Saturday, February 11, 2012

Creamy Sausage Cabbage Pumpkin Soup

It's hard not to be able to find pumpkin (more formally known as calabasa squash) here in Grenada.  It's dirt cheap, versatile, and it's nutritious.
One day, I had left over breakfast sausage, left over cabbage, left over wonton wrappers, and a bit of cream cheese in my fridge.  I decided to have a left over party in my kitchen and slapped them all together.  Out came the creamy sausage wonton....  I fried (dipped in sweet n sour sauce) several and froze some for later use.  
Another day, I made pumpkin soup.  I wondered if there was a way to jazz up this soup and I immediately thought about the wontons I had froze from a week prior.  I decided to toss some in my pumpkin soup... an idea I was forever thankful towards my brain for thinking.  The combination was so great.  The second time around making pumpkin soup (this recipe), I didn't have wonton wrappers, but I did have all of the ingredients within. I added all of the fillings of the wontons straight into the soup.  Same great taste from when I first made it.  I hope you enjoy it! It's one of my own that I'm very proud of.

Ingredients:
5 cups water
2lbs pumpkin cubed 1''
1 tsp (or to taste)
black pepper to taste
2'' sausage or 1/3 a log
1 bunch chives chopped
3 garlic cloves
1'' slice ginger grated
1/2 cabbage chopped
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
dashes of cayenne pepper (for heat)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp sour cream + 2 tbsp cream cheese (or just 4 tbsp sour cream)

Directions
1.  Bring water, salt, black pepper, and pumpkin up to a boil.  Once boiling, turn heat down to medium high and cover.  Cook until tender (~30min) and after, mash pumpkin. After mashed, leave heat on medium low while cooking sausage.
2.  in a heated fry pan under medium high heat, add chunks of sausage. fry until golden brown.  
2.  add ginger, garlic, and chives and cook until tender ~ 5min. be careful not to burn garlic.
3.  add cabbage, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, and cumin. Cook until tender. ~ 5min
4. add cabbage mixture into pumpkin soup plus sugar. bring to a boil ~ 5-8min. or until well incorporated.
5. turn heat off and stir in cream cheese and sour cream mixture.








Real Crab, Crab Rangoons

Take some cream cheese ~8ec, a can of real crab meat ~11ec, and wonton wrappers ~6ec, and you got yourself a piece of what I call heaven.
I was so eager to eat them that I didn't bother with making them look pretty before I took a picture of them hahaha. 
One day I got sucked into trying the food from the Chinese lady in the Gazebos at SGU.  Who could resist her charm? I wanted to sample over and over again just to see her smile and say "very good, very nice."  Haha.  As expected, I got hit with loads of Umami goodness (a taste in my book that screams out MSG).  Being a firm believer of the dangers of MSG, I decided not to eat there again.   Well, that eliminates one of the only few sources of crab rangoons in Grenada (if they had them at Flag, they probably would've been made with imitation crab meat and msg... double whammy).  So I took it upon myself to get out there and make them myself. 
Being good as they are, I was hoping that me and my friend Laura could cut straight to the chase and just do the eating part (we talked about making them when we first met).  Since one of the two sources I had known about, failed, I decided to spare me and Laura the trouble and made them at home instead.  Me and Laura had so much fun wrapping them and even more fun eating them.

Serve with sweet n sour sauce or better yet, eat them on their own!  You can also toss them in soups (at the end when they're almost cooked to prevent sogginess) without frying them.   To store, lay them out in a single layer apart from one another on a piece of foil, place in a ziplock bag, and freeze.

~15min; ~45 servings
Ingredients:
1 pack wonton wrappers (foodfair)
1 8oz container chive and onion cream cheese (IGA)
1 6.5oz can real crab meat (IGA)
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dash of cayenne pepper for heat (optional)
dash of black pepper
splash soy sauce
generous pinch of sugar
splash of lemon juice

1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove minced
3 stalks chives chopped (just the green parts)

sweet n sour for dipping sauce

Directions
1.  In a large bowl, add crab meat, cream cheese, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, soy sauce, sugar, and lemon juice.
2. in a small sauce pan, heat butter.  add garlic and chives and cook on low heat ~4min or until tender.
3. add garlic and chives into crab and mix well.
4. take one wonton wrapper and place in a diamond shape.  place ~1tsp of crab in the center.  wet edges of wonton with finger to help seal wonton.  fold bottom half of diamond towards top to make a triangle. 
5. deep fry in a small sauce pan ~1 min on each side or until golden brown.  (if you don't have a small pan. you can use a big one and tilt the pan to one side frying one rangoon at a time so you can prevent having to fill the whole pan with oil.) Tongs will help flip the rangoons easily.




39th Anniversary of Grenada's Independence

2.7.13 St. George's Downtown and National Stadium Grenada, West Indies. © Katherine Fung, All rights reserved.  Grenada, The ...