Lindsey says I am haven't been blogging lately which is mostly true. I have been thinking about it. Dreaming about what I am going to write to you. The skateboarders who barrel down our hill then wipe out. I laugh. The Kiki incident at Safeway in which I am running late and the tranny in front of me at the castro safeway decides to haggle the price of produce, needs her groceries triple bagged and then has a cab called for her only to solicit a $10 ride from the guy parked right next to me preventing me from getting into my car to drive over a cliff. I was going to write about all of these things but life got in the way.
The girls came over for pumpkin carving pre-Halloween and I thought I would make something the night before that I could just heat up. Failure. In that it wasn't ready when anyone showed up. That being said the Squash soup was a great success. So here I will share the recipe with you. It is easy but be warned cuttting an acorn squash with a mediocre knife is not only life threatening but you'll need almost as much patience as if Kiki was in front of you haggling the price of produce...at Safeway.
Squash Soup w/ gryuere croutons and Sage
(Loosely translated from a fine cooking recipe amalgamated with some recipe online) you get the point. This yields 1 large batch of soup to serve 5 people. I had leftover squash so I made an entire second batch but it will depend on the size of your squashes? Squash? Squashi?
1 Acorn Squash - the green one -
1 Butternut Squash - the big yellow oddly shaped one -
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
Fresh Sage - 2 to 3 tablespoons
32 ounces of Chicken or vegetable broth (one carton) this can be adjusted for consistency
Salt, pepper, ground ginger to taste
Cream (optional) but recommended
Gruyere (technically optional but how boring are you if you skip the cheese)
Cut squash in halves, peel and cube. Try not to loose a finger. It is not easy. Working in sections should help. Rumor has it you can make this easier by roasting it in half a little bit first but I can't attest to this. I did it the hard way. You need 2 cups of each squash.
Sauté onion and garlic in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil or butter. Add all (4) cups of squash. Add Broth. Add sage. Season as desired. Bring mixture to a boil and let it simmer till the squash is very soft. Turn off the heat and get ready for the messy part. You're going to blend the mixture in the food processor unless you are lucky and have an immersion blender. If you have my medium size Cuisinart this takes about 3 or 4 batches. Transfer blended mixture back into pot. Heat it back up and add cheese and or cream to taste. Et Voila. Croutons and/or crusty bread with melted cheese are highly recommended.
Also I added Chopped up sauteed spicy Italian sausage as a garnish in the second batch. It was delicious. Let me know how it goes or thoughts on whether you think perhaps adding a little wasabi powder to spice it up might be a bad idea? I can't decide.
Peace and gruyere croutons!
