Friday, October 8, 2010

Time for fall food again!

I adore Autumn. It is my favorite season for many reasons: the weather cools down and I can wear jackets again, the food turns to comfort and warmth, the colors start changing and Halloween is on it's way.

Obviously I am going to focus on the food here. Specifically on squash. I have just found, in recent years, that I have a love for the vine vegetables. Growing up I always hated squash, or so I thought. My mother insisted on the old standby of spaghetti squash, which she would bake into a mush and then smother in butter, salt and pepper or butter and brown sugar. This was always vile and flavorless and disgusting to my taste buds.

However, in the past couple of years I have decided to experiment with different squashes. If you go back into my archives(October 2009) you will find a stuffed Buttercup squash that my sister and I made last year. We have also prepared Kuri squash, Butternut squash, and Acorn squash. These squashes are all firm flesh, "meaty" and with distinct flavors. A vast improvement upon my childhood memories of squash.

Squashes are so versatile and, this time of year, cheap and plentiful. This past weekend we decided to make a squash soup inspired by Food Network Magazine's October 2010 issue.
here is the link to the recipe (and yes, we did make the bowls too)
Squash Soup in Pumpkin Bowls

Ingredients

For the Bowls:

  • 4 small baking pumpkins (such as hooligan or sugar pie), acorn squash or sweet dumpling squash
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • Kosher salt

For the Soup:

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 1 medium butternut or kuri squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 3 tablespoons
  • heavy cream (optional)
  • Freshly ground pepper

For the Toppings:

Directions

Make the bowls: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Use a paring knife to cut a large circle around the stem of each pumpkin (make a zigzag cut, if desired). Remove the lid and scoop out the seeds and fibers. Sprinkle the inside of each with 1/2 teaspoon each sugar and salt. Place the pumpkins and lids on a baking sheet; roast until tender, 20 to 35 minutes, depending on their size.
Meanwhile, make the soup: Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon salt. Strip the thyme leaves into the pot, increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the squash and sugar and cook, stirring, until glazed, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 5 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the squash is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Working in batches, transfer the soup to a blender, crack the lid to let steam escape and puree until smooth; return to the saucepan (or puree directly in the pan with an immersion blender). Stir in the heavy cream, if desired. Season with salt and pepper, and top as desired.

Now we made Pumpernickel croutons for our soup: we bought a loaf of Pumpernickel bread from the Harmon's bakery and cut it into 1 inch cubes. We baked these in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

For the soup itself we used fat free plain yogurt at the end, instead of heavy cream. We also topped the soup with salt, pepper and paprika before tossing in the croutons.

In the future I am going to use chicken broth, as plain water made the soup somewhat bland. I might also add cumin and curry powder, as I think curry flavors will go quite well with Butternut squash. Also we will not be making the bowls again, that was a lot of work for something that we didn't even eat, although it was fun and cute




2 comments:

  1. This looks really freaking good. Awesome :)

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  2. It was good, but she's right about the chicken Broth next time and I'm definitely onboard for adding Curry

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