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Sunday's with Marlena Spieler - Libyan Spicy Pumpkin Dip

Sunday's with Marlena Spieler is a fun project that three of us will continue till we finish cooking the complete cookbook called Jewish Cooking by Marlena Spieler. The cook book is educative to start with, giving the reader a peep into the history and tradition of the Jews.

This is a Sephardi dip from a Libyan Jewish restaurant. I have made a few changes to the recipe- can I restrain myself from doing that, Nah!.

Jews who settled in lberian peninsula (Modern Spain & Portugal) are called Sephardi Jews. Living in distant lands and mingling with different cultures, a cuisine emerged with influences from these regions. Sephardi cooking uses olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs.

The original recipe called for ground ginger,cumin and curry powder. I decided to use fresh ginger. When I saw curry powder, I started researching on what spices make a curry powder and some of the common ingredients were cardamom, turmeric powder, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and cayenne. I made my own :), ( 1 T- cardamom seeds, 1 T- Cumin, 1/2 tsp- Coriander seeds. Dry roast the three spices and powder along with cayenne and turmeric)

This recipe is perfect for Thanksgiving and to use your left over pumpkin from Halloween.

Olive Oil- 2 T

Red Onion - 1/2, finely chopped

Garlic- 5 pods, minced

Pumpkin- 1 1/2 lbs, peeled and chopped

Fresh ginger- 1/4 tsp, minced

Curry Powder- 1 tsp

Canned Tomatoes- 1/4 cup

Jalapeno- 1, finely chopped ( I did not remove seeds)

Lemon Juice- 2 tsp

Cilantro - 1 tsp, finely chopped

• Heat oil in a saute pan, add onion and garlic.
• Cook until the onion turn soft, immediately add the pumpkin and cover with a lid. Let it cook on medium low for about 15 minutes.
• Add rest of the spices and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
• Stir in the canned tomatoes and cook until the water has completely evaporated.
• When the pumpkin is tender, mash the pumpkin coarsely with a masher.
• Squeeze lemon juice over the pumpkin and stir well.
• Check for seasonings and adjust per taste.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro.

I served the dip with pita bread. We simply loved this dip. I would eat this even with a steaming cup of rice.

You can buy Marlena's cookbook here. For more fun recipes from Marlena's cook book , check Mel & Eileen's blog.

An Update

Hello Everyone, There are no good reasons for our laziness to blog. We enjoyed the warm summer with a few trips- Cascade Falls in Lake Tahoe, Camping@ Burney Falls, a weekend getaway to Mammoth Lake. Each of these trips were memorable and loads of fun.

I am not making lame promises of "trying to be more regular", because now I have made a commitment to blog every Sunday with two of my good buddies. This is how it started ..Mel posts on her FB (Melody- Beginning my effort to cook my way thru this cookbook...and blog about it. Bet that is a new concept!) , Eileen & I start talking with Mel and we decided to do it together,that simple! So the cookbook we are going to cook our way through is Marlena Spieler’s Jewish Cooking . Thanks Mel, for letting us join you:) in this culinary journey and lessons about Jewish culture and cuisine.

This is going to be fun learning experience for all of us and a fantastic way for our friendship to grow. We have all gone through the cook book, devoured every page with our eyes and have divied up the recipes amongst us. The cook book is truly enjoyable and while some are familiar, there are a few I have never heard about. So watch for our posts every Sunday. More about it here & Eileen will post soon after she takes care of the newest addition in her daughter's family. We will try to make you proud, Marlena!

An update from Rajesh

My attempt at gardening this year started quite late in the year , and was using some seeds that I had saved off a heirloom tomato that Shankari's student gave her last year. This was my first attempt at saving the seed, and as I was quite unsure of the germination rate to expect I used all the seeds that I had saved off. I think I had a 100% success rate and replanted seedlings. We also picked up a few thai pepper plants from the farmers market for a buck and I experimented with DIY grow bag made out of recycled juice containers.

I am harvesting both tomatoes and thai green chillies now. Not too bad for the minimal attention I have given the plants. Watering regularly was the only work done.What surprises me that the plants are still flowering and producing new fruit. I did get some unwelcome visitors. No pesticides were used to keep pests out. I might use BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) next year. The size of the crawler was quite amazing, some how the pic I uploaded through picasa did not make it and I will need to manually upload the pics.

I neglected the real plants & blogging playing farmville, but that is now past. Look at the size of the green bugger, I have a quarter as reference. He It (If I said he BEE from jugalbandi would be sure to ask how I could be so sure its a he) was quite fiesty when I plucked it off my plant.

In any case, I am still having some chillies and tomatoes inspite of the weather fluctuating between 40 and 75 and this is real harvest compared to virtual crops on farmville.

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