Mmmmm... Butternut Squash and Apple Soup... Aaaaaaaaaaauuugggghhhh!!

The nights are getting cold, that autumn scent is in the air, and it's time to start making SOUP!  Especially the creamy awesomeness of Butternut Squash and Apple Soup! When I pulled out the recipe i used last year and saw it had a lot of creme in it, I decided to research a little more, and found a couple recipes that I combined and cannibalized to make the bowl of rich delicious goodness you see on here that achieves the same warming smoothness and only adds a touch of real cream as a garnish, if desired!  Erika took some of this to work yesterday and her coworkers now want me to sell it to them!

I started with three smallish squashes

3 medium leeks

4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

4 peeled, cored and roughly chopped apples, the tarter the better!

2 teaspoons Toasted Spice Rub (recipe below)

2 32oz cartons of Chicken Stock

I split the squashes, cleaned out the seeds with an Ice Cream Scoop, and seasoned them with fresh ground black pepper, kosher salt and some rosemary...

Put 'em cut side down on a foil lined sheet sprayed with cooking spray...

and baked them for about 30- 40 minutes, till they looked...

like this inside.  While they cooled to a point I could deal with them...

I cut up the leeks.  I peeled the outside layer, cleaned them as best as I could, made lengthwise cuts seen here, then cut very thin slices from the end, stopping when they got green.  These three yielded about 3/4 cup chopped up.

I sauteed the leeks and the garlic in the bottom of the Stock Pot with 2 Tbsp butter, then added the cooked squash (which I scooped out of their skins), and the cut up apples.  After stirring this around for another 5 minutes...

I added the Chicken Stock.  It should be noted that this recipe could very easily go Vegan by switching the Chicken stock to veggie stock and by using Olive Oil instead of butter.  You may need to thicken the soup in that case, since the veggie stock lacks the natural gelatin in Chicken stock.   

(Please ignore the container of sesame seeds in the corner of some of these shots, it has nothing to do with this recipe.)

After this cooks at a low boil for, say, thirty minutes, remove to a large bowl...

and puree in a blender in batches, returning the puree to the pot, and heating back to a low boil before serving.

If you have a strainer, use it when returning the soup to the pot.  

I don't have one, so I didn't.

The finished soup, strained or not is sublimely delicious.  Creamy and smooth, and filled with good stuff!  The complexity of flavors from the spice rub comes through in every spoonful.

I have garnished it here with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a dash of fresh heavy cream.  If I still had any of my Creme Fraiche, that would have worked perfectly, as would a dollop of sour cream, or a handful of candied walnuts!

This is a bowl of squash that even Homer Simpson would drool over!

Toasted Spice Rub (courtesy Foodnetwork.com, Michael Chiarello):

I didn't follow Michael's blend perfectly.  Here is mine.

1/4 cup fennel seeds

1 Tbsp coriander seeds

1 Tbsp black peppercorns 

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tsp kosher salt

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Toast the first three ingredients in a small heavy pan over medium heat.  When brown, and stirring constantly, turn off the heat and stir in the pepper flakes.  Cool on a plate, then put in a blender with the chili powder, salt and cinnamon and blend until evenly ground.

Shrimp and Bay Scallop Linguine for Loser Friday!

Friday night used to be all about going out to see live music for me and my friends.  I am now in a band, and play out on one or two weekends a month, and as life goes on and we get old (er), when Friday night rolls around, the energy to go to a crowded club just isn't always there. Sometimes you just have to blow it all off and stay home on the couch and watch TV... like a loser.  Hence, "Loser Friday".  Last Friday, Erika studied for about 10 -12 hours for a major test, that if she passes (meaning, if she gets 93% correct) means she doesn't have to take an extra, very expensive graduate course.  She was, understandably stressed, and when I asked her what I could prepare for dinner that would make her feel better, she simply told me, "something comforting".  So with tears in my eyes, I headed of to the gym for my swim, and to get out of there and leave her alone.  While swimming laps, as is my custom, I thought about food.  It would be too late to make the all time go-to comfort food, my spaghetti and meatballs, by the time I got home.  So I came up with seafood and pasta.  Simple, yes I know, but success in this venture has always just eluded me.  When I got to the supermarket, I saw that both the Jumbo Shrimp, and the Bay Scallops were on sale, and the die was cast.

