Day 1- Pumpkin-Turkey Ghoulash with Caraway Noodles

Day 1's recipe has been in my Epicurious recipe box for quite some time. It's gotten pretty cold, especially at night over the past month or so, and I absolutely love any kind of soups or stews. I also love pumpkin, so it seemed like the perfect combination.

Minus the caraway noodles. Cooking is all about modifications, right? I originally had no idea what caraway seeds were, but a good friend of mine found them at her local souk (market) and I took a whiff. I love licorice, but the thought of adding an anise type flavor to my noodles just didn't strike my fancy. So that's the first change. As the recipe is for eight servings, I'm also reducing it. Mohamed doesn't eat a lot of leftovers and I can only handle so much on my own.

The recipe calls for canned pumpkin- something I've never seen over here in Morocco. To solve this problem I used fresh pumpkin which I coated with butter, roasted, then put in the blender.

All of the ingredients ready to go

The first step is to coat the turkey in a spice mixture (mostly paprika- I used about half hot and half sweet) and cook for five minutes. After coating the onions and potatoes, you also add those to the pot and let fry for a few more minutes. I may have under estimated the size of the pot needed...

When the the turkey and veggies are preliminarily cooked, you add the chicken broth, garlic and additional spices. The stew simmers for an hour before you need to cook the noodles and serve. I haven't seen any egg noodles in Morocco, so I'm using some regular farfalle.

After the simmering, I thought the stew was a little thin, so I uncovered it and let it boil down a bit. Top the buttery noodles with the stew and bon appetit!

The verdict: Yummy! This was a great dish to have on a cold night. It's hearty, filling and flavorful. Using half hot/sweet paprika created quite a bit of heat. If you're not into that, I'd go a bit heavier on the sweet side. Also, when I make again I'd add more pumpkin as it got a little bit lost among the other ingredients. Mohamed liked it too, so that would be success on day one of the holiday recipe challenge. Yay!

Go here the complete recipe for Pumpkin-Turkey Ghoulash with caraway noodles. On deck for tomorrow is another Epicurious find- Roasted Cod on Large Garlic Croutons.

Photo by Con Poulos from Epicurious

Holiday Recipe Challenge 2011

The time has come! As I mentioned at the beginning of the month, tomorrow starts my 15 day recipe challenge. In honor of my LONG vacation (nearly 4 weeks!) I've decided to spice it up and try some new recipes.

Yesterday, two of my favorite fellow teachers came over for an intense planning session. We lunched, coffeed, caked and most importantly sifted through recipes to find the most promising. I've chosen 15 main dishes, a few sides and a few desserts. 

You can't plan without charts!

The first shopping list- 7 days of new recipes (not including standard veggies and spices)

Tomorrow is day one and I'm making Pumpkin-Turkey Ghoulash from Epicurious.  My hope is that each day I'll report back with photos and reviews on the day's dishes. Let the cooking begin!

15 days a Domestic Goddess

Season's greetings! I guess since it's officially December I can say that. Although I must say that I've been in the holiday spirit for a few weeks now- our stocking (just one!) is hung and I've been listening to Christmas music while cooking since before Thanksgiving.

Last year's holiday fun 

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I'm going to be doing something new (and hopefully exciting) this holiday season.  I have almost 4 weeks of vacation this year and most of it will be spent at home, so I'm giving myself a challenge.

15 days of cooking at least one new recipe every day. That's right, 15 new recipes in 15 days and I plan to  update you on my progress right here. The good, the bad, the photos, the reviews.

The fun starts Friday, December 16th with Pumpkin-Turkey "Ghoulash" with Caraway Noodles from Epicurious.com

photo by Tina Rupp from Epicurious