Introduction

During the week, I was reading Karen’s Back Road Journal, and she had a post about a harvest salad with roasted butternut squash and red onion.

Part of the recipe included spiced pecans. This post piqued my interest because I like the idea of spiced pecans with pumpkin.

Last week I made a roast pumpkin and caramelised onion dish courtesy of Not Quite Nigella (Lorraine Elliott). That recipe used toasted pecans. I thought spiced pecans might add a bit of extra oomph to the recipe.

Back Road Journal

I think Karen was one of the first bloggers I followed when I started blogging a little over ten years ago.

Karen and her husband live in the USA and travel extensively, especially throughout Europe with an emphasis on Italy judging by the number of posts about that beautiful country.

If you like to travel and eat good food, I recommend following Karen and the adventures she and her husband enjoy.

Recipe

Ingredients

Spiced pecans

• 50 g butter
• 25 g dark brown sugar
• 5 mL of water
• 5 g five-spice powder
• 1 g cumin
• 1 g white pepper
• 1 g cayenne pepper
• ½ cup pecan halves
• salt to taste

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

• Butternut pumpkin diced
• Brown onion sliced
• Brown sugar
• Olive oil
• Five-spice powder
• Baby rocket

Duck breast

• Duck breast
• Iodised salt
• Black pepper
• Queensland nut oil

Instructions

Spiced pecans

1. Heat the oven to 200 °C.
2. Melt the butter in a small pan.
3. Add the brown sugar and water and mix in with the melted butter.
4. Add in the spices and mix through as the butter and sugar bubble.
5. Thoroughly coat the pecans in the sweet, spicy, sticky, gooey and hot buttery goodness.
6. Make sure each piece is covered.
7. Spread the coated pecan pieces onto a lined baking tray.
8. Toast for five minutes.
9. Allow the spiced pecans to cool.

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

1. Heat the oven to 200 °C.
2. Dice the pumpkin and slice the onion.
3. Put the pumpkin and onion in a mixing bowl and rub with the brown sugar and olive oil.
4. Layout the pumpkin and onion onto a lined baking tray and sprinkle over some five-spice powder.
5. Cook the pumpkin and onion for at least 35 minutes or until the onion and pumpkin have taken on good caramelisation. Some people may suggest the black bits represent burnt food. I beg to differ unless it tastes acrid, it’s all good.
6. Remove the cooked pumpkin and onion from the oven and place the baking tray on a bench so the pumpkin and onion can cool.
7. When the pumpkin and onion are tepid, put them into a mixing bowl and toss in some rocket leaves and toss the salad.
8. Just before serving the meal, add in the spiced pecans and toss the salad.

Duck breast

1. Season the duck breast with iodised salt and black pepper.
2. Seal the breast in a vacuum bag.
3. Cook for 1 hour at 55 °C in a water bath.
4. After the hour, remove the bag and place it on a plate and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. This step ensures the temperature of the breast meat dips below 55 °C so you can sear the skin in a hot skillet until it is golden brown.
5. Remove the duck breast from the refrigerator and open the bag.
6. Pat the breast dry with kitchen paper and with a sharp knife, score the skin.
7. Heat a cast-iron skillet until it is smoking hot.
8. Rub some Queensland nut oil on the surface of the duck breast and sear the skin hard like there’s no tomorrow!
9. Allow the breast to relax and rest for a few minutes before slicing.

Plating options

You could add the sliced breast to the pumpkin and onion salad and make a big bowl of goodness which only needs a fork for eating.

The alternative is to serve the duck next to the pumpkin and onion salad.

How did the spiced pecans taste in the meal?

I was pretty impressed. Pecans added a nice kick of flavour. I think next time I’d use more cayenne pepper and maybe more five-spice. I was surprised the pecans weren’t too sweet and not too sticky.

What else has been happening?

Blogging

I haven’t been feeling the need to blog as much lately. I haven’t written in my diary blog for months, and I think I might retire it. I’ll probably focus blogging here at Yummy Lummy.

I still read a few blogs every day, and I pretty much always photograph my meals and share the images.

We’ll see how I go for now.

Life is pretty good at the moment. My days are busy, and I’ve been spending time contemplating some changes.

It’s been a harrowing year for so many people, yet for me, I’ve enjoyed working. Praise God; I’ve been blessed this year in so many ways. I’ve made new friends, got to know myself better, and I’ve worked with brilliant people. I think we all see on TV the big named people, but I’m thinking of the quiet achievers behind the scenes. The public servants whose thoughtful and intelligent advice has ensured we have the policy settings to respond with vigorously and with agility. These are the people who have assured Australia is in a good place right now.

Bodyweight maintenance

I’m pretty keen to avoid getting too heavy again. I don’t want to deprive myself of good food, but I’m conscious that to reach a so-called normal BMI, I need to get down below 72 kilograms. But, that’s the upper limit of normal. It means I need to aim for about 70 kilograms. I don’t know if I can do that.

You’ll see in this year’s weight chart; I recently had a sudden dip. I had a few days of feeling out of sorts and didn’t have much appetite. Since then, I’ve reduced my portion sizes a little without feeling deprived.

We’ll see how this goes. With Christmas coming up, it’ll be a little more challenging to keep losing weight so mentally I’m not going to get too focussed on numbers.

What’s next?

See you when I see you next.