To the left are my prepped ingredients, all ready to go like on the TV shows.  My "Mise En Place", if you will.  You want to do this for a dish like this because you will not have time to prep ingredients as you go.  

Top from left: Whole Wheat Linguine; Fresh ground Pepper; Kosher Salt; 1 cup White Wine (sweet this time, a Moscato) Middle Row: Smashed and chopped garlic (1.5 Tbsp); 12 Jumbo Shrimp (deveined, peeled); 1/2# Bay Scallops; 2 Tbsp fresh Thyme leaves (pulled from the stems); 1/4 cup chopped Italian Parsley

Bottom Row: Two slices thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2 wide slices; 1.5 cups  diced, seeded, salt-sweated, rinsed and dried Tomatoes (very important not to add a lot of liquid with the tomatoes); Two Shallots minced; about 2/3 cup homemade Creme Fraiche.  

 I started by cooking the Shallots in 2 Tbsp butter, then adding the bacon.  I had intended to cook the bacon first and drain it, but forgot to pull it from the fridge first!  (So much for Mise En Place!!)

When the bacon and shallots were near finished, I added the rest of the aromatics (the garlic and fresh herbs).

Then I added the seafood, making sure that all pieces were separated and cooking properly.

When the seafood was half cooked, I added the tomatoes...

followed by the wine.  You want to add the wine early enough to burn out the alcohol without overcooking the Shrimp.  If I was more dramatic, I could have burned the alcohol off, I suppose.

A minute later, with the wine cooking off and the tomatoes cooking down, almost ready...

for the Creme Fraiche.  My first batch of homemade Creme Fraiche turned out a little thin, and when I stirred it in I realized that between the wine, tomatoes and thin Creme Fraiche, the sauce was a little thin.  So working fast, I added two teaspoons corn starch to a couple ounces of water, stirred till smooth, then added to the sauce, stirring constantly.  One minute later...

...I was plating my first successful seafood pasta dish.  I didn't show the cooking of the pasta, but you pretty much drop it in the water about the same time you put the Shrimp and Scallops in the pan.

Served with some grated Parmesan Cheese, a couple glasses of the Moscato, and of course, a super-sized portion of Me, It was all the comforting Erika needed for a nice relaxing Loser Friday!

As a note, I used Moscato because it was the only white whine I had in the house at the time.  A lot of people will find it way too sweet for their palate.  I thought it worked nicely in the dish, with the tartness of the Creme Fraiche and the acidity of the tomatoes.  You may use any white wine you are partial to.

Busy day Fish Tacos (not photographed), and a Most Righteous Tomato Pie.

Wednesday I made Tilapia Tacos, and was too busy to photograph it. I should have photographed THAT instead of the Crock Pot Surprise!  To summarize the tacos, please picture the following... 

I seasoned and broiled Tilapia  Fillets with home mixed taco seasoning (God Bless the Internet!)... made a spicy sauce with the remainder of the roasted hot peppers (from the Mango Salsa Verde I blogged about previously) with some homemade Creme Fraiche (more on the Creme Fraiche in a later blog)... served 'em up on crunchy and/or soft taco shells with split and seeded Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, chopped leftover Mango, Some shredded Napa (or Chinese) Cabbage, and shredded Taco cheese blend.  They kicked some serious *ss, although the boys were disappointed that the tacos they were promised turned out to be fish instead of ground beef or diced pork.  Owen actually liked them a lot once he tried them.  Ethan was underwhelmed, but still ate most of his fish. Success all around.  Wheee! 

This brings us to Thursday and the Tomato Pie I teased just above.

