Wednesday, July 02, 2008

The next time you're making squash soup

or pumpkin soup or soup of that ilk, lob a generous splash of scotch in it, along with a dash of either ginger or cinnamon. Something about the smokiness of the scotch and the sweetness of the squash just works. Oh man does it work! Bubble it for a few minutes until the alcohol cooks off, and serve it with a squirt of cream.

Do it. Do it now.

Detailed instructions:

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash/sugar pumpkin/other orange cucurbita
4 Tbs olive oil
cracked pepper
2-3 cups chicken stock or 2 oxo chicken bullion cubes
1/2 tsp cinnamon OR 1/2 tsp ginger (if you want to use both, make a fucking pumpkin pie)
1/4 cup good scotch (if you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it you Philistine)*
single cream or half-and-half to taste

What to do:

  • Cut the cucurbita in half, scoop out the seeds, cover cut side with oil, sprinkle with cracked pepper, and put face down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 F (175 C) until the skin is brown, shiny, and bubbling off the flesh.
  • Remove from oven, allow to cool, and scoop out flesh. Discard skin.
  • Whiz flesh through a blender with the chicken stock (this will probably take you 2 batches, depending on the corpulence of your chosen cucurbita). The texture should be nice and smooth, but a little thicker than you would want your soup to be. You still have the whisky and cream to add, remember.
  • Pour in saucepan, add spice and whiskey. Bubble for a few minutes until alcohol is cooked off. Or not.
  • Ladel out a bowl, add a splash of cream,** swirl it with your spoon so it looks like a photo in a cookbook, and eat it. You will like it. It is good.

If you really want to show off to your friends at a dinner party, toast the pumpkin seeds after you've removed them and save them for garish, sprinkling them on the surface of the soup right before you serve it. Your friends will hate you.




*my feeble attempt at imitating First Nation's delightful abusive cooking instruction

** Don't add the cream until you are ready to serve it. Leftovers keep much better in the fridge or freezer if you haven't added the cream yet.

10 comments:

bee said...

that picture is copyrighted and has been used without our permission. please take it off.

Geosomin said...

My mum's secret ingredient in hers was a spot of rye.

I'm gonna have to make that soup soon...

Gordie said...

You know what.. I love butternut squash and you have just given me the excuse I needed to buy a new bottle of bourbon.

Moominmama said...

bee: so is the stick you've got lodged up your ass. please remove it.

geo: i've never tasted rye. I'll have to give that a try!

Moominmama said...

gordie: get involved!

Gordie said...

Get involved in the cooking, or the drinking? Or the debate about intellectual property? (I can't believe you've never tried rye)

Moominmama said...

definitely the drinking and cooking. the debate you can take or leave as you will.

ZB said...

I was going to make a joke about the impossibility of making soup out of squash. A sweaty, thrashy, crashy game racquet based game does not broth make.

But I must admit it does look tasty...

Moominmama said...

I applaud your restraint.

Gordie said...

I did used to work with a woman who treated an hour on the squash court with her man as foreplay. Racquets were not taken into the bedroom.