Butternut Squash Soup

A week or so ago I found a very cool cookbook. I have seen it before, but this time I was very motivated to buy it because it had a particular recipe I had been looking for. The book is by Todd Wilbur, who apparently has written several copycat recipe books for beloved restaurant fare . I am still honing the recipe I bought it for, but in the mean time, I found the recipe for Spago's Butternut Squash Soup. I have had squash soup that I liked, I have tried to make it and it was ok, but this was really yummy and very fallish.

We decided that, even though my family likes soup as a main dish in the fall and winter, this is really a side dish type of soup. So, on the second night, we had Butternut Squash Soup with cheese sandwiches. It was a perfect combo! I can imagine scenarios, like when my sons were still at home, when that meal would have required a few loaves of bread to provide enough sandwiches; but for less ambitious eaters it hit the spot.

The soup was better the next day, apparently needing the time to meld the flavors together; AND it froze well. I froze it in 1 quart bags lying flat. It thawed very quickly, maybe a couple of hours at room temperature and heated beautifully in a saucepan on medium/low heat.

Spago's Butternut Squash Soup
Todd Wilbur

1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped leek (about 1 leek)
1 1/2 pounds cubed butternut squash
(about 5 cups or 1 squash)
1 Gala apple, peeled and chopped
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 Tablespoon light brown sugar

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium/low heat, then add the leek. Sweat the leeks for 6 minutes, or until soft, and then add the butternut squash, apple, chicken broth, and all the spices. Don't add the heavy cream or brown sugar yet. Crank up the heat to medium and bring this mixture to a low boil and cook for 30 minutes, or until the squash softens. Turn off the heat and let the soup cool for 5 or 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender and blend on high speed until completely smooth. Add an additional 1/4 cup of water to the soup if it's too thick to blend. (To avoid a very messy and very hot situation, press down on the top of the blender with a folded dish towel to keep the lid from popping off.) I only blended about 2 cups at a time which also helped to minimize the hot soup from exploding.

Pour the soup back into the saucepan and add the cream and sugar. Bring the soup to a simmer over medium/low heat, about 10 minutes. Spoon approximately 1 cup soup into bowls to serve.

Serves 6

What I Do: I would use only 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice because the flavor was a little too strong for my taste buds. I didn't have cardamom on hand so I omitted it. I used black pepper and it did not adversely affect the appearance.

Pumpkin Bread

As I've said before, I love fall! In fact, the last few mornings I really enjoyed opening the door to a puff of brisk air. I start nesting and hibernating in the fall, maybe I was really meant to be a bear. In fact, I'm sure there are some days my kids would have said I was definitely a bear--although I don't think fall had anything to do with that.

The crisp fall air, entices me to the kitchen to cook and bake and warm the house. While apples and pumpkins are the traditional fall icons, I have written about apples and previously included apple recipes. So, prompted by my friend, I am including one of my family's favorite pumpkin recipes.

This pumpkin recipe goes back to the days before dirt when I was an undergraduate in college. My adventurous roommate decided that she wanted to make pumpkin bread but did not have a recipe. That did not even slow her down-she began concocting what proved to be fabulous pumpkin bread. We (the roommates) all liked it so much that we got together with her and made it a few more times, taking copious notes in the process, until we had it just right. Now, 35 years later (I cannot possibly be THAT old) it is still our family's favorite pumpkin bread recipe.

We also have excellent results with using grated zucchini instead of pumpkin; but this recipe definitely has fallish flavor because of the spices, so it is not your typical zucchini bread. If you have gargantuan amounts of zuchini frozen in your freezer not sure when you will ever use it, this is a great recipe to show it off. No one will be the wiser and everyone will appreciate the treat.

Pumpkin Bread

Peggy

2 + 2/3 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup water

2/3 cup oil

4 eggs

3 1/3 c. whole wheat flour

1 ¾ cups mashed pumpkin

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½-1 cup raisins or chopped nuts optional

Mix ingredients in the order listed. Pour into greased loaf pans. (1 pan makes a taller fuller loaf. 2 pans makes, obviously, 2 smaller loaves. I have made it both ways.) Bake for one hour at 350º F.

WHAT I DO: I use whole wheat flour when I have it, but I have made it with only white flour, but it is definitely more moist so add an extra 1/2 cup of flour when using only white flour. I like the nuts, but just use a half cup or so (mostly to save money), but my family does not like it with raisins so I never use them in this recipe. I usually use canned pumpkin, but I have made it with my own cooked pumpkin, which results in a more moist bread.

NOTE: This is the recipe that my family uses for both pumpkin and zucchini breads, but it does have more of a fallish flavor.