Curried Butternut Squash Soup - tastes like fall, but in India

My loves are asleep on the floor for the time being, an apple pie is in the oven, the dishes are (mostly) clean, and my hiccups are vanquished. Finally, I have time to sit down and write this post :)

First things first: I made caramel sauce today, from scratch. So proud! I feel more legitimate, somehow, as a person and a cook because of this. But that is another post for another time.

So, back last week when Mark had his wisdom teeth out (plus some) ... (and the week before that, actually), we ate a lot of soup. It is cheap. It is good for when you have dental work. It is delicious, and typically nutritious. And to me, it is a quintessential fall dish :)

Especially this one! It was a new recipe (I've been doing a lot of those lately ... most of them are wins, but I had a major fail last night. Let's just say savory bread pudding is not so savory, nor is it good - it just tastes like soggy bread. I think I'll stick with sweet dessert bread puddings with creme anglaise ... oh, yum!)

I keep getting off-topic.

Ahem. Where were we?

Oh, right. Soup. So, I found this recipe in one of my mom's old cooking notebooks (she has like pages and pages of recipes, and we went through them all the last time I was home), and it is SUCH a keeper.

You start with a basic Roasted Winter Squash recipe. I have no pictures of this step, because I have a new puppy, and had a sickly/sleepy/sore husband at the time. My hands were a little bit full.

Roasted Winter Squash
(This works for butternut, spaghetti, acorn, or just about any other winter squash you can think of.)

3 lb. winter squash
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Remove stem from squash, cut in half lengthwise, remove and discard seeds. (Or save them, roast them, and use them in something else!) Cut each half into 4 wedges, place on baking sheet lined with foil. (If using spaghetti squash, cut each half into 2 wedges.) Stir together butter and honey until blended. Brush squash evenly with butter mixture, then sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Bake at 450 degrees for 30-35 minutes until tender, turning once. Cut skins from squash wedges and discard.

Now we can move onto the soup.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
1 Roasted Winter Squash recipe
3/4 lb. unpeeled, medium fresh shrimp (I actually omitted the shrimp, making this a vegetarian dish, mostly because Mark couldn't chew anything at all. It was fabulous without the shrimp, and I also think it'd be fabulous with them - whatever your fancy!)
32-oz chicken broth
1/2 c. light coconut milk (I actually used the full fat to give the soup a little more thickness, and I probably used more than 1/2 c. Oh well.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. curry powder (I definitely used more curry than this, and I also used some Rogan Josh for an extra dimension of flavor. Be creative with your curry! I don't think you can go wrong...)
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Mash squash with a potato masher or fork, set aside.

Peel shrimp and devein, set aside. (Obviously, I omitted this step.)
Stir together broth and next 3 ingredients in a Dutch oven over med heat and cook, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat.

(While I was doing this, I also added a step, and an ingredient - I sauteed about half an onion, in order to give the soup a bit more flavor. I just added the sauteed onion to the broth mixture before the next step.)

Process squash and broth mixture together, in batches, in food processor or blender until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Return mixture to Dutch oven, add shrimp, and cook over med. heat until thoroughly heated and shrimp turn pink. Sprinkle each serving with cilantro.

I really wish I'd taken a picture of the finished soup, because it was a lovely orangey color totally reminiscent of the season. Oh well. Next time.

It was so, so delicious (even without the shrimp.) The curry complimented the flavor of the squash in the most delightful way, and it was so simple and lovely. I love when food tastes like what it's made out of. (Sounds silly, I know, but it's not as silly as you'd think anymore...)

And now, my pie is calling. Loudly. That'll be another fun post for a different day....

Happy cooking!

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

I am a really, really awful blogger. I apologize for the long hiatus ... it's not like we've not been eating absolutely delicious food ... I just got tired of taking pictures while cooking. But, this looked so scrumptious and exciting and FALL-ish that I couldn't resist.

