Gingered Butternut Squash Soup With Spicy Pecan Cream
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 55mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Serves:
-
12
ingredients
- 2 large butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded (5 1/2 pounds)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3⁄4 cup pecans (2 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 small fennel bulb, halved cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 1⁄2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped (one 1-1/2-inch piece)
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 14 ounces unsweetened coconut milk (1 can)
- 3⁄4 cup chilled heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon hazelnut oil
- 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- kosher salt
- 1 1⁄2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (not the bottled stuff)
directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Rub the cut sides of the squash with the olive oil and set them, cut side down, on a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake the squash for about 1 hour, or until very tender.
- Remove from the oven and let stand until cool enough to handle.
- Spoon the squash flesh into a large bowl; discard the skins.
- In a pie plate, toast the pecans for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant; let the nuts cool.
- In a large pot, melt the butter.
- Add the onion, fennel and ginger and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 8 minutes.
- Add the squash and the chicken stock, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Uncover the pot and continue cooking until the squash starts to fall apart, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut milk.
- Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse the pecans until they are finely chopped.
- In a medium bowl, beat the cream until soft peaks form.
- Fold in the chopped pecans, hazelnut oil and cayenne pepper and season with salt.
- Working in batches, puree the squash soup in a blender until smooth.
- Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a dollop of the pecan cream and serve.
- *The soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
- Reheat gently, adding a little chicken stock to thin the soup.
- Serve with a fruity, aromatic Viognier will have enough body to stand up to this rich soup. The 2006 Becker Vineyards Texas Viognier would be terrific; or consider the peachy 2006 Stags’ Leap Viognier from Napa Valley, an easier-to-find alternative.
- Enjoy!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>