Leela’s Autumn Recipes

Leela’s Sweet Pumpkin Pie (featured at Brierfield)

Pastry:
2 cups plain flour
¼ tsp salt

¾ cup butter
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup of ice water, approx

Blend the first 4 ingredients in a food processor until crumbly. Slowly, add enough of the ice water whilst running until mix starts to pull together. Scoop out and use a rolling pin on a floured board to shape into a sheet of pastry. Make a shell in a greased, shallow pie dish.

Filling:

2 cups of slow-roasted pumpkin mash
½ cup raw sugar
1 cup ricotta cheese
¼ cup of soy or milk
3 eggs
½ cup macadamia pieces
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp of powdered galangal (or ginger)

Mix the above ingredients and pour into the uncooked shell. Bake at 180 degrees approx. 1hr.  Cool before serving; flavours will improve over the next few hours.


Leela’s Black Sticky Rice (featured at Thora)  

The black rice took well over an hour to cook and might be tricky to find – you could try a white rice substitute.

600ml of milk and/or soy milk
½ cup black rice, rinsed in cold water
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
1/3 cup of sultanas
1/3 cup of walnuts (optional)
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup of coconut milk
1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract

Bring the milk to simmer in a large pot and add the next six ingredients. Simmer until rice is tender – stir occasionally to prevent sticking and add more milk if necessary. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix in ½ a cup of the hot rice. Add back to the rice pot and stir over medium heat until thickened. Spoon into a shallow dish and bring to room temperature before serving. I recommend tasting along the way to tinker with the flavours!