Thursdays with Kermit: Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I know, right?

It started when Full Circle Farm sent me kale a couple weeks ago and dared me to try it. And it was delicious.

So last week, when a large, unassuming butternut squash showed up in my Wednesday pick up, well, I figured Full Circle had issued the challenge. Thrown down the gauntlet, if you will.

"Try this," the farmers seemed to be saying, despite knowing full well that I just don't do squash.

A few minutes on the ol' Internets netted me a couple recipes I was interested in--namely some squash latkes via Hungry Girl. (I still plan to try those--they looked awesome!)

 But my dad had suggested trying squash soup recently and since every time I say I hate something without trying it, I end up loving it...I thought I had very little to lose.

Add to that, the fact that by the time I got around to making this, my squash was starting to look like it was going to give up its fight for life. And I can't have my produce going bad, you see. That would just be a shame.

I've never had Butternut Squash Soup, let alone the curried version, so I had very little to base my experience on. For all I knew, I did everything wrong and this is decidedly NOT an authentic version.

But pay no mind to my worries because, friends, this was delicious. The original version calls for a scant one teaspoon of curry powder which I thought was a little on the small side. I doubled that, and for the second teaspoon, I used Summit Spice and Tea's hotter, earthier Madras curry powder. It's fantastic stuff.

On to the soup, shall we?

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash, roasted and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
Sour cream mixed with 1 teaspoon lime juice, as garnish

Directions:
Simple enough. I don't have an immersion blender (hint to my lovely husband hoping to find me an inexpensive Christmas present? Ha!), so I piled the roasted squash and chicken stock into my normal blender and let it work its magic until it was a smooth, creamy consistency.

To ol' Kermit the Pot the soup went, where I added the seasonings and the salt and pepper. Be sure to taste your soup as you season. I happen to love a lot of garlic flavoring--you may prefer more curry. It's all pretty subjective and all about personal taste. Make the soup your own!

Can it get much simpler? When it's warm enough to eat, it's ready! As a bonus, I mixed a scant teaspoon of lime juice with some sour cream I had left over from enchilada night and garnished the soup with a few delicious dollops. Magic!


Happy eating, and many thanks to my friends at Full Circle Farm for another great week of produce!

Thursdays with Kermit: Farm-to-Table with Full Circle Farm

It was 4 degrees outside when I opened this box.
Amazing, right?

Some days, being a blogger is a lot of fun.

There are weeks and weeks where I swear nobody but my mom (and even that's not always a given) reads this thing and knows I exist.

But then every once in a while, someone in the food community reaches out and makes a connection. Whether its a story idea, a chance to try a service or product, or even a discussion about a new food-related technology, when I make connections with other food lovers or food companies, its a thrill.

Full Circle Farm recently revamped it's delivery services here in Alaska and wanted me to give it a try. In a galaxy far, far away a long, long time ago I had two CSA boxes delivered to me mid-winter. I lasted two boxes mostly because the produce was half-frozen and nearly decomposed by the time I got it to my table. I don't blame the company, really, that's just the reality of delivery options a few years ago. But it wasn't really budget smart and with the new, strange vegetables staring at me from the dark, cardboard depths, I lacked the motivation to try new things. New recipes. New vegetables. Neither really interested me back then.

Fast forward a bunch of years (and one food blog) later.

I love cooking. I love being brave with new food.

 I hate the fact that much of the produce available at those huge super stores are GMO franken-fruits that look spray painted and don't EVER spoil. (WTH is that about? An apple is supposed to rot eventually, right?)

 Full Circle has a new array of boxes and sizes to fit everyone's unique needs and now feature "Green Groceries" like chocolate, coffee, artisan cheese and breads, and sweets you can add to your weekly orders. Oh yes, I was curious.

This is week one for us and I nabbed our box in blistering Anchorage winds. My first thought was of frostbitten carrots and wilted lettuce. (Unfounded fears, really. All of my produce was amazing.) I started small. We got the seed order (for one to two adults) just in case it was too much produce for me to handle--if it was full of stuff my family didn't eat or I didn't know how to cook it would be such a huge waste.

And in case you're wondering, this week's produce included: new potatoes, green beans, a pomegranate, D'anjou pears, pink lady apples, lacinto kale, carrots, and sweet dumpling squash.

They even have a feature that lets you select what NOT to put in your box. Are you curious what some of mine are?

Well, no beets (I swear I taste dirt when I eat them), turnips (I just don't get the point of these poor tubers), and okra (slimy, fuzzy little beast that I mistake for a jalapeno at first, fast glance. Ack!)

