B is for Butternut Squash Soup

I've had plenty of mediocre butternut squash soups.  They often need salt or lack some type of seasoning and typically they're too watery.  Why do so many chefs add apples and baking spices to butternut soup?  It's not dessert!  In my opinion, it should be more savory and less sweet.  I've ordered squash soup at restaurants before feeling confident that I'm making a smart, healthy choice, but after a few spoonfuls I feel disappointed.  Anyone else felt this way before?  In my mind, butternut squash soup might as well be called "jealousy soup," because I'm usually envious of the appetizers other people ordered.        

Many butternut squash soups disappoint, but this is an absolutely fantastic recipe.  I've made it a dozen times and for some reason, we don't tire of it quickly.  Peter and I like to have a small bowl as a first course to our meal and sometimes we pack it in our lunch bags with half a sandwich.  The flavors from roasting the squash and caramelizing the onions make it very special and give it the savory quality that I crave in a soup.  The blend of herbs--parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme--is absolutely perfect.  Fresh herbs are essential!  If you want to cut back though, at least use fresh rosemary and thyme.  When I prepare this soup, I use homemade chicken stock, but I'm sure the canned version would be just fine as long as you get the low-sodium version to control the saltiness.  If you want to make this vegetarian friendly, substitute vegetable stock for the chicken stock.  Now, as a disclaimer: this recipe is not low-fat.  There will be heavy cream involved.  However, this soup is so rich, flavorful, and creamy, a relatively small serving is satisfying.  Expect to see empty bowls!  

Butternut Squash Soup
adapted from Tim Douglas' Seattle Kitchen

3-4 lb. butternut squash
olive oil for brushing squash
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 c. thinly sliced onions (about 2 onions)
3 c. chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
1/2-3/4 c. heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp. sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
creme fraiche and thyme sprigs for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Brush the cut edges with olive oil and place on a baking sheet, cut side down.  Roast the squash until very soft, about 80 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  When cool enough to handle, scoop the squash out of the skin and set aside.

While the squash is roasting, caramelize the onions.  Heat the butter with the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally until they are soft and golden brown, 20-30 minutes.  Do not let them burn or become crispy.  Set aside.

In a food processor fitted with a standard chopping blade, process the squash, onions, and 1 cup of chicken stock until smooth.  This may need to be done in two batches, depending on your food processor.  Pour the puree into a large pot.  Add the remaining 2 cups of chicken stock and heat the soup to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Add the heavy cream, chopped herbs, and vinegar.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, ladle the hot soup into bowls and serve with a swirl of creme fraiche and a thyme sprig.  This soup can be made a few days before you plan to serve it; just store it in the refrigerator and reheat before serving.     
 

G is for Green Pasta

Now that I've learned to make fresh pasta, it's getting much easier to whip up a batch.  Homemade pasta is truly delicious and I enjoy making it, but I need to figure out a better way to store it because my go-to recipe from Epicurious makes so much.  I'm still surprised by the sheer quantity of pasta I get when I decide to roll out some pasta sheets, so I need to work on halving the recipe or find an alternative.

My most recent adventure with pasta included a bit of spinach.  I know green pasta makes some people a bit wary, but I love it!  I took about half a bag of baby spinach and pureed it in the food processor.  Then I added my regular pasta ingredients and used the food processor's pulse function to mix everything to a kneadable consistency.  It turned out great!  

Peter and I bought some clams and mussels and made a wine sauce to steam them in from Smitten Kitchen.  We served the mussels and clams over my spinach pasta and enjoyed our meal out on the porch.  Delicious!  

Spinach Fettucini

adapted from Epicurious

1/2 bag baby spinach leaves

3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
4 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
2-3 Tbsp. water
A pasta machine 

Puree the spinach leaves in a food processor, scraping the sides of the work bowl with a spatula to ensure all the leaves are evenly chopped.  Add the flour, eggs, and salt and pulse several times to mix.  Add water 1 Tbsp. at a time through the feeder tube until it begins to form a ball.  If the dough is too dry, add water a little bit at a time and stop when it is firm and not sticky.  Process the dough for about 15 seconds more to knead it and then transfer it to a floured surface to let it rest.  Cover the dough with an inverted bowl for about 1 hour so the gluten can relax and rolling will be easier.  

