Butternut Squash Soup, surprise!

More domesticity...

A few nights previous I had bought a rotisserie chicken from Wegmans.  I industriously cleaned much of the meat from its bones and put the carcass in a pot of water with carrots.  I let it boil away for quite some time.  What was left was some good chicken stock.

Today (Sunday) I bought about 2.5 lbs of butternut squash (already cleaned and cut) and decided to make soup. 

Loosely following a recipe, I baked the squash for about 30 mins (light coating of olive oil) and then poured it into the pot of stock.  I'm not sure how much stock there was, I'd say no less than 6 cups.  I also cut up a granny smith apple and plopped it in, along with the remainder of the bag of carrots.

I then squirted a good 3T of honey on top, threw in some bay leaves, and then liberally sprinkled cinnamon on top.  A little bit of cayenne pepper, some curry powder (not much) and my kitchen is now aroma laden and I hope this will turn out well.  When I get closer to the end I will put a cup of heavy cream into the mix.

When all was said and done I used a potato masher to even out the big chunks.  It worked out very well - very flavorful!  I now have several meals...

Chewy Curried Butternut Squash Soup (was Bisque)

I found this on Epicurious. Thank God for Wegmans, who already cuts up the butternut squash for you. If it weren't for that, I am not sure I'd venture into the wild world of this squash because they are rock hard. This recipe had a nice trick though - roast it! I even did it to the cut up pieces and it made it quite easy.

As always, the recipe is first and what I DID to it, is below.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Butternut-Squash-Bisque-237088

2 2-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise, seeded
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped peeled apple
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste*
2 14-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons honey
6 tablespoons sour cream, stirred to loosen
Chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush cut side of squash with oil; place squash, cut side down, on large rimmed baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 1 hour. Cool slightly. Scoop squash out into large bowl. Measure 3 cups squash (reserve any remaining squash for another use).

Melt butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, and apple; sauté 5 minutes. Add curry paste; stir 2 minutes. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, and 3 cups squash. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered 1 hour. Discard bay leaves. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to same pot. Stir in cream and honey. Season with salt and pepper. Rewarm over medium-high heat.

Divide soup among bowls. Drizzle with sour cream; sprinkle with cilantro.

What I did:

First of all, the above-mentioned Wegmans miracle squash is necessary for non-domestic goddesses. It is already nicely cut up and packaged, ready to go.
I poured two containers (about 20 oz each) into a cake pan and drizzled olive oil on top and popped it into the oven as directed.
It was then that I noticed the recipe did call for a blender. Drat. No blender. Well, I will just have to chew then - no sipping through a straw.

Wegmans ALSO sells chopped onions in a one-cup bag. Ditto julienned carrots (hey, at least I know what they are). Yes, I am lazy.

I threw in an entire chopped up granny smith apple. Well, all that I didn't sneak myself. (Can you sneak food, when it's just you cooking?)

From one of my last cooking adventures I had a whole container of bay leaves in the freezer (am I becoming a real cook now?)

I didn't add the red curry paste until near the end - it turned out just fine. I also don't have a blender so also near the end I took a potato masher and mashed away. Just enough to make it more fine, but clearly not bisque. Again, no worries. I only could find heavy cream, not sure if that is like whipping cream or not. It worked...

The honey is a nice touch because it is a little spicy (not a lot, but you can tell). I just dolloped some sour cream on top. No cilantro (although I should have sprinkled a wee bit of ground coriander on top, had I been thinking...)

This was marvelous and I've already set aside three lunch-size containers, with enough in the big container for at least 4 meals if not more.

This is a winter photo so I thought it would look nice here. Algonkian Park, not too far from home.

An unlikely but delightful pairing - butternut squash and pears

In the "wonders never cease" category, I made another dish from scratch tonight.

I found the recipe for Butternut Squash and Pear Soup in a (literally) 9 year old cookbook. In 1999 I was in London and went on a mission to find the little travel bookshop made famous in the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant. It really does exist, although Hugh wasn't there. On the same street (probably next door, although I don't remember) was the shop "Books for Cooks" and I browsed some titles. You may find this interesting, given my aversion to cooking, but I actually have a fair number of cookbooks. I bought a few from that bookstore as a matter of fact (one, because of the stunning photo on the cover...).

The one I used tonight was the One Year at Books for Cooks, Vol. 3. Apparently this recipe came from the book Anna's Kitchen.

1.5 pounds of squash (peeled, seeded, chopped)
3 ripe pears
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 T butter
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper
2 T chopped coriander to garnish
4 T creme fraiche to garnish

The method:
Melt the butter and stew the onions with a pinch of salt until soft. Peel, halve and core the pears, and add them in with the chopped up squash. Cover and cook slowly until all are soft. Pour in the boiling stock, bring to a boil again and then simmer for 20 minutes. Liquidise and push through a sieve into the rinsed out pan. Reheat, adjust the seasoning and serve in warm bowls with a spoonful of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of coriander.

First, what I changed from the above:
Wegmans sells pre-cut and prepped, vacuum sealed butternut squash
1 large onion, not 2 (it didn't call for large or small)
Instead of coriander and creme fraiche I used cinnamon and a dollop of yoghurt. I did BUY coriander so maybe tomorrow when I have it again I'll use it.

Nota bene - the squash was rock hard when I opened the seal, but, I turned the heat below medium, added a half cup of the boiling stock to help it soften more, and let it simmer for a good 20-30 minutes and it was all soft and mushy then.


I DID strain a helping with a sieve directly into my bowl, mostly to taste it, but then I added in the leftover mush that was still in the sieve and stirred. It was pretty creamy. I won't bother to separate it out the next time for eating. It is easier to taste the pears when you leave in the "mush".

The cinnamon and yoghurt were a great touch. I'm sure the coriander would be fine too.

I can't quite decide if the chicken stock overpowered the taste or not. It wasn't "all chicken-y" but I'm thinking the next time I may even use 3 cups chicken stock to a full cup of water.

This is supposed to make 4 servings but I'd say more like 6.

Enjoy!

The photo here has nothing to do with the meal, but, it is a "fall" kind of photo and the soup is definitely a fall kind of soup.