Mother's soup always a hit

This year I am involved in organising Collector Primary School's soup stall at the Collector Village Pumpkin Festival, which is always scheduled for the first Sunday in May (this year it is May 4).

Ten years ago, my mother was quite involved in organising the festival and used to gather people in the community to make the soup. Apart from being a really nice way of people in the community spending time together chopping up pumpkins, the soup was popular and sold well.

The tradition continues as the pumpkin festival committee and other volunteers get together annually.

I have good memories of this and this year I am hoping to replicate the same within the school community. So I spent a bit of time digging around the boxes of archives in the shearing shed for old pumpkin festival material and came across my mother's recipe for the 2006 festival.

She had written this note on the recipe: ''For 2006, we made 10 batches, which included soup for the Festival Ball (260 people). In total, this recipe makes approximately 36 litres of soup, which adds up to 144 cups of soup (250ml each).''

The numbers seem enormous to me, but I do remember the recipe being very popular and well-received, so I have scaled it all down by a factor of 10 - mum's recipe called for 10 kilograms of pumpkin a batch.

I have just gone with one below.

I have also put the recipe for the pumpkin scones we will be making.

I have dreamt of serving the roast pumpkin from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi. That is my favourite way to eat pumpkin, scattered with seeds and herbs alongside the burnt aubergine sauce - a meal in itself. But that would just add even more chaos to an already chaotic day. See you on the big day.

Pumpkin soup

1kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into chunks

300g diced onion

300g diced potato

½ a leek, sliced thinly

15g grated fresh ginger

1 sprig thyme

3 cups chicken stock or water

salt and black pepper

olive oil

a pinch or two of cayenne pepper

Cut the pumpkin into cubes of about 2.5 centimetres. Saute the onions in the olive oil until soft.

Add the leeks and potatoes and sweat them for a few minutes. I let a small amount of the mixture stick to the pan and develop a golden colour. This comes away from the pan and becomes added flavour for the soup when the stock is added.

Add the pumpkin pieces, thyme and grated ginger.

Add just enough chicken stock or water to cover, and season with salt, pepper and cayenne. Simmer for about 30 minutes and blend to desired consistency.

Garnish with chopped parsley or chives, cream and lemon juice.

Pumpkin scones

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp butter

1 egg

1 cup boiled and mashed pumpkin

3 cups self-raising flour

a good pinch of salt

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the pumpkin and egg.

Add the sifted flour and salt and mix minimally and gently. Less really is more here. If the mixture is too stiff, add a little milk.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roughly flatten it. Cut into rounds with a scone cutter. I like them quite thick.

Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Notes on scone-making from the Country Women's Association. Recipe from The Coronation Cookery Book (15th edition).

Scone making:

■ Dough that is too dry produces tough-looking scones.

■ Dough that is too wet causes scones to spread.

■ Liquid added slowly and not mixed evenly causes scones to be leathery.

■ Beware of baking too slowly (they will be tough) or too quickly (the inside will be soggy).

■ Place scones on a cake cooler when cooked.

■ Do not cut with a knife. This makes scones doughy.

■ Do not pack them while hot.