To roll the pasta, divide your dough into 8 equally-sized pieces.  Flatten each piece into a rectangle and cover the remaining pasta pieces while you work with one at a time to flatten it.  You do not want them to dry out.  Lightly dust 1 rectangle with flour and feed it through the rollers of your pasta machine.  On my Kitchenaid mixer attachment, I set it to 1 (the thickest setting) first and took it through several times to make long, even rectangles.  The mixer speed was set on the lowest speed and I thought that was as fast as I would really want to work.  I ran each pasta sheet through on setting 1 about 5-8 times, sometimes folding it in half length-wise to avoid getting sheets that were excessively wide.  Turn the dial to the next narrower setting and feed the dough through the rollers without folding.  Continue to feed the dough through each level once without folding until you reach your desired thickness.  I took my pasta through each setting and stopped at 5 or 6.  Don't skip levels of rolling because the pasta will crumble out into your hand instead of sticking together and thinning out.  Your pasta sheets should end up being about 3 feet long and roughly 4 inches wide.  Cut the sheets shorter if you like and lay them on a lightly floured surface to dry while you roll the remaining rectangles.  You can also lightly dust them with flour and hang them over the backs of chairs, a broomstick, a pasta tree, or a drying rack.  When your pasta sheets are leathery but still pliable, it's time to cut them.

To cut the pasta, I changed the attachment on the mixer from the roller to the fettucini cutting tool.  I carefully led each pasta sheet through the cutter and caught the fettucini underneath with my hands.  I put the cut pasta on a rod to dry overnight.

Mussels in White Wine Sauce

from Smitten Kitchen

2 c. white wine

1/2 c. minced shallots

handful of parsley, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. pepper

6 Tbsp. butter

2-3 lbs. mussels, scrubbed 

2 lbs. clams, scrubbed 

Add all the ingredients to boil in a dutch oven or large pot.  Boil for 2-3 minutes and then add the clams. Let the clams steam with the lid on for about 3 minutes and then add the mussels to the pot.  Cover and boil for 4-5 more minutes.  The shells will open up when the mussels and clams are done.  Ladle the clams, mussels, and broth into soup bowls and sprinkle with parsley.  You can serve this over pasta or with hearty bread to soak up the delicious broth.     

M is for Mashed Potatoes

Today I had a three hour dentist appointment.  My mouth hurts, my jaw is sore, my gums are sensitive, and I'm feeling cranky.  In addition to these maladies, my stomach is also growling.  This seems like a night for me to revert to my favorite food: mashed potatoes.  It's comfort food at it's finest!

Mashed potatoes have been my number one favorite food for as long as I can remember.  Well, more accurately, I've claimed them since the age of eight.  I know this because when I went home to Richmond over spring break, I found my autobiography:  My Book about Me.  It's actually a Dr. Seuss book, but it's meant to be filled out by a child.  When I completed this little gem as a third grader, I wrote that I had 435 freckles and 16 windows on my house.  My favorite color was pink at the time and mashed potatoes were my favorite food.  I'm questioning the accuracy of my 1993 freckle count, but I trust in that mashed potato comment.  Some things just don't change with time, and I have two grandmothers who have fed my potato habit for years and years.  I just can't kick it.

As an adult, I've adapted my recipe many times, but it always comes back to the same basic procedure.  Sometimes I'll toss some goat cheese or cream cheese in the mix, add finely diced onion or pureed cauliflower, or I'll leave the skins on the potatoes for a chunky version.  I love to add fresh herbs and I did that today because I just planted my new strawberry pot full of gorgeous green herbs!  Isn't it adorable?  I used chives, boxwood basil, and thyme.  In the pot, I also included cilantro and oregano and planted phlox on the very top.  I'm hoping it will grow and creep gently over the sides.

Mashed Potatoes
by Rachel

6-8 Yukon gold potatoes
2-4 Tbsp. butter
1 c. milk (or 1/2 c. cream and 1/2 c. milk)
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
kosher salt
pepper to taste
handful of chopped, fresh herbs (such as parsley, basil, chives, thyme, or rosemary)

Wash and peel the potatoes.  Cut them into thick discs or quarter them for cooking.  Bring a pot of salty water to a boil and gently drop in the potatoes.  Boil for at least 20 minutes.  You'll know they are done when you slide a fork in and the potato falls right off.  Drain the water and then use a masher to smash up the warm potato pieces.  Transfer the mashed mixture to your mixer and let the butter melt into the potatoes.  While the butter is melting, put the milk in the microwave for about 90 seconds so that it is lukewarm when you add it to the potatoes.  With the mixer at a low speed, slowly incorporate the milk, stopping when the potatoes are a little more creamy that you really like.  Some of the moisture will be absorbed into the mixture over time, so by doing this, you can avoid dry and lumpy potatoes.  Add garlic salt, pepper and salt and beat on high speed for about 1 minute.  Finely chop a handful of fresh herbs and toss them into the mixing bowl until just blended.  Transfer to an oven-safe dish, cover with foil, and keep warm at 200 F until you're ready to serve the potatoes.

If no one is watching, lick the beaters.