Triple Pumpkin Curry

My dish for this month's 5 Star Makeover - hosted as ever by Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks - came about quite by accident. As in, I made the dish on purpose and only later realized that it fit with the October theme of squash. And retrofit it with the catchy little name of "triple pumpkin curry." And it's a good thing too, because otherwise I may have missed a 5 Star challenge for the very first time.

I am not so vain as to think you are sitting around wondering where on earth I have been and sighing and moping and waiting expectantly for my return (though hugs to you if you have) but the fact is I haven't posted for weeks. It's a record posting drought, in fact! It's not that I haven't been inspired. And I certainly (in between having a sinus thing and not being able to breathe) have been cooking. A lot. And writing. Tons.

Liptauer: The Cheese of Champions ... and We Have a Winner!

While I don't believe that liptauer cheese is widely recognized as a cheese of champions, I thought it was a fitting moniker here, as I have chosen this recipe to accompany the announcement of my pumpkin seed oil giveaway winner, which I'll announce at the end of this post. (Even if you don't read the whole thing, I have to at least compel you to scroll through the entire post to find out the winner,  now don't I?)

This also happens to be a  dish that I served at Poppa Trix's birthday dinner  alongside the gnocchi baked in pumpkin cream.  The dinner, as you may recall,  was intended as a recreation of our heuriger meals in Vienna. Truth be told, Poppa and I had never even heard of liptauer until we tasted it, not at the upscale Weinhof Wieninger, but at the rather more homey Kierlinger heuriger, where it was reputed to be something of a specialty.

Beans in Pumpkin Seed Cream, Courtesy of Weinhof Wieninger's Chef Mike

If you're following along at home, you may recall that in my post describing my wine-soaked visit to the Wieninger Heuriger in Vienna,  I promised to share one of the recipes that Chef Mike generously gave me. You remember Chef Mike (Miriam, this gratuitous shot is for you):

 You're welcome.

Now, you might think that "pumpkin seed cream" sounds a little heavy,  but this dish is actually quite light. (In fact, even his baked gnocchi in pumpkin cream is much lighter than you would think it would be, thanks to a little secret he divulged to me. But that's another post!)