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!

Thursdays with Kermit: Split Pea Stew with Ham

Kermit the Pot with the early trappings of a fantastic green soup.

Just so we're clear, the Kermit part of my Thursday is NOT the soup. I didn't puree Kermit and make green soup. I swear!

Kermit is the name of my beloved, avocado green Dutch Oven. My makeshift soup pot I've just happened to have been hanging out with the past few Thursdays.

See, I am home with the tiniest tribe members on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, I'm still feeling a tad industrious and I'm usually cleaning. By Thursday, chances are I'm stressed out from the office job and couldn't care less if the toilets need a good scrub or what state the cat box is in downstairs. I just want comfort food and Jane Austen movies on the DVD player.

I've stated before I'm pretty much the only soup eater in the house at the moment, but I'm optimistic that one of these days, I'll hit a home run with Kermit that will get the entire gang on the soup bandwagon. One of these days.

About a month ago, I was at the grocery store and bought a bag of split peas. I have no clue why. My mom makes the BEST split pea soup and maybe I missed her and maybe the fact that they only cost $1.09 for the pound struck a nerve with my broke self. Who knows. Point is, I had them. And remembered them. And combine that with the fact that a guest brought over and entire cooked ham last weekend, and well, ingredients for a perfect split pea party...and Kermit's the guest of honor.

I searched high and low for recipes and they all seemed too fancy. I remember my mom's soup as being low-maintenance. None of this "herb bouquet" nonsense or the need to blend the damn thing with oven mitts and a face mask for protection against scalding hot splatters from the blender. No way.

I tried to decipher what the hell a ham hock was with no success. Was it that ginormous ham bone in the bowl with the gelatinous goo hanging from it? Aren't ham hocks the round things my dad used to throw at the dogs, who would subsequently yak it up on the living room carpet a few hours later? (Sorry. TMI. Guilty as charged.)

Mom's made plenty of batches of the stuff with no mystery hock in sight, so I rough chopped as much ham as I felt I needed and tossed it in. So there. It's my soup. I'll toss the disgusting ham jello in there if I feel like it! (But I don't, so no worries.)

This soup is perfect for days like today in Alaska. It's snowing  heavily. I don't have to go anywhere until later this afternoon when it's time to rescue the second grader from the giant snow pile known as elementary school. And I'm hungry. Hungry and in need of a "food hug" from Kermit.

I call this a stew only because it's not pureed. The onions remained onions, the peas remained peas. No minced garlic clove was liquefied in the making of this soup. It's rustic whereas the traditional version has to be passed through a sieve a few times. (Annoying, right?)

On to the soup...

Split Pea Stew with Ham

2.5 cups of rinsed and picked over split peas
5 cups of water
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons of thyme
Bay leaf
1 tsp salt (more or less, to taste)
Pepper, to taste
Ham hock (seriously, it always goes back to the ham hock) or 2 cups chopped, left over ham

Is this the hock? Or is this the bone?
Darn you, mysterious meat pieces!

I rinsed the peas and looked for stones. Once we were clear of any filling-shattering abnormalities, I tossed the peas into Kermit, doused them with water and started the stove on medium. While the water and peas heated, I chopped my onion and garlic and put them in the hot tub. To that, I added the bay leaf, ham, and thyme, some salt and pepper. You're going to need to season to taste again once the soup has cooked.

I left the soup on the stove in a light simmer for an hour and twenty minutes before checking on it. (Have you met my children? You'd understand how I could forget a simmering soup that long.) It was perfect. No blender needed. Crusty artisan bread? Sure. But remember who you're talking to here...I'm a sandwich bread sort of girl with Fred Meyer butter. And it still makes me happy.

Happy eating!

Thursdays with Kermit: Cannellini, Pasta and Chicken Soup

Funny how I’ve changed over the years.

I used to really scoff at soup unless it was tomato, the hour was noon, and there was a grilled cheese sandwich on a nearby plate. I just didn’t have time for soup. I am a pretty high-energy person and always moving and soup, well, it requires dexterity and patience to get more in your mouth than on your shirt and that’s just not me.

But then my friend Cecile and I wandered into a deli one lunch hour and we ventured into the Matzah ball soup zone. To this day it’s my go to when I’m sick or really just need some salty, brothy comfort. I loves me some Matzah ball soup. Really.

I also have a love affair with a chunky Basil Tomato bisque down at City Market when I’m feeling adventurous and crazy all in one (I can’t navigate the slim streets of that neighborhood in the snow without endangering old people and runners).

My mom has made this amazing Kermit-hued ham and split pea soup that I’ve loved since I was in college and I beg her to make it (and her whoopee pies) each time she visits.

See? Soup is growing on me!



Cast of characters, including the hard-to-describe shape of ditalini pasta.



And recently, a new service I subscribe to (e-mealz.com) called E-mealz suggested a soup for a weeknight dinner and I was intrigued.

But not foolish. My family does not consist of soup converts. Yet.

I took the recipe (what little I could remember) and set about on a brisk Thursday afternoon to create something close to it. It was a recipe for Chicken and Cannellini Soup but I’d forgotten the particulars. (After much googling, I know now that tomatoes are usually added , but I didn’t and now I like my version better, anway!)

Instead, I came up with my own hybrid, which I have also nicknamed “Immunity Soup” with all those A+ ingredients.

So without further ado…

The no-fail, unofficial, make-it-you- own guide to Cannellini, Pasta and Chicken Soup.

First, grab your favorite soup pot. Isn’t that such a vintage, homey feeling word? Soup pot. I love it. I do not, however, own a soup pot. I own an avocado green Dutch oven made by my own patron saint of the kitchen, Paula Deen. Soup pots be damned.

• I roasted a chicken a month ago and had plenty of stock left over after boiling the carcass to within an inch of its already deceased life. I grabbed a couple 3-cup frozen baggies of that. (But note that I am not above dumping in some water and a bouillon cube if need be. I am not proud!)

• I poached a few tenderloins of frozen chicken and tore them into small pieces. In the end, I had about two cups of chicken pieces from about four or five frozen tenderloins.

• I cut up some onion and about three large garlic cloves pretty finely. If celery is handy, I’ll cut up some of that, too. When the chicken is poached and picked, I’ll put a glob of olive oil in the soup pot and sauté these three (or two, whatever) til they start to submit. And go translucent.

• Add your stock (enough plus water if you’re low).

• Add your chicken.

• Open a can of white kidney beans and rinse them. I use a half can, you can use more. It's your soup. They're your beans. Get crazy with the Cheese Whiz.

• If I have small pasta (I happen to love Ditalini, small mini tubes) I’ll add a small handful, but not too much. I learned the hard way with my first batch of this that it grows when cooked. And crowds the soup with too much pasta and beans. And then it’s not even soup anymore and just a watery pasta bean thing that makes a mess.

• To all of this, I season with whatever I happen to feel that day. Rosemary. Salt. Pepper. Basil. Season salt. It’s up to you.

• I’ll juice half a lemon and add it early. Simmering will soften the flavor, but I find the lemon adds an awesome depth to the mild salty flavor.

• And finally, I tend to have spinach handy in the fridge and I love to tear up plenty of handfuls of that and throw it in.


• Put your cover on and simmer on low to medium heat (do not boil) for about 35 minutes. If you have parmesan cheese (grated, not powder), sprinkle it on top as a garnish.



The food snob in me would love to say “be sure to serve with a crusty artisan bread and boutique butter” but the realist in me will tell you that I actually slathered grocery store butter on some sandwich bread and it was pretty damn amazing with my soup. So there.





Happy eating...and happy SOUP days.