Its pumpkin time

   Ah, the sights, sounds and smells of Autumn. And then there are the foods. And here in Austria, these foods are specific. Coming from a country of nearly unlimited choice it was an adjustment to have so little available at the supermarkets. Sure the seasonal produce was wonderful but there wasn't much variety, A reality that proved challenging if I felt like cooking anything other than Austrian style food. The only exception, it seemed, was the Turkish shop, and in the first year or two, I worked my way through everything it offered.
   What is missing in option, however, is made up for in creative invention. A fact I only learned a few years in, when I stepped away from the 'home cooking' of friends, family, and pubs, and started occasionally going to nicer, more modern and trendier restaurants. In these restaurants, I experienced a move away from traditional, often, bland dishes. The chefs employed a more playful approach to their recipes. The piece of food moved from the position of ingredient in a specific dish to malleable basic material out of which anything could potentially be fashioned. In essence, I saw pumpkins going from soup and shredded Kurbis gemüse to souffles, sushi, and mousses. The difference between the two is the difference between clay which is added to bricks and clay which is used to create sculptures or teacups. The basic material is the same, the skill and creativity result in products which appear to have virtually nothing in common.
   Over the years I have been here I have seen this transformation move into the everyday cuisine of the modern Austrian. It is no longer specifically the dish which evokes nostalgia but the food item upon which it is based. And with that change of mindset more and more fantastic dishes are being created every season and the individual elements are being highlighted in a more alternative way.
   About a year after moving here I was invited to a Palm Sunday dinner with a group of friends where everything at the table had something to do with Easter. The food itself cried, Easter. It tasted like Easter, not that it was comprised of dishes served on Easter Sunday but rather because the components were things to be eaten at Eastertime alone. It was then that it clicked. The very fact that the palate is so limited forces the chef to create. To concoct. And like Easter, I have come to associate specific foods with Autumn. Not very many foods, as you should expect from the description above but a few items utilized to the maximum of their potential.

Maroni, Apples, Pumpkin... These are a few of the current flavors to soon be enhanced with goose and red cabbage on St. Martin's Day.

 

   Today's post is a nod to the humble pumpkin, originally of North America, even if most people consider it a truly traditional Austrian food. It is a basic crop in much of Styria, and is a staple item in every seasonal menu- I have four Hokkaido pumpkins on the table at the moment, waiting to be eaten. Because the German term 'kürbis' included not only true pumpkins but also most varieties of squash, they can be easily added to the repertoire.  Unlike in North America, Pumpkin is not used to make pie, which means that there is no pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin pie latte, or pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin tends to be treated more as a vegetable than a fruit. There is a variety from whose seeds a dark green oil is pressed. These seeds and their resulting oil, rather than the flesh, are the 'pumpkin' component found in most pumpkin-based desserts. While they can and certainly are used in savory dishes they lend themselves well to being used as a compliment to either vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate.

Pumpkins can be included in sweet or savory dishes, pureed sliced, shredded, etc... Today I had dinner in a nearby restaurant, and because it is 'pumpkin time' the menu offered Pumpkin knödel (dumplings), pumpkin risotto, something with a pumpkin mash ( I don't actually remember what it was) in addition to a pumpkin, coconut, lemongrass soup. I planned to have the pumpkin risotto, but at the last moment, I swapped it for a steak. I will turn one of the Hokkaido into a risotto at home.

  And this being an art blog, which is sometimes hard to tell, I want to add that one of the things that made me decide to use this topic for a post is that I love to paint pumpkins. They are so delightful in their leathery, warty, bumpy, roundness.

  Do you live in a place which relies heavily on a few seasonal items, or one in which most things are available most of the time? What do you like about it? What could be improved? Let me know in the comments.

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