It’s November, the month of ghastly weather. You need proof? Yesterday, Oct 31st, it was golden, sunny, warm. Today, November 1st, it’s all wind and rain, a preview of this months prospects.
Perfect time to snuggle up, drink tea, and watch the raindrops roll down the windows while an Erik Satie piano piece is playing. Welcome to your YA indie movie. It’s the season of long autumn walks in colourful forests, a yellowredorangebrown palette in nature and on our plates: Pumpkins, pears, walnuts. Comfort food to fall for. And due to Covid lockdown #2 in Germany, starting tomorrow, restaurants will be closed for business. Ergo time to cook and finally try out all these recipes that are piling up, as torn-out pages from magazines that have been on my to-cook-list forever.
Most of the times, my recipes are successes but of course even I have fuck ups now and then. Just the other week, JC came by and we made vegan sweet potato pancakes. Clear kitchen fail. Great taste but more of a pan-fried unidentifiable mush than pancakes. Well, at least we had a good laugh. And it was edible. The side veggies, baby spinach sautéed with pine nuts and raisins, however was an absolute winner and I decided to combine it with a more successful autumn dish:
Pumpkin potato waffles with pear-ginger-chutney
Since I studied to become a teacher, I will start with saying what all teachers always say: Read the whole thing first. If you don‘t, the waffles will be cold by the time the spinach is ready.
For the waffles you’ll need 100g grated potatoes, 1 onion, 400g grated hokkaido (no need to peel it first but to remove the seeds), 2 eggs, 2 tbsp starch, 2 tbsp flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix everything together in a bowl. Take a coated pan, heat up some oil to hot but not full heat and place two big spoons of dough into it and press it down into a flatbread sort of shape. Fry it for a couple of minutes, flip it and repeat on the other side till both sides are golden brown.
The chutney (which is more of a compote but chutney sounds more vogue) needs 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar heated up on the stove. Once the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is boiling, add 4 chopped up pears (as chunky or small as you like it), a girl’s thumb sized peace of ginger, peeled and chopped, and lemon zest and juice from half a lemon. Simmer on low to medium heat for 20 minutes.
The spinach is basically self-explanatory. As soon as the voluminous pile of leaves has shrunken to a sad green small lump, add a handful of pine nuts and raisins. Fry and stir. Add some salt and pepper and let the ingredients do the rest. Serve and enjoy.
