Pumpkin seed oil – the sweet

Pumpkin seed brittle ice cream that serves 4 people in an hour or so (this includes cooling time for the brittle)

I’m just going to put it out there right up front, so we can get it all over with. This recipe involves pouring oil over ice cream – yes, oil over ice cream. Please don’t be turned off, read on. It’s delicious and worth it!

One of the things I love most about pumpkin seed oil is its colour – a rich orange-brown that almost looks green by the edges. As a result it is a beautiful thing to use to finish a dish, drizzling it on a butternut squash soup, risotto or, in this instance, ice cream.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I wanted to do a sweet with this oil due to its awesome drizzability. Having seen olive oil on ice-cream in Italian restaurants, I decided this was the approach I would take and made a pumpkin seed brittle to go with it. Pumpkin and caramel are a lovely flavour combination after all (just ask an American).

Ingredients:

• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 50g sugar
• 25g butter
• 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
• 2 tbsp water
• 4tsp pumpkin seed oil
• 8 scoops of vanilla ice cream

Put a large flat frying pan on a medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds until they are very slightly brown – just a slight shade darker than they are regularly. Then shake onto a big piece of wax paper.

Turn the pan down to a medium-low heat and add the sugar, water and salt. Once the sugar has melted, bring it to a boil, until it is bubbling.

Stir it and let the sugar brown to a caramel colour. Then add the butter.

Pour the caramel all over the pumpkin seeds and let cool.

Once cooled, break it into chunky pieces.

Scoop two scoops of vanilla ice cream into 4 bowls. Drizzle each with 1-1.5 tablespoons of pumpkin seed oil and divide the brittle between the bowls. Mmmm …

Pumpkin seed oil – the savoury

A warm potato salad that serves 2 in 30 minutes or so.

My friend Katie used to live in Vienna. On my very first visit I saw pumpkin seed oil in her fridge. This was a totally new oil for me and, as I like trying new flavours, a tremendously exciting discovery.

The oil is quite popular is the Styria region of Austria. It is not an oil that should be heated or used for cooking as it is really delicate in constitution but it is delicious in salad dressings, drizzled over cooked things like pumpkin and asparagus, and even on ice cream. It should also be noted that it goes off quite quickly, which is why Katie was storing it in her fridge.

It is nutty and earthy, just like a pumpkin seed, so it can be used to top hearty, flavourful vegetables and meats. However, it is not a dominant flavour like truffle oil. It is a simple and subtle flavour that likes to work with the ingredients with which it’s combined.

Pumpkin seed oil is quite often used when making potato salads – the German style with a dressing rather than the mayonnaise laden kind – so I made one. …

1. Oak leaf lettuce

2. 500g baby pearl and Roseval potatoes (or other small potatoes, but the Roseval are full of flavour)

3. 200g lardons

4. Dressing:

• 2 tsp pumpkin seed oil
• 4 tsp sherry vinegar
• 2 tsp grainy mustard
• 2 squeezes agave nectar
• 1 tsp chopped shallots
• 4 tsp chopped parsley
• S&P

Cut the potatoes into quarters or so – bite size pieces – and steam.

At the same time prep all other parts of the salad:

• Wash and chop the lettuce
• Cook the lardons on a medium heat so they become really crispy
• Combine all dressing ingredients

When the potatoes are done, toss them with the lardons and dressing and then add the lettuce and toss again. Overall it has a very deep and earthy flavour – a delicious potato salad that feels like a whole meal, not a side dish.

Orange almond cake with blackberry and yoghurt

Serves 12 and is ready in 1 hour 25 minutes, with about 1 hour of that being cooking time.

I tend not to be much of a dessert person. I much prefer salty to sweet. The idea for this cake came from two things:

1. Reading the Nigella Lawson cookbook ‘How to Eat’, which my friend Eliza kindly gave me for my birthday. (Although I have not used her recipe as I was afraid it would be too sugary for my taste.)
2. Walking in the beautiful English countryside as the blackberries were coming into season. I love being able to pick berries off the bush and eat them. ☺

I combined the two as I love how orange and blackberry tastes together.

Blackberries are particularly special as they really represent to me the English countryside in late summer/early autumn. The bushes grow in great big tumbles of long thorny arms and look like overgrown weeds that contrast so much to the fruit. Somehow the thorns seem to make the berries much more of a prize and taste sweeter.

The cake is surprisingly low-cal as it does not have flour or butter in it. It is also very, very moist. It was a big hit at the office.

The basic recipe is here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14822/flourless+orange+cake

I made some important changes:

1. 1 tsp orange flower water – I added this to the syrup in step 7
2. 1 punnet blackberries – I added this to the syrup in step 7 and boil it for 10 mins, rather than 2-3
3. Olive oil – I used this instead of butter to grease the pan
4. Bake for 45 mins – I am not sure why but I found I needed to bake it for 15 mins less than what the recipe required
5. Greek yoghurt – I served it with Greek yoghurt on the side as I love the combination of fruit and yoghurt and it cuts the sweetness further