Soup's ON! UPDATED

Update: The soup is underway!  Roasted the pumpkins last night with fresh thyme and dusted them with ginger and Thai curry mix.  They smelled AWESOME coming out of the oven.  Next faze is to start sweating the onions and roasting the organic garlic.  When it's time, we'll add the pumpkin along with Haskell's apples and let it all simmer up nice.  I'll be posting some photos of the soup in progress.  Also, our seeds are drying nicely, and we'll mix them along with some pistachios, walnuts, almonds and other goodies to make the "mueselix" garnish.  

Tonight is a wild one, here at UCG- so, I'll be back in the next 24 hours to show you the finished product!  Don't forget The Farmer and The Chef down on the waterfront tomorrow night!  Also, Matt and I toured the Mauviel and Emile Henry warehouse in New Castle this morning...!  More on that later...


Galeuse d'Eysines, also known as Courge Brodee Galeuse, Galeux d'Eysines, Giraumon Galeux d'Eysines and warted sugar marrow depending on where you go is what these are, but we'll just refer to it by the name it looks like: a peanut pumpkin. 

The warted exterior feels the same as a stem on a regular pumpkin, only more brittle. They are about 11.5" in diameter and 6.5" inches high and weigh about 18 pounds. 

So, what's with the mutant pumpkins, Robear?  This is what I'm cooking for the 2nd Annual Farmer and the Chef benefit at the Riverfront Arts Center this Thursday at 5:30pm.  I picked up these pumpkins, which have a deep, orange flesh and sweet flavor, from H.G. Haskell's Farm on Rte. 100, a.k.a. SIW Farms.  Each chef is paired with a farmer.  H.G. says off all the ones he's pulled down off the hill (and there are about 15 varieties), "People have reported that these have the best flavor and are the best to cook with." 

Well, that's all I needed to hear.  Having not chosen a dish on purpose because of the goofy weather and the lateness of the season, I loaded up on some of their organic potatoes, garlic and apples, as well as candy onions and delicato squash (small, tube shaped, high in sugar content) to round out the flavor.  Can you say, "soup"?

We'll be serving Roasted "Peanut" Pumpkin Soup with Spice Roasted Nut Muselix (think trail mix with a kick).   Matt is working along side Phillip's Mushroom Nursery and putting together a bangin' mushroom strudel with truffles.  Stop down and see us Thursday.  Hint:  if you order your tickets TODAY or Wednesday at the website above, it's only $35!  Otherwise, $50 at the door.  All proceeds benefit the March of Dimes.  It's ALL GOOD, Charlie Brown.