I'm not sure I ever actually tried any of it. For most of my life, the only reason I would ever buy a pumpkin was to carve one for Hallowe'en; I never  wanted to eat it.  Moving to Germany however, meant that I was introduced to a lot of Americans who raved about the things you could make with pumpkin and how versatile it was. Most of the things they made me try were sweet; pumpkin cookies, muffins and, of course, pumpkin pie.  So, having tried it, I can honestly say I do not like pumpkin pie.



Still not being a big fan of pumpkin deserts, I was a little dubious about whether or not I'd like roast pumpkin. Soph, however, was very eager to try this dish because she loves pumpkin it sounded very interesting to her.  So Soph took on the task of peeling, de-seeding and chopping the pumpkin into chunks. 
Basically, this dish is pumpkin, cut into chunks and tossed in honey, almonds, and cumin. You then top them with some pumpkin seeds and roast it in the oven. We cheated here because Allegra said to use the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin, and why wouldn't she. Soph however, in her fabulously well-stocked kitchen, happened to have pumpkin seeds that she'd removed from a different pumpkin and that she'd already cleaned off and toasted - so we used those instead. 


When we took it out of the oven it looked great and smelled even better. That combination made me very eager to taste it. I wasn't disappointed. It tasted amazing. A little like sweet potato. It had the texture of a nice soft roast potato and the honey added a sweetness that was just fantastic. 

 Everybody loved it and it was so easy to make. Once you've mixed up the ingredients it can just sit in the oven while you cook the rest of the meal so it's a great accompaniment to a more complicated tea.  



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