We've been getting gobs of sweet potatoes in our CSA (which, by the way, I ADORE), and I've been coming up with some pretty creative uses for them, thanks in part to Epicurious, and in part to Smitten Kitchen. Oh Deb, you are genius. This particular recipe, by chance, comes from both - originally posted on Epicurious, Deb posted it on HER blog a couple years ago. And I'm posting it again.

It's the perfect recipe for fall/winter, when the weather's getting colder and the leaves are changing and falling, and the perfect recipe for when you've just had dental work done, and your mouth hurts. There's not too much chewing involved, save the sausage.

So here we go.

What you'll need:

-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

-1 10- to 11-ounce fully cooked smoked Portuguese linguiça sausage or chorizo sausage, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices (I used chorizo)

-2 medium onions, chopped

-2 large garlic cloves, minced

-2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 2 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

-1 pound white-skinned potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

-6 cups low-salt chicken broth (I actually used just 4 cups, because I wanted more of a thick hearty stew than a soup...)

-1 9-ounce bag fresh spinach (And I didn't use this much spinach)

To Make:

Chop up all your veggies and sausage.

Then get a really big pot, and heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil over med-hi heat. 

Add the sausage, and brown, cooking for around 8-ish minutes. After it's nice and brown, transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. 

Then add the onions and garlic to the pot, and cook them till translucent, about 5 minutes. I personally had to add a bit of extra oil, since some of mine poured out onto the paper towels with the sausage.

Once the onions are translucent, then you add all the potatoes. It looks like a TON of potatoes, but it will cook down a bit. You cook them for about 12 minutes, until they're getting soft. It requires a lot of stirring and scraping.

Beautiful :)

Once those babies are nice and soft, add however much chicken broth you want - add more if you want a soup, add less if you want a thicker stew-like something.

Scrape the browned bits off the bottom of your pot, and then bring to a boil.

Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to med-low, cover your pot, and simmer simmer simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

After it's done simmering away, mash some of the potatoes in the pot with a potato masher. 

Then add your sausage.

The original recipe doesn't say this, but I sort of let mine sit for a few minutes and get warm, and let the soup soak up some of that sausage-y taste.

Then add your spinach, stir it in, and let it simmer for another 5 minutes, or until the spinach just wilts.

And voila, you're done! You can add salt and pepper to taste, but I honestly didn't think this soup needed anything extra at all.

I had every intention of making cornbread to go with this, but I completely forgot about it until after the soup was done. I figure I'll whip up a batch tonight, because we'll be eating leftovers for several days anyway, plus some different soup later this week. It's a soup kind of week in the Skinner household.

Hope everyone enjoys - this is DELICIOUS!

Eggplant Parmesan

I am a terrible food blogger. I can't believe my last post was 9 days ago!! 

Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now...

Last night I made eggplant parmesan. Or, Eggplant Parmigiana, if you want to be correct and technical. It came from one of my mom's recipe files, and I have no idea who to credit the recipe to. But oh, it is yummy. Mark RAVED about it last night. He said it belonged at Leonardo's, "our" Italian restaurant. (Where we went on our first date, where we went the night we got engaged, etc. etc.) He literally begged for seconds.

So, you want it now? Here it is.

You start with eggplants. I soaked mine in heavily salted water for maybe 30 minutes? I've heard that helps get the bitter taste out, and also helps them retain their shape.

After they soak, you broil them in the oven

Till they're pretty and browned, like so

Then you take a 9x13 baking dish, and smear 1/2 cup of marinara sauce all over the bottom

Then you layer half the eggplant on top of that

Then more marinara

Then some cheese

And repeat!

Then you pop it in the oven

You're supposed to cover it with foil. I forgot, but that was okay, because Mark says he likes his cheese crispy anyway :)

 Et voila!

It's super easy, super yummy, and pretty darn healthy. There's a fair amount of cheese in it, but it's gotta have at least 2 servings of veggies per serving, maybe even 3. And what's better than that??

