Gourds

Savory

Squash is not something I am very familiar with. It is not something that I grew up with, or even something I’ve experienced much as an adult. Thanks to the powers of the Internet (thank you Mr. Gore), Garrett figured out how to choose a good butternut and acorn squash. Sunday is NFL football day at our house; there are usually people over around dinnertime to watch the night game. I’ve decided that Sundays may be Soup Sundays, and when Jade comes over, Soup’n Dip Sunday. I recently acquired an emersion blender, so I’ve been searching for more recipes that I can make that require such a tool, and a squashy soup sounded like the ultimate fall meal.

This squash went through a lot to be in this soup; it was sliced opened, only to have its pulpy innards scooped out. It was then slathered in a butter and olive oil bath and laid down on a baking sheet to be roasted in a 425F oven for about an hour. As soon as they were sufficiently roasted, they were pulled out and again endured the harsh reality of the spoon to scoop out the rest of the yellow-y goodness.

Winter Squash Soup with Cheese Croutons

(adapted from various online recipes)

Soup
¼ cup butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups homemade chicken stock

1 whole large butternut squash, roasted

1 whole large acorn squash, roasted
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sage
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup whipping cream

Croutons

1 large French loaf
½ cup grated cheese, any kind. I used a creamy havarti.
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage

For soup: Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until clear, then cook with garlic for another few minutes. Add herbs and cook for 2 minutes. Add broth, squash and pumpkin and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 15 minutes. Puree soup with hand blender. Stir in cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

For croutons: Preheat broiler. Slide loaf. Butter 1 side of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.

The result was a very thick uniform soup that looked like a mango purée. The color was like the autumn trees before the winter wind forces its leaves to the ground. This soup was incredibly easy to make and relatively good for you with a minimal amount of cream. Everyone enjoyed it and I’m glad I made extra croutons.

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Sweet

Pumpkin is a gourd that I am slightly familiar with. One of my first cooking experiences with pumpkin was when I attempted making pumpkin pie from scratch. At the time, I didn’t realize that for pies, one would use a sugar pumpkin, not the jack-o-lantern kind. It took me forever to cut up the pumpkin and prepare it – by boiling, for some ungodly reason – only to have the pies come out of the oven looking like pale baby food. I haven’t been brave enough to attempt it again. These days, I always have pumpkin on hand for the cat but it’s been a while since I made something with pumpkin again. I did make pumpkin cream cheese bread last year, but I wanted a recipe that didn’t require 6 (!!) eggs, so I varied this recipe that I found. And just try not to think of eggnog when you add that nutmeg.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

(Nancy Creative, October 2010)

Filling:

1 package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 large egg

1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract

Bread:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/4 cup(s) pumpkin puree

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 .5 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large loaf pan with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg, and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy, then set aside. In a large bowl, blend flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, canola oil, eggs and sugar; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until combined.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the loaf pans. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of the pumpkin batter and then spoon on the remaining pumpkin batter (don’t worry if you didn’t leave yourself enough pumpkin batter, once you start swirling it will be alright).

Take a knife and swirl the knife around in the layers, creating a marble effect.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes; remove to a rack to cool completely.

The original recipe had a cinnamon glaze, which sounded delicious, but with already about 2 cups of sugar in the bread, I decided it wasn’t really necessary.

When I took the loaf out of the oven, I was slightly concerned that I hadn’t left enough pumpkin batter for the top; but the first bite assured me that it was just fine. The pumpkin makes the bread unbelievably moist, and the cream cheese adds a sweet, familiar tang.

Aren’t these eggs lovely? Garrett and I are making an effort to buy free-range eggs, and we’ll be making a trip very soon to Ben’s Meats on the west end to stock up on some meat. These eggs are from Rabbit River Farms in BC, and we found them at the Save-On Foods on 109^th. We live across the street from Planet Organic downtown where they have a plethora of products like this, but it’s nice to see things like this in a mainstream supermarket.

Happy gourd-ing!

(Sorry the formatting is off!)