Features of October
In October, we return to the roof - in the literal sense of the word. The time of "raw food" of vegetables and fruits and picnics in the countryside has come to the end. Grilling on the lawn and dinner at a suburban restaurant is no longer beckoning. Evenings and weekends we spend in our apartments and involuntarily turn our gaze to the kitchen - rather than prepare something interesting, warm and tasty? It's a great idea, because in October our enzyme systems are rebuilding to winter mode of operation and become very vulnerable - it's no wonder that in the autumn both gastritis and peptic ulcer are aggravated. And even those of us who have never complained on the stomach, suddenly feel some kind of discomfort in the stomach. Warm, carefully prepared food - vegetable cream soups, noble delicacy porridges, tender pancakes, curd casseroles, souffle - our body is pleased. In this delicate way, we translate ourselves into winter food, dense and hot, which gives more energy. The second distinctive feature of the middle of the autumn is that the immunity changes its priorities. In the summer, he saved us from intestinal infections - in the cold season it is taken to protect from ARI and colds. And now we need to focus on products that strengthen antiviral immunity.
Pumpkin pie
It is prepared for Halloween, the day of All Saints, for joy, for protection from evil spirits, from spoiling and evil eye. According to ancient Celtic belief, on the night of October 31 to November 1, the border between our and the other world opens and evil and good spirits and ghosts of the deceased come to earth. To the evil did not affect the living, on the table put a symbol of the sun, the rays of which disperse the evil - a large round cake. Once the Celts baked it from yellow turnips. And in the XVII century the English colonists brought their recipe for pie to Europe - from orange, like the setting sun, pumpkins. It is believed that the pumpkin mystically transforms the bad into good - not without reason in the fairy tale of Charles Perrault about Cinderella Fairy turned into a carriage is a pumpkin. And nowadays the pumpkin pie is celebrated by Joan Rowling, the author of the epic about the young wizard Harry Potter. At the magic school of Hoggwarts, every holiday ended with a pumpkin pie, And for all of us, it's a wonderful combination of home cosiness and magic.
Pumpkin Pie from A to Z (for eight servings)
- 250 g of wheat flour
- 100 g of butter, chopped
- 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons cold water
Filling
- 2 eggs
- 150 g of sugar
- 500 g of pumpkin
- 120 ml 35% cream
- 1 tablespoon of dry red wine
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Preparation
Put the pumpkin in the oven (about 700 g) on the baking tray skinned down. Top with foil. Bake at 180 ° C until soft. We cool, use a spoon to scrape out the 500 grams we need from the rind. In a deep bowl, rub our butter with flour until we get smooth flakes. Add to them sugar powder and water (refrigerated in the refrigerator). Quickly we knead the ball from the dough, wrap it in a film and put it in the fridge on the upper shelf, where it is colder, for half an hour. Roll out the dough between two sheets of polyethylene film so that the resulting circle closes the bottom of the split shape and there is still a margin for the edge. We lining the bottom of the form with baking paper. We lay out the layer of dough, freed from the film, and form the edge. Cut out of the bakery paper a circle the size of the bottom of the mold and put it on the dough. Pour dry peas (rice) on top so that the bottom falls flat and does not rise. We put the oven in an oven heated to 180 ° C on an average level. After 10 minutes, remove the form, remove the paper with peas. Another 5 minutes bake. We cool. Beat eggs and sugar in a foam. We adhere to it a pumpkin, cream, wine and spices. We pour the filling on the base and bake. Baking time is from 40 to 70 minutes. The filling should thicken. If the edges of the dough brown when baking too hard, cover the form with aluminum foil. We serve the cake by cooling it to room temperature. To it we offer 35% cream, whipped with sugar.
Variant of a cake festive, "divinatory"
what behavior will bring you success in the conceived business. Before you put the cake in the oven, put the filling deep into the filling, on a circle, at an equal distance from each other: dried apricot, Indian nut, several raisins, Brazil nut, walnut, hazelnuts, groundnuts, almonds. When we cut the finished pie, we look, to that that has got. Dried apricot - be sweet, you will succeed thanks to good deeds, compliments and flattery. Indian walnut - be cunning, do not be afraid of intrigues. A few raisins - look for allies. Brazil nut - be strong, do not be afraid to go ahead. Walnut - be smart, you do not notice the obvious. Hazelnut - be patient and work hard. Almond nut - relax, think less, and everything will go its course. If someone has got two symbols - he has two ways to choose. If none - none of the ways listed in the fortune telling does not work, let the new one come up.
And finally
If instead of the usual sugar to take dark sugar "muskavado", the filling will acquire a light caramel flavor.
