So Easy: Butternut Squash Soup.

We had a Mom group get together at my place today. It was a lot of fun for all of us, but MY GOD that many toddlers in one place just creates chaos. Anyways, Bri-girl needed a Butternut Squash Soup recipe, and since she has tried mine before I promised to get her the recipe before she left. Needless to say in the mist of the gong-show it never happened. 

Now first a word about choosing a Butternut Squash. Butternut Squash is the one that looks like a penis. OK? Got that?  Now if you remember this perverted idea you should always get a good squash at the grocery store: the size of the balls don't matter but you need a big penis. Get a big penis, you get a good amount of usable squash.

Now you want to use the part of the squash that less perverted people call "the neck" (or the "penis" as Bri-girl pointed out one day) and not the "nuts" where all the seeds are (see? it is a fitting analogy). You can either use a sharp ass knife and cut the skin off (the skin is thin but woody in texture, and yet again the penis analogy works....) to get at the meat or you can cut the whole thing in half, score it in a crisscross pattern pour a bit of olive oil on it and roast it for 45 minutes at 350 degrees to soften it up to get the actual squash out. I find the roasting yields a it more usable squash. I usually use 2 large squash for this recipe; that will get you 5 or 6 cups of diced squash, you don't have to dice it small either big chunks will do fine.

The Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup butter 
  
• 1 cup diced onion
  
• 1/2 cup flour
• 5 1/2 (five and a half) cups chicken stock
  
• 5 cups peeled, diced butternut squash 
  
• 1 cup of dry white wine
  
• 3 bay leaves
  
• 3/4 tsp curry powder (I usually put more in like 1 1/4 tsp)
  
• 6 drops Tabasco sauce 
  
• 1 cup whipping cream 
• salt and pepper to taste 
  

The Method:

In a big ass dutch oven (which is a big ass pot to the unfamiliar cooks out there):

• Melt butter, add onion and cook until transparent (10 minutes or so) 
  
• Add flour and stir for 3 minutes
• Add chicken stock and bring to boil, stir constantly (no clumps then)
  
• Add squash, wine, bay leaves, curry powder and Tabasco sauce 
  
• Cook until squash is tender
  
• Remove bay leaves
  
• Puree mixture (a hand blender will do fine if you have it) 
  
• Stir in cream
  
• Season with salt and pepper 

**** remember NOT to add the cream if you are going to freeze it, you can always add this when you warm it up later 

Serving suggestions: 

• Add a couple handful's of raw shrimp to a pot and saute them in a bit of soup, then add soup over top and warm up to serve. 
  
• Extra hot sauce dashed on top of the soup is good.... real good.
  

The Results: 

edited to add the photo.