(A story behind) Butternut Squash Soup
A couple of weeks ago, I sauntered into the Fresh Market and saw on display a sign of autumn: various squashes, gourdy-looking things, including acorn and butternut. Without thinking much, I put one butternut into the basket and it was the first thing I had acquired. Turns out, out of the two meals I made, the squash never made it to the party. But I knew what I wanted to make: a soup based on this squash.
This is where I digress and ask you a question. Have you ever made a dish, either from a recipe, or as in my case, completely on your own, where when you were finished it hit you in the head… this is haute cuisine? Because when I had finished my soup, I knew it was… special. It was that unexpected kind of special, like, “Hell, how did I make this again? Because this recipe might be worth something!” Instantly, I saw myself serving this soup in small cups that I obviously didn’t own (fancy, at that) to guests with their noses in the air, all poised to watch me fail at making great cuisine. Instead, they sip this magic soup, and expressions of utter shock and awe wipe across their face. Only soon, you see, those expressions are replaced with smiles and uttered requests for more soup. And a soup like this would set the stage for a killer meal, you know. “This is the best soup I think I’ve ever had,” one might say, and another, “definitely…”
Ok, dream-state aside, there was no fancy dinner party with discriminating women with fancy jewelry or male wine connoisseurs… but I did feel the soup was riche enough to serve in…. mugs. I need to get some smaller little fancy soup containers, for sure… the leftovers were still good in a full-sized soup bowl for a lunch, a week later, after freezing. Yes, it froze wonderfully.
I give credit here to Patrick O’Connell who was giving me inspiration in the last three recipes I made of his… no, this isn’t an O’Connell recipe, I figure the squash was really just wonderful and somehow some of O’Connell’s genius rubbed off. Maybe. Well, I don’t have a precise recipe, but here are the basics:
- Start with a sauteing a sweet onion in butter.
- Once soft, add a chopped stock of celery.
- Add 3 cloves of garlic. Let the onion take on some color.
- Roast the squash, cut open, halves down, in the oven while this is going on… 40 minutes?
- Add a combination of chicken and vegetable stock to the onion mixture, and then scoop out the squash into the soup.
- Season with salt and pepper, bring up to a light boil, then take off heat.
- Blend well in batches in a blender, adding heavy cream to each batch.
- Revisit in the hot soup pot, stir to combine, and add fresh nutmeg. More salt to taste.
That’s it, folks… it was thick, creamy, and just the right combination of sweet, “nutty,” and savory. The color was gorgeous, too. Sorry, no photos this time around.
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