I cannot lay claim to this recipe.  I recently heard that to consider a recipe yours in the publishing world, you have to make at least three substantial changes, or omissions that change the character of the dish from the one you are inspired by.  Changing the amount, or dropping one garnishing ingedient doesn't change the overall character of this dish.  I had a counter-full of good ripe Beefsteak Tomatoes from the CSA and was getting tired of BLTs!  I found a recipe from About.com's Linda Larson, and made only a few changes due to availability and/or budgetary 

concerns.  I started with 4 tomatoes: 3 Heirloom and One Beefsteak... mainly because I didn't have 4 heirloom, Gosh are they tasty!  At this point I set my oven to 375 degrees. 

I sliced the tomatoes as you can see, sprinkled them with kosher salt, and placed them on paper towels to sweat for about ten minutes.  I will note here that this was not enough for these particular tomatoes.  the pie had a lot of extra liquid, although I was able to mop that up to no real detriment to the pie.

Look how dense the Heirloom Tomatoes are compared to the Beefsteak on the right.

My Mother always made her own crust... it wasn't that much work, was flaky rich and delicious, and was just plain cheaper. To my Mother's shame, I hung my head low as I rolled out Pillsbury Pie Dough into a greased 9" pan.  I would also like to say that I chose to leave the dough in it's rustic, untrimmed state as an aesthetic decision and a tribute to the natural state of the tomatoes, but the sad truth is I really just didn't want to deal with trimming and shaping it.

I sprinkled 3 tablespoons grated parmigiana cheese on the crust, and piled on the Love Apples!  I filled it past the top a little.

In a large bowl I mixed 3/4 cup light Mayonnaise, 3/4 cup shredded Taco Blend (you know... left over from the fish tacos? yeah... we're on a budget, waste not want not.). You could use 1 1/2 cups cheddar  like the original recipe called for... or not, we didn't miss it.

I Add 1/2 cup grated parmigiana, You want to add 20 chopped or chiffonaded (Love that word) basil leaves... or you could use 5 chopped almost-still-fresh basil leaves and a teaspoon dried basil like I did.

The original recipe calls for green onions but I omitted them for the obvious reason, and didn't want to go in the direction of the sweet onions I DID have in the kitchen. I mixed well and spread on top of the tomatoes... in my excitement I forgot to photograph that, so right back to the beauty shot of the beautiful tomato pie in all it's splendor, after baking at 375 for almost 40 minutes.  When the top is fully browned and the tomatoes are a-bubbling, it's done.

Notice how the pie dough in it's rustic, untrimmed state serves to pay homage to the natural state of the tomatoes.

This pie is absolutely delicious.  We had it fresh from the oven with some oven baked chicken breasts and a steamed broccoli, cauliflower blend... AND for breakfast the next morning, I had mine cold and Erika heated hers in the microwave. I come from tomato growing and canning people and I never heard of this till now.  Next time I will exert a little effort by blanching, peeling, dicing, and seeding the tomatoes, and by making a fresh homemade crust.  I might even trim it!

Crock Pot Day

Tuesday was Crock Pot day.
Crock Pot recipes ain't always pretty... but this tasted pretty darned good, was healthy, and including the leftovers I finally reheated for lunch Thursday,  it all got eaten!
So here... in the interest of full disclosure... in over-photographed storyboard detail... in order... is a picture story of what went into Crock Pot Day...

Pretty, Ain't it? All of the veggies and herbs are from our share at the Honeybrook Organic CSA Farm, In Hopewell.  The green leafy stuff is Swiss Chard.  you cut the stems off, where they meet the leaf, and chop them up.  You use them much like celery.  the squash are Patty-pan squashes, and they taste like... well... squash.  In this case that means they taste like the broth, which was the natural juices, and about 1 cup Swanson Chicken Stock.  the fresh herbs are Flat Leaf (aka: Italian) Parsley and Thyme. I also added some dried spices like oregano, salt and pepper.  The Chicken breasts are boneless-skinless, and they pretty much fell apart.  In retrospect I probably should have made this a full blown soup simply by adding more stock, and more potatoes...  Or I should have served it as is over some brown rice.  Anyway, there it is, It cooked on high for about 4-4.5 hours, although 3.5 would have done it.

So that was Tuesday... Crock Pot Day.