Here's the real recipe:

Make-Ahead Eggplant Parmingiana

You need:

2 eggplants, about 2 1/2 lb., cut into 1/2-in-thick rounds

nonstick cooking spray

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 jar (26 oz) marinara sauce, or you can make your own

(I was lazy, and used the jarred kind.)

1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella (I kind of rounded up and used more like 2 c.)

1/2 c. grated Parmesan

To make:

Salt or soak your eggplant if desired. Heat your broiler, and place half the eggplant on a broiler rack. (Or my ghetto version - a cooling rack placed on top of a baking sheet. Hey, it works.) Evenly coat the eggplant with cooking spray, and sprinkle it with 1/4 tsp. pepper. (I estimated.) Broil 4 in. from broiler, 4-8 minutes per side, till lightly browned. Repeat with the rest of your eggplant.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread 1/2 c. marinara in a shallow 3-qt. baking dish. Line with half the eggplant. Spoon on 1 1/4 c. marinara, top with 1 c. mozzarella. Then repeat with remaining eggplant, sauce, and mozzarella. Sprinkle with Parmesan, and cover with foil. (I forgot that one... oops.) 

**NOTE: you can indeed make this recipe early, and stop at this step, keeping the covered dish in the fridge for a day. Just add 10 minutes to your baking time if it's coming straight from the fridge.**

Bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbly. Let rest for 15 minutes. (We're never good at the "let rest" part of recipes....)

Enjoy!! It's a good one :)

I'm back!

I can't believe that I have neglected this blog for so long. Things have been a little busy here, traveling every which way... but I am back, with photos of our pasta adventure! (I accidentally threw away the recipe ... oops...)

We started with the mushroom filling. Isn't that just gorgeous?

Maybe not the most flattering picture of me ever...

After the mushrooms were cooked, we blended them with a ricotta cheese mixture in the blender, and I mutilated a plastic spoon. (We later picked bits of the spoon out of our ravioli. Thank heavens we didn't have dinner guests!)

After that mixture was done, it was set aside, and we started the pasta process. And oh my, what a process it was.

First you make this little mountain of flour, and make a valley and put some eggs in it.

Then you knead it for a while. Kelly had this job. She wasn't too sure about it, I don't think...

Eventually after enough kneading, it'll turn into a ball.

Then you split the ball in two, and roll them out into sheets. You try to make the sheets as even as possible, but that's easier said than done.

Then after those sheets are rolled, you spoon the mushroom/ricotta mixture onto the pasta. (Side note: every single time I try to spell "mushroom," I try to spell it like this: muschroom. I don't know why, and it's annoying!!)

After your mushroom mixture is on the pasta, you cover it with the other sheet and squish them together. Then you cut them into (sort-of) squares, and let them dry for like an hour.

After they'd dried for like half the time, we made a tomato cream sauce for the ravioli. That was some good stuff, although it needed some more salt. It was better the second day, when the flavors had blended a little bit better.

And after the pasta was all nice and dry-ish, into a big pot it went, and voila!

Mushroom ravioli on my patio outside. It was a lovely way to end an evening.

But to be perfectly honest, while it was quite a fun adventure, and very delish ... I'm not sure that I'll do homemade pasta again anytime soon. The whole thing took 3 hours to make, and lots of elbow grease between the rolling and the kneading. It was extremely work-intensive, and I DEFINITELY wouldn't want to do it all by my lonesome.

Coming up next (hopefully soon) ... lemon dill fish, summer squash croquettes, and quiche!

Ice cream and pasta...

Oh man, I can't wait until I get these next pictures developed (or at least a CD made...)

Because today, Kelly and I made homemade chocolate-almond-strawberry ice cream, and it is AMAZING. Like, tastes like Hagen-Daz. Yummy.

And right now, we're in the throes of pasta-making. It's messy business. We're taking a break and letting the pasta dough rest before we try to roll it out flat and even. Har har. We'll see. When we're done, it will hopefully be transformed into a delish dish of homemade mushroom ravioli with tomato cream sauce. But we'll see.

My timer just went off. Wish us luck!!