It was the kale that caught my eye initially in this first box. I've never known what to do with the hearty winter green (or any green that looked like you might need the jaws of a Bull Mastiff to chew through). It always looked so...exotic and bitter. And it wilts pretty quickly in my experience (you know, that one time I bought it for juicing puposes and didn't touch it for the first six days...at which point it decomposed into a stink bomb in my fridge. Eww.).

On a  whim Wednesday night, I sauteed a bit of the kale with some butter and wine and garlic to assuage my fears that kale is a bitter, beastly monster that is going to foul up my kitchen and my stomach.

News flash:

Kale is FANTASTIC with butter and garlic! (I'm sure it's fantastic all on its own, but I'm working in baby steps here.) Even P thought it was fantastic as we finagled over the last few bites.

Right before the booze.

I was so impressed, I decided to invite kale on a date with my favorite green kitchen accessory, Kermit. Yes folks, I made soup. Again. I'm sure the month will be over soon and you'll miss my soup posts, so enjoy them while November lasts!

I had it in my mind that I had some Italian sausage links left over in my fridge from a pasta dish earlier this week. I set about grabbing up all sorts of ingredients and arranging them on the counter, and when I went to grab the sausage, I chose that exact moment to remember the sausage sandwiches P made us for lunch Tuesday afternoon. Dang.

Lucky for me, I'm a hoarder and I found about a cup of diced prosciutto from yet another pasta meal not too long ago. (I love cured meats. I love pasta. Fact and fact.)

And believe it or not, all of the ingredients were leftovers of some sort or another. I didn't have to leave the comforts of my house and  brave the 9 degree weather to buy anything.

On to the soup...

Prosciutto and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, chopped finely
1 medium waxy potato diced into small cubes(Yukon is what I had)
A few handfuls of washed, chopped kale leaves
4 cups of chicken broth
Bouillon cube
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dry white wine (I had Pinot Gris on hand)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

I started with the alliums and the potato. In your soup vessel, saute the garlic and the onion, along with the potato, in the butter for a few minutes until the garlic and onion turn clear. Toss in the prosciutto and slowly add the wine and rosemary. Simmer for about two or three minutes to soften the wine. Add your broth, enough water to make you happy and a bouillon cube if you think your base is a little weak.

I added the kale at this point and covered. It simmered on a low, roiling simmer for about 30 minutes to ensure the potatoes were cooked through. They were. I seasoned to taste, lamented the fact that this was the third awesome soup that I had no fancy, crusty bread to eat with, and got on with my life.

It was fantastic.

The majority of the box didn't last long, I'm afraid to say. I ate those pears pretty hastily. The boys got Pink Lady apple slices with their waffle breakfast yesterday. The boys AND I took down the beautiful carrots before any other veggie even made it out of the box for inspection. (Oops.) The potatoes and green beans are slated for Sunday's roast chicken dinner, and the pomegranate is just waiting for some inspiration. The two funky looking squash, well, I'm looking into ways to stuffing them with sausage and bread crumbs. Wish me luck.

So, go forth and make soup, lovelies! And a million thanks to the farmers and folks at Full Circle for doing what they do. Could you imagine a life without farm food? More on that later.

Happy eating!

Glacier Valley CSA Shuts Down

Ugh!

It's a sad day for Alaskan fans of eating local. Today, an e-mail arrived in my inbox letting Glacier Valley Farm customers know that the operation will be shutting down its CSA service effective September 25. The letter follows:

Dear Glacier Valley CSA subscribers,

After much discussion and soul searching we have decided to suspend the CSA portion of Glacier Valley Farm’s operation indefinitely.  The week of September 25th will be our last week of deliveries, and we will cancel all subscriptions after that week.

We are thinking about ways we might be able to offer you storage vegetables into the fall and winter.  We will keep you posted about that, and we will also let you know if we hear of any opportunities to get local produce that might be of interest to you in the future.

Below is a link to two letters, one from Arthur and one from Alison, that outline some of the reasons for our closing, the successes we have had and the problems we have found hard to overcome, some plans for the future, and some of the things you can do to continue to support Alaskan farms and farmers.

We (Alison, Arthur, Dan and Ken) have gotten to know many of you personally over the years and we are grateful for your past support.

With kind regards and many thanks,
The Glacier Valley CSA team.

*Sniff.*

Here's wishing the best to the entire team and much luck on all their future endeavors. It's been a great run and I personally have enjoyed every single box.

Full Circle Farm still offers delivery service to Alaska for folks looking for an alternative. Know of any others? Please share!

Happy eating!