This week we are talking about pumpkins!
2017 has been a crazy year when it comes to vegetable prices.
Higher lettuce prices helped push vegetable prices up a record 31 percent in the year to May 2017, Stats NZ. Overall, food prices increased 3.1 percent in the year.
“Our wet autumn has pushed vegetable prices to their highest level in almost six years, with the largest annual increase to vegetables on record,” consumer prices manager Matthew Haigh said. “The increase was more pronounced because of the warmer-than-usual weather in the 2016 growing season resulted in cheaper-than-usual vegetable prices this time last year.
Market gardeners Joe and Fay Gock. They expect they won’t have anything to harvest in the coming months after the rain has rotted their crops.
Then it comes to this beauty, a whole pumpkin at the moment will knock you back 5 bucks, that’s enough veggies to feed an entire family for 2 nights.
Here is a recipe for my wonderful Pumpkin pappardelle, but also below is a little something special.
Pumpkin face masks are a great way to rejuvenate and brighten the skin! Pumpkin is packed full of Vitamin A and C to help soften the skin and boost collagen production to help aid the signs of ageing. It also is full of fruit enzymes which increase cell turnover. A mask is a great and cheap way of getting that goodness to help brighten and smooth the skin!
So easy to make and you will probably have everything in your kitchen cupboard!
What you will need: 1 small piece of pumpkin, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of honey
A few drops of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
Method :
Dice the pumpkin and blitz it in the food processor until smooth
Whisk half a cup of the puree together with the egg, honey and vinegar or the lemon juice
Apply your freshly made face mask to clean skin spreading it from your neck up to your face
Leave for about 15 mins then rinse off
Pumpkin pappardelle with burnt butter sauce and garlic chips
Serves 4
- ½ small pumpkin, peeled and deseeded
- pinch salt
- pinch ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp ricotta cheese
- 1 tbsp raisins
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced very thinly
- handful oregano, sage or parsley (complete stalks and leaves)
- 50g butter
- juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tbsp finely grated parmesan to serve
Preheat oven to 190*C. Cut pumpkin into large chunks. Place in a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast in oven until soft.
Place a pot of salted water over high heat to boil.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over med-high heat. Sauté garlic slices until golden, remove and drain on paper towels. Drop herb stalks into hot oil for about 5 seconds then remove and place on paper towels.
Remove pumpkin from oven. Mash together with ricotta, stir in raisins and season.
Heat butter in a small saucepan until it is a light nut-brown colour. Add lemon juice and remove from heat.
Blanch pasta ribbons in salted, boiling water for 2 minutes then drain. Spoon some of the pumpkin puree onto each of the serving plates. Layer pasta with remaining pumpkin, then spoon over butter sauce. Garnish with herbs, garlic chips and parmesan.
Pasta
(makes about 150g)
- 125g high-grade flour
- pinch salt
- 1 egg, plus 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Place flour and salt in a food processor. Add whole egg and mix, then add egg yolks and oil. Process until dough forms. Add more flour or water if necessary. Roll out to about 3mm thickness and cut into wide pappardelle ribbons.