Winter in the Hilltop Kitchen, or Salmon and Cream Cheese Quiche, Rainbow Vegetable Strudel and Caribbean Pumpkin Soup

At our café, I am usually the ‘barista’ or person running the espresso machine. In Summer, when it is really busy, no matter how much I wash my hands, at the end of the day, my hands always smell of coffee, not that I mind! I can think of worse things! Today they smell good, but not of coffee!

Well, now we are slipping into Autumn, and Winter will be here very soon. The ‘littlies’ Easter/Fall school break is over and things have slowed right down. Chef Luke leaves for the Czech Republic tomorrow (ash clouds permitting) where he will hide from the Antipodean Winter and visit with friends and family that he has not seen in a few years. Chef Vojta will still be here (he took his Czech holiday last winter). Well, we’ve decided that Vojta’s days off will be mid-week, and I will be the covering chef on those days!

This was the first week, and all went well. We didn’t have heaps of ala carte orders, so it was relatively stress free. This was good, because I am still figuring out where everything is kept and working through the best ways to do things so everything comes up ready at the same time.

Another goal or challenge for me in the kitchen this winter is to try to lessen wastage and make sure the recipes we’ve developed haven’t drifted off course. It’s a bit like the whispering game where one person whispers a phrase to another and so on, and in the end, the final phrase is nothing like what was started with! That happens with recipes, too, overtime!

So, the first thing I notice is that we are NOT turning-over the smoked salmon very quickly (and a lot of it has been being wasted) and we have a container of cream cheese that needs to be used. We used to make a Smoked Salmon Quiche regularly, but have drifted away from it. So, I blind baked a savoury pastry crust, lined it with some sautéed green onion (that were close to expiry, as well), added some smoked salmon and cream cheese and a bit of spinach for colour and bulk. I lightly beat 9 eggs with some dried dill and poured it in. A bit more salmon and cream cheese, and into the oven. About an hour later, it came out looking beautiful. I left it to cool and set, and cut it into 6 portions. We sold three within an hour and a half!

Assembling the Smoked Salmon Quiche

Smoked Salmon Quiche -- Just out of the Oven

Vojta had asked me to make the Vegetarian Mediterranean Summer Tart that is a staple in our deli. Well, I wanted to use up some of the other veggies so I decided to make a strudel instead! While the quiche base was blind-baking I had cut up a pumpkin and put it in the oven to roast along with some kumara/sweet potato (I also noticed we have LOTS of kumara). I also caramelized some onions, sautéed some diced onions, grilled some zucchini, and later found a bag of roasted red peppers we bought in that had been forgotten. When the pumpkin was cool, I peeled it and cubed about ¾ of it and added it to the sautéed onions

Roasted Pumpkin for Soup & Strudel

Wanting to get the Caribbean Pumpkin Soup done before lunch service got into full-swing, I added a litre (4 Cups) of vegetable stock and let it simmer for a bit. I then added a can of coconut cream, a good dash of cayenne and some ground ginger. Mr. Whizzy then jumped in and did his bit. It was a bit thick, so I thinned it with some water. Delicious! (Vegetarian and Gluten-Free, to boot!) We will serve it with a small dollop our sour cream on top and a dash of parsely for color.

This is what makes it 'Caribbean'!

Mr. Whizzy on the job!

Next up, it was time to assemble the Rainbow Vegetable Strudel. We use commercial flaky pastry, but you can buy smaller quantities in the frozen section (or make your own!) I laid out the pastry, and knowing it would go in the oven seam-side down, I built my layers top to bottom. I started with the kumara, since it is the firmest. I then added a generous amount of feta cheese. Thinking about colour, I next went for sun-dried tomatoes and then grilled zucchini. Oh, and there’s a bit of boiled parsnip in there, too (it was lurking in the back of the chiller!)! Then came the balance of the pumpkin, which I had sliced, and the caramelized onions. I had wanted the onions to be the bottom layer, but that’s when I found the char-grilled red peppers, so they went in last and wound up on the bottom. Now, these are the veggies that I had on hand, and tastes that I thought would combine well. There are no hard, fast rules for this beast! What veggies do you have? What is in season? What tastes do you like? I would avoid overly wet items, like tomatoes -- that's why I used sun-dried. Go for color -- it looks great and is healthy. You could also add bacon or ham, even left-over roast chicken!

The 'Top Layers' - Kumara, Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Then, Zucchini, Pumpkin, Onions and Finally, Char-Grilled Peppers!

I cut the left side of the pastry, allowing for a generous over-lap. I dampened the bits that would overlap and secured them together, trying to ‘snug-up’ the strudel and make it a tight roll. I fold the ends like an envelope. The Man offered to cut some pretty pastry ‘leaves’ for the top, and Donna reminded us to cut some vents. I egg-washed the strudel, then added some dill to the egg, in an effort to ‘paint’ the leaves green. It kinda worked.

All Rolled Up and Ready to Bake

Into the oven for maybe an hour, or at least until the pastry was golden, as everything inside is already cooked. I might add that the strudel and numerous trays of 50 muffins that Donna was preparing for a meeting group tomorrow morning had the oven a bit crowded during the lunch service we did have. Fortunately, we weren’t busier!

I was a patient as possible, waiting for the strudel to cool and firm up so I could slice and take pics. It was still a teensy bit warm, but I couldn’t wait any longer! The juices ran a bit, but hopefully the bottom won’t get soggy. It looks great and I can tell you that the little bits that slipped onto the cutting board were awesome! It will chill overnight and go on display in the deli tomorrow. We decided we won’t warm it in the micro-wave, just the oven, so the pastry re-crisps and is nice an flaky!

Just Out of the Oven!


YUM!!!

Personal Note: We are going away next Tueasday, for about 10 days. So, I may not be able to follow up on comments and I won't be updating my blog or hangin' out on the recipe exchange. But, with recharged batteries, I can promis more Flo & Myrtle, Winter in the Hilltop Kitchen, an Update to Project Bread, and probably something about the state of food in Northern New South Wales and Queensland, Australia!