butternut squash and apple soup

In my last CSA box I got a butternut squash and I knew what I wanted to make: butternut squash and roasted apple soup from the New York Times. I was really excited to make this soup and as always it was super easy, first roast the apples and squash, then put everything in the pot and heat through. Voila! The soup was a little too sweet for me, so next I'll include less cider and replace with broth or water.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

2 butternut squash, chunked

2-3 granny smith apples, quartered

2 T. olive oil

salt + pepper, to taste

2 c. apple cider (less than org. recipe)

3 c. broth (more than org. recipe)

1 t. ground cinnamon

dash nutmeg

1 lemon, juiced

garnish? dried cranberries or toasted almonds

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. F. Place chopped apples and squash in large dish, dress with olive oil and salt + pepper. Stir. [You will be peeling the apples and squash after roasted, so quartered/eighths is best]. Cover tightly with foil.

2. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes, remove apples to another dish and allow to cool. Return covered squash to the oven for another 15-30 minutes, or until soft. Allow squash to cool. When cool scrape squash and apples into 4-6 qt. pot. Discard skins. Puree with hand blender. Add apple cider, if needed.

3. Add remaining cider and broth or water to desired consistency. Warm over medium-low heat. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Eat warmed.

roasted roots

Another tasty way to prepare my stash of parsnips is to roast them. Parsnips are super sweet and full of flavor when roasted. I mixed them with some other roots including onions, carrots, garlic, and huckleberry potatoes (a pink heirloom potato from Oregon). The exact quantities were determine a bit by what I had on hand (I probably would have added a few more carrots and another onion). Douse with olive oil, salt, and pepper and then roast in a medium oven.

Roasted Roots

4 potatoes

3 parsnips

2 carrots

1 head garlic

1 onion

2-3 T. olive oil

1 t. salt

pepper, freshly ground

Clean, chop, and peel (if desired) all veggies and place in large baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix. Roast (375 deg. F) in oven for 30-45 minutes until done, stirring periodically. Enjoy! Reheats well.

swiss chard + parsnip POTAGE

Several years ago, as an exchange student I discovered soups of all sorts. In the US, I ate my childhood quota of Cambell's chicken noodle and cream of tomato, but the closest my family got to soup was chili con carne. We never even had stew.

My host mom served soup everyday at the start the evening meal and although she was not a good cook in general (dinner often arrived charred) she could make soup, or rather potage quite well. The French have many classifications* for what we americans call 'soup' including soupe, potage, consommé, velouté, crème, gratinée, garbure, and bisque (and many, many more). Although, I most frequently make soupe or veloutés I really love potages.

A potage is a blended soup without milk or cream (adding milk or cream will most likely make it a velouté or a crème). Potages are an elegant soup (although I always think of porridge when I see it written!) that are excellent starts for a meal, but usually too light to be considered a meal themselves. To turn it into a light meal have with half a sandwich, a salad, a quesadilla /grilled cheese or treat it as a starter for a small dish of pasta. I've been enjoying this soup with a quesadilla and another vegetable for lunch this week.

This marriage came together from my csa box. I have too many parsnips, I suspect I will be having many parsnips potages in the weeks to come (I really need to expand my parsnip preparations ... any favorites?). The basic potage recipe can be applied to any two seasonal vegetables and works well with winter greens and vegetables.

swiss chard and parsnip potage

1 T. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch swiss chard (I used rainbow), cleaned and chopped

3 parsnips, well scrubbed and sliced

broth/water, to cover

sea salt + pepper, to taste

1. In large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and cook onion until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add garlic, chard, parsnip and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.

2. Cover the vegetables with broth and/or hot water, bring to a simmer. Cover. Cook for 25 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked through.

3. Use your immersion blender to whiz the soup to a smooth, velvet consistency. If you don't have a hand blender (I'm sad for you), use a food processor, blender, food mill, or potato masher and blend the soup as smoothly as you can. Add more water/broth if potage is too thick.

* the most complete online resource I found, not conclusive: French Soups

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin soup

Lucky me! A friend, who has a fantastic large organic garden, shared her spoils with me earlier this fall when I was home for a visit. She gave me two pie pumpkins, four acorn squash, and a gob of garlic. What to make? I had dreams of moist pumpkin bread and bread pudding and pumpkin cheesecake. I also consider my savory options focusing on curries but then I thought, ah ha!, pumpkin soup. My first pumpkin soup which I had at a 12 course birthday feast, I realized I found the food of the gods. Over the next five years or so I experimented with a few recipes but was always disappointed. This recipe lives up to my memory. Enjoy this soup while you can easily find pumpkins at the market.

