Cook The Perfect... Pumpkin Soup with Heston Blumenthal

Don't waste the inside of those Halloween lanterns! Heston Blumenthal showed Jane Garvey how to cook the perfect Pumpkin Soup.

Listen to the interview and view the recipe below.

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Recipe

For the soup

1. 850g Pumpkin flesh
2. Olive oil
3. 250g Unsalted butter
4. 3 Onions, peeled and finely sliced
5. 400g Whole milk
6. 4 sprigs of rosemary
7. Pinch of cayenne pepper
8. 40g Sesame oil (or to taste)
9. 40g Balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
10. Salt

To finish and serve

1. 20g Hazelnuts, toasted until golden brown
2. ½ sprig of rosemary
3. 20g coarse dry breadcrumbs
4. 1 tbsp melted brown butter (see tip below)
5. 1 Red pepper, de-seeded, roasted and peeled, then cut into diamonds
6. Pumpkin seeds
7. Red pepper oil (see tip below)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

To start the soup, thinly slice half of the pumpkin on a mandolin and cut the other half into large cubes.

Roast the large cubes of pumpkin drizzled with a little olive oil in the pre-heated oven for approximately 40 minutes or until soft and caramelized.

Melt 200g of the butter in the saucepan and sweat the onions and pumpkin slices for approximately 10 minutes.

In the meantime, in a second pan, heat the milk until almost simmering. Turn off the heat, add the rosemary, then allow to infuse for 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and discard the rosemary.

When the onions are translucent, add the rosemary milk, 600g cold tap water and the roasted pumpkin, bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes until the sliced pumpkin is soft. Remove from the heat, liquidize and pass through a fine sieve. Season with cayenne, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar and salt.

When ready to serve, combine the toasted hazelnuts with the rosemary and blitz to a coarse powder. Combine with the breadcrumbs.

Brush the inside rim of the soup bowls with the brown butter and coat with the hazelnut and rosemary mixture.

Place some red pepper diamonds and pumpkin seeds in the bottom of each bowl.

Warm the soup, add the remaining 50g of butter and aerate with a hand blender. Ladle into the nut-encrused bowls and garnish with drops of red pepper oil.

Brown Butter

Melt unsalted butter in a medium pan over a gentle heat, whisking continuously, until the solids turn golden brown and give off a nutty aroma. Take the pan off the heat immediately, strain the butter through a coffee filter and store in the fridge.

Red pepper oil

1. 1 Red pepper, de-seeded, roasted and peeled
2. 100g Groundnut or grapeseed oil

Put the pepper and oil in a liquidizer and blitz until fine.

Strain through a fine sieve and pour into a bottle. Keep in the fridge for 4-5 days only.

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