it's in the pie

with all the broth bases covered during the last meeting of the mooste foodclub (chicken by siiri, vegetable by evelyn, beef by eve) i was asked to take charge of the fillings for the accompanying pirukad. i was pleased to see lillia already making the good old pennsylvanian pierogi filling (see elsewhere in this blog for that recipe) so i looked around to see what other ingredients we had on hand. there was a nice mixture of seasonal elements, some fresh from evelyn's garden, and we quickly came up with two pie-fillings based on what we already had: pumpkin & chili, and kale and bacon. i serendipitously oversalted the kale, so a few more ingredients got added to that one to dilute it, which worked out quite well...

i did this all on the fly, so i don't really have amounts, but i'll try to guess. for the pumpkin filling i used:

pumpkin, cubed and steamed
butter
fresh diced red chili
rosemary
brown sugar
salt to taste

in a pan i tossed the already-steamed pumpkin chunks (let's say half a medium pumpkin's worth) in plenty of butter, then added 1 homegrown red chili, very finely diced (maybe more if you have store-bought ones - they're not as hot) and some diced fresh rosemary. the pumpkin we had wasn't so sweet, so i also added some brown sugar (fariin suhkrut). mash is up, salt to taste, and it's ready. it should be sweet with a little salt and a good chili bite, but not overly spicy. with onion, garlic, and some homemade broth added this also makes a great soup.

for the kale i was looking for some smoked meat to add some flavor, and siiri offered me something she'd brought home from hungary, a slab of strongly smoked pork fat. i used this diced into small cubes, but any cubed/sliced smoked bacon/pork would work. this was for about a normal colander-full of fresh kale. full ingredients:

kale, chopped and steamed
smoked bacon
garlic
courgette, chopped small
ricotta cheese
salt, pepper to taste

toss the chopped kale in a pan with the meat, rendering out the fat. add finely chopped garlic and the courgette, fry until soft. mix in the ricotta cheese and season. i may or may not have also had some onion in there, i can't quite remember. if so it would have been chopped fine and caramelised a bit in butter until a bit sweet.