Pumpkin Soup

2.5 lbs pumpkin, peeled and cut into cubes (2-3 small pumpkins)

5 c. stock

1 c. onion, chopped

3/4 c. scallions, sliced (white part only) (1-2 bunches)

2 c. light cream

salt and pepper, to taste

scallions, sliced for garnish (green part)

1. In stock pot combine cubed pumpkin, stock, onion, and scallions (white part). Bring to a boil and simmer until pumpkin is tender. Puree with a hand blender. Cool.

2. Stir in light cream and season with salt + pepper.

3. Serve chilled or lightly heated with green part of scallions. 8 servings.

roasted pumpkin seeds

One of the joys of using real pumpkin, as opposed to canned pumpkin, in the fall are the pumpkin seeds. I love having them roasted, although when I'm preparing them I'm never quite sure if it's worth the work. I make a savory version with chili powder but they are also good sweet or salty.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds, well rinsed and membrane removed

salt + pepper

olive oil

chili powder

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Select a baking dish or shallow cookie sheet that allows for one layer of seeds. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Bake in the oven - if the seeds were dried overnight cook for 10-15 minutes, if they are still fresh from the pumpkin cook for up to an hour or until crunchy. Be careful not to burn.

snippy doodles

In a seemingly desperate state of needing something sweet I scoured my recipes to see what I could make with my limited ingredients (nearly out of flour and brown sugar) and came across this 'snippy doodle' recipe. It is light and fluffy and would be spectacular with some fresh pressed apple cider!

Snippy Doodle

Cream:

2 T. butter

2/3 c. suar

Sift together:

1 c. cake flour (I used all-purpose)

1/8 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

Mix:

1/2 c. milk

1 egg, well-beaten

Alternately add dry ingredients and egg mixture to creamed mixture. Spread thinly in a wax paper lined 9"x13" pan. Bake in 350 deg. F oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar (about 1 T.) and continue baking for 10 minutes. Cut in squares. Serve warm or cooled. Yield 18 bars.

acorn squash

Lucky me! When I was back home a friend shared the spoils of her garden and then I carted them back to the pacific northwest. She gave me a couple of pie pumpkins, four acorn squash, and six heads of garlic. Yummy, yummy, yummy in my tummy, tummy, tummy. I just got back two days ago and I've already baked the first two acorn squashes and eaten the first three halves. I usually eat it on the 'half-shell' with something sweet inside - apple sauce with cinnamon & raisins, cinnamon & sugar, or real maple syrup & butter. These toppings can be so sweat it's like having desert. This half I ate with a couple of scrambled eggs for lunch.

(I've decided to try some more savory versions of squash this fall ... if any are a success I'll share them with you).

Baked Acorn Squash

preheat oven to 400 deg. F

Cut squash in two and remove seeds. Arrange squash, cut side down in a shallow baking dish. Fill dish with water until it reaches about 1/4" (you might want to do this in the oven if your dish is particularly shallow). Bake squash for 15 minutes, or until tender. Turn squash over and fill cavity with apple sauce, raisins, and cinnamon mixture. Bake until warmed through. Serve.

* I usually make several at once and store in the fridge, they make good leftovers reheated in the microwave. For sack lunch, either take 'as is' or scoop out into another container.

oktoberfest

The weather has turned from the indian summer we were enjoying the northwest to something more typical of this time of year: overcast and rainy. The weather suggests a change in diet and sausages are sounding awfully appetizing (I don't like all sausages, but am developing a taste for them). I also just returned from vacation and needed to pick up something easy at the grocer's as I returned to town that was easy because I was exhausted (lots, lots of driving). I was looking for the chicken apple sausages (yum!) when I didn't find them I decided to try bockwurst because they reminded me of boudin white sausages. Both are white and made with pork. In Belgium boudin (white or black) is served with apple sauce so I also bought a sugar-free jar. The package of Bockwurst says to serve with red cabbage or potatoes (and mustard, of course) and I decided to first serve with potatoes (I had a few fingerlings left from before my travels). My next sausage will be with apple sauce. It's a perfect fall meal.