Thursday, March 26, 2009

Snatches Of Soup

"...and she makes hers with leeks. It's the best!"

Sometimes, I catch a snatch of conversation like that at a party; when I do, I have to search out the person who said it, and find out what they were talking about. This is the way I always found great recipes before the advent of food blogs.

This time, it was my pal Sari at a dinner with friends, describing her mother's butternut squash soup. She went on to tell me that her mother sautes the leeks in butter and roasts the squash in the oven before adding water to simmer until it's ready to puree. Sounded good and I already had leeks in the fridge, so the next time I was at the store I scored a butternut.

Having only the sketchiest idea of how Sari's Mom made her soup, I started with the part I knew - halve the butternut, place it face down on a baking sheet and bake it until soft and saute' the white and light green parts of three small washed leeks in a little butter. A few days ago, I read Cookiecrumb's March 11th piece about using cooking waters and, since I had some left over from simmering our St. Patrick's Day corned beef, I defatted and strained it, adding it in place of the water in the soup. The result was lightly salty and gently flavored with notes from all three - the corned beef, the roasted squash and the leeks. I thought it could be improved by adding yogurt so I tried that, three nice big tablespoons full of European style, and some cracked black pepper and a few crunchy garlic croutons for garnish and texture. Success!

Experiencing a brief return to chilly winter weather last Sunday, it was the perfect entree. My Beloved and I sat down to a steaming bowl of Snatched Soup and toasted Sari's Mom with our first spoonful.

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7 Comments:

Blogger cookiecrumb said...

It sounds SCRUMPTIOUS. What a way to tinker to perfection. Mm.

We missed you this morning. Limoncello is great! You will want to meet her sometime. I passed your greetings to Chilebrown, who was flying solo. The market was beautiful: a perfect transition into spring. Hope all is peachy.

Thursday, March 26, 2009  
Blogger Kailyn said...

When I got to the part about the yogurt addition, I thought, "Happiness in a bowl."

Thursday, March 26, 2009  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Cookiecrumb, hope you got my email saying I wouldn't make it to the market today. Sorry to miss it but needs must! Glad you had company with Paul and Limoncello!

Kailyn, yes, the yogurt was a good touch as the soup was nice otherwise but pretty mild.

Thursday, March 26, 2009  
Blogger Ms Brown Mouse said...

Soup, soup, glorious soup
Nothing quite like it for warming the blood.
What you described is butternut pumpkin soup, exactly.

Friday, March 27, 2009  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Morgan, that sounds like a paraphrasing of Swann and Flanders, a favorite of mine.

Friday, March 27, 2009  
Blogger Ms Brown Mouse said...

The Hippo song, indeed!

Friday, March 27, 2009  
Blogger Zoomie said...

I have their boxed set - what a pair they were!

Saturday, March 28, 2009  

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