Pumpkin Rice Laksa - Jamie Oliver

It's my first time posting from across the pond! This is a Jamie Oliver recipe. I've made it several times, and it never disappoints.

Ingredients

• 600g/1lb 6oz pumpkin, butternut squash, onion squash or acorn squash, halved, peeled and deseeded
• A small handful of lime leaves
• 2-3 chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled
• 3 sticks of lemongrass, outer leaves removed
• A large handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), leaves picked, stalks chopped
• 1 heaped teaspoon five-spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Olive oil
• 1 white onion, peeled and finely sliced
• 565ml/1 pint chicken or vegetable stock
• 200g/7oz basmati rice
• 2 x 400ml/14oz tins of coconut milk
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 1 or 2 limes
• Optional: 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
• Optional: fresh coconut, grated

Directions

First of all you need to chop the pumpkin flesh into 5cm/2-inch pieces. To make your fragrant soup base, first chop, then whizz or bash up the following in your food processor or pestle and mortar until you have a pulpy mix: the lime leaves, chillies, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, coriander stalks, five-spice and cumin. Remove any stringy bits that may remain in the pulp. Put this fragrant mixture into a high-sided pan with a little oil and your finely sliced onion and cook gently for about 10 minutes to release the flavours.

Add the pumpkin and the stock to the pan. Stir around, scraping all the goodness off the bottom of the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for about 15 minutes until the pumpkin is soft. At this point, add the rice and give it a really good stir. Some of the pumpkin will begin to mush up, but you’ll also have some chunks. Continue to simmer with the lid on until the rice is cooked, then off comes the lid. Add the coconut milk, stir again, taste and season carefully with salt and pepper. To give it a bit of sharpness add the lime juice – the amount will depend on how juicy your limes are, but the idea is to give the soup a little twang.

Sarah's Soup

I had to make some adaptations based on what I had, and the fact that I find it more difficult to get fresh Asian ingredients in the North of England. (It was very easy in Australia!) So I used a "culinary pumpkin", and I toasted the seeds for topping. It was a big pumpkin, and it weighed in at about 2 lb 6 oz after peeling and removing the seeds. 

Instead of fresh, I used dried lime leaves and lemongrass paste (called "very lazy" brand for a reason). I also added some galangal paste, and used coconut oil instead of olive oil. I certainly didn't bother getting rid of the stringy bits because no one in this house would notice. I only used 1 tin plus a bit more of coconut milk because that was plenty rich; but I needed a lot more water, especially because of the massive pumpkin. Beware that it keeps absorbing water as it sits, but I love very thick soups, so I don't mind a bit. I also used bottled lime juice because limes are a bit hard to come by at the supermarkets in the North. This is a very filling and extremely flavourful soup. 

As you can see from the background, I am getting overly excited about the fact that I now have access to a variety of pumpkins and squashes again. In Australia they only have a couple of types of pumpkin, and they don't really have a variety of squashes. So I was sad to see my little culinary pumpkin go. I'll just have to buy another!

Oddly, I served this with a sweet potato cornbread with collard confetti (recipe here; I used spring greens because I can't get collards here). I know it doesn't go with the soup, but I had some leftover from the weekend. It worked somehow.

Just for fun....here's another picture with my stuffed wombat in the background. I'm (more than a bit) mad, and absolutely obsessed with wombats.