Recipe: Easy Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

For me, there are few things as satisfying on a cold, rainy day as a bowl of creamy soup. This is one of my favorite soups – the sweetness of the butternut squash is balanced with the subtle kick of ginger and jalepeno.

Ingredients:

3-4 tbsp. butter

3 celery stalks

2 large carrots

2 medium leeks

1 piece ginger root (about 1″)

1 jalepeno, seeded

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 lb.)

1 qt. chicken or vegetable stock*

1/2 cup heavy cream

kosher salt and white pepper, to taste

toasted pecans for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Chop the carrots, celery and leeks, keeping the pieces roughly the same size, about 1/2″.

If you have not worked with leeks before, you need to know that cleaning them thoroughly is critical. Otherwise you risk getting a little mud in the soup. Sure, no one will notice because everything is pureed. But YOU will know, and you won’t be able to eat the soup later because you’ll be grossed out.

To clean, first trim the root end, about 1/4″. Then remove the thick leaves on the top, leaving the light green and white parts. Cut the leek lengthwise and rinse each half under cold running water. While rinsing, fan the leaves and run your fingers between them to remove trapped dirt. Pat or shake the leeks dry and proceed to chop them.

2. Seed and peel the jalepeno and ginger, respectively, and mince.

3. For the squash, the easiest way to peel it is with a Y peeler, or a good quality, swiveling peeler. Don’t bother with the 99 cent model, because it’s not going to work. If you have more faith in your knife skills, a good chef’s knife will remove the rind the fastest.

After peeling the squash, trim both ends, cutting about 1/2″ off the bottom to remove the seeds. Use a large metal spoon to scrape the stringy pulp from the cavity. Cut into cubes, approximately 1″ in size.

Note: You might want to wear latex gloves while handling the butternut squash because it will stain your hands orange, and can even hurt a little!

4. In a soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the carrots, leeks, celery, ginger, jalepeno, and thyme. Season liberally with salt, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

5. Add the squash, bay leaf and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are falling apart.

6. Remove pot from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove the bay leaf. Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender until smooth. It’s important not to take any shortcuts during this stage to ensure that your soup has the best consistency. Work in small batches, filling the container no more than 2/3. Cover the lid with a kitchen towel to prevent splashing; then start the blender on low and move to the highest speed, again to prevent splashing. (Hot soup spattering on your arms/face is really painful. Trust me. And wiping fluorescent orange soup from your walls/ceiling sucks. Trust me, I know.) Let the blender run for a few minutes before transferring to a new, clean pot.

Some people like to use wand blenders for pureeing because they’re so convenient. DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE. Although convenient, the wands cannot puree the soup as finely as the blender, and require you to take the extra step of straining the soup through fine sieve.
7. Return the pureed soup to low heat. Stir in the cream and allow to heat through without boiling. Check the consistency of the soup – you might need to add a cup of stock if it’s too thick (You can test this by using a spoon: dip the spoon into the soup, and watch how it rolls off the back of the spoon as you lift it. If it just sticks to the back, the soup needs to be thinned until it will roll off slowly.) Season with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Chopped toasted pecans make a wonderful garnish for the soup. I mean, who doesn’t like toasted nuts? Plus, they add a little texture to the now smooth-as-silk puree you’ve made.

While the soup is simmering, chop about 1/4 cup pecans. You can toast them either in the oven or on stove top. If you use the oven, spread the pecans in a small pan and toast at 300F for about 5-7 minutes. For stove top, spread the pecans in a small skillet and toast over low heat, shaking occasionally to prevent burning. Sprinkle some of the nuts over each bowl.

* Stock is best to use, but low-sodium broth can be substituted. If neither are handy, you can still use regular bullion/base/broth, but you will want to dilute it significantly with water.

Serves 6 – 8.

Recipe: Mexican Chocolate Creme Brulee

I like to make these for special occasions. The custard is so rich and creamy, and the recipe is so simple, that you almost feel guilty when your guests shower you with praise!

Serves 6

2 cups heavy whipping cream*

2 tablespoons sugar

3 1/2 oz. Mexican chocolate**, finely chopped

5 large egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sugar

For the Caramel Crust

2 tablespoons sugar

6 4-5 oz. ramekins

1. Preheat oven to 300F

2. Heat cream and 2 tbsp sugar, but do not boil. (So don’t walk away from the stove, because cleaning burnt cream from your stove sucks.) Remove from heat.

3. Add chocolate and whisk until it is completely dissolved.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar, then slowly add in the cream mixture while whisking constantly. (Take your time here. If you pour it all in at once, you might turn those yolks into scrambled eggs. Eww.)

5. Place the ramekins in a pan (13 x 9 should work), and divide the custard into the ramekins. Pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the ramekins. (I forgot to tell you do this earlier. Sorry. Hopefully you read this ahead of time and got that water on the stove.) Bake for 40 minutes.

6. Remove ramekins from water bath and let the custards cool. Chill 4 – 6 hours, or overnight.

7. Just before service, sprinkle the remaining sