Saturday: pumpkin soup, pork and turnip stew with polenta

Two good ones for a lazy, cool, Saturday.

The soup: cook diced onion and carrot together with garlic in peanut oil until the carrots start to soften. Add pumpkin pieces, stale bread pieces (cut small), water, and some vegetable bouillon. Simmer until the pumpkin is ready then puree. Add light cream, curry powder, white pepper, salt, and garam masala. Serve topped with pumpkin seeds and chili oil (grind fresh cayenne peppers with peanut oil in a mortar and pestle, strain through a fine sieve).

The stew: cook diced onion and carrot together with garlic in peanut oil (how original) until the onion softens, add some flour and cook another couple minutes. Deglaze with red wine, water, and a bit of beef bouillon. Add diced (1-2cm) turnip and smoked pork shoulder along with a couple cloves and a bay leaf. Simmer until everything is ready to eat.

We ate the stew (great flavor combination there) over polenta. This time I used bramata (coarse) polenta, then kind that takes 40-50 minutes to cook. The result is definitely better than fine polenta, but boy does it take a while. :-)