Hits of the season
- Pumpkin
Orange-gold color symbolizes the sun, impressive size - wealth. And abundance. Pumpkin is a vegetable wagon: it contains carotenes five times larger than carrots, superbly removes excess fluid, strengthens the heart muscle, has antibacterial and antiviral activity. In 100 g of pulp pulp, only 25 kcal and a lot of fiber, which excellently removes salts of heavy metals and toxins. We add it to our menu 2-3 times a week.
- How to cook
Pumpkin can be baked in the oven or boiled. If you are addicted to edemas, we prepare porridge with pumpkin: cut the pumpkin pulp with raisins and rice cooked with cubes. It's good for a pie. And jam from a pumpkin with lemon piquantly obtained.
- On a note
Raw pumpkin is not to be fond of - its fibrous structure is so coarse and dense that it irritates the stomach and prevents it from absorbing its own carotenes.
- Red sweet pepper
You cast a glance at him - and from its scarlet color and lacquer shine it becomes more fun. And if you consider that only 30 g of sweet pepper will provide us with a daily dose of vitamin C, then its presence in our house is mandatory. In October, we add it to different dishes three or four times a week.
How to cook
Not bad raw in salads. But it is even better to cook lecho from sweet red pepper - to knock it with tomato paste, chopped onions, sugar and salt.
On a note
Most of all vitamin C accumulates in the flesh around the pedicel pile.
- Eggplant. In its purple peel contains an extremely valuable dark pigment-anthocyanin. First, it helps immunity to recognize and destroy dangerous aliens - viruses and precancerous cells; second, it strengthens the nerve cells and improves memory. We include it in the autumn menu 1-2 times a week.
How to cook
Eggplant is combined with anything - with mushrooms and cheese, with raisins and mint, with meat and potatoes. It can be baked, boiled, stewed and fried.
On a note
You can not eat the eggplant raw, because it contains a toxic substance - solanine, which can cause heartburn and stomach pain. During heat treatment, solanine rapidly breaks down.
- Avocado
Vladimir Mayakovsky tasted avocado during his trip to America and called "green coconut with butter on the middle." It is the most nutritious vegetable in the world: 163 kcal per 100 g. It contains 30% of the purest vegetable oil, which is used by our body as raw material for the production of many hormones and helps to metabolize the metabolism during winter operation. It is enough to eat three small avocados a week.
- How to cook
Non-standard: halved avocado, seedless, sprinkled with lemon juice, bake with some filling, preferably - under grated cheese, in the oven, for 15 minutes, until the cheese melts. Fillings any - from the crushed tomatoes and shrimps to a ham.
- On a note
Pieces of avocados are conveniently added to vegetable salads instead of dressing - the oil in it will help assimilate carotenes just like any other vegetable.
- Cream cheese
The classic cream cheese "Philadelphia" American milkman William Lawrence in 1872 made by mistake. He thought of making of cream quite different cheese, soft and shaped, but this one turned out, similar to paste. The result delighted him, he patented his invention - and the defeat turned into a victory. The second famous representative of cream cheese is the sour Italian "Mascarpone". Cream cheeses are winter analogues of ice cream - they also contain tryptophan, on the basis of which hormones of equal, good mood are produced, have a gentle consistency, remind us of happy infancy and pacify. Dietologic plus: unlike OT ice cream does not contain sugar. Prophylactic plus: Do not threaten our throat with a cold. Good for every day.
How to cook
Instead of butter on rye bread. Or mixed with berries or pieces of fresh fruit. The advice, at first glance, is strange, but really helps with insomnia: scoop up a portion of cream cheese in a tablespoon, dab a spoon into liquid honey. Slowly lick the cheese off the spoon. You will be affected by a combination of biochemistry - tryptophan, and psychology - the influence of sweet and dairy and smooth.
On a note
The fat content of the classic Philadelphia cheese is 23%, Light versions with a reduced fat content are available. Mascarpone has a fat content of 50%. And if you intend to eat it with a spoon from the package or prepare a dessert with berries, then choose "Philadelphia". Very suitable for autumn berry: it is extremely high concentration of polyphenols - antioxidants of universal action, contains anti-inflammatory and analgesic salicylates, the same as in raspberries. In addition, it helps our body produce hemoglobin and returns a gentle glow to the face. It is enough 10-15 berries a day - and for two weeks you will pass the course of "immunopoderzhivayuschego therapy."
How to cook
Some people like to add berries to yogurt. Some - in the morning oatmeal. With a cold, drink fresh berries with hot tea.
On a note
Salicylates in the blackberry during cooking are preserved, so jam from it has a therapeutic effect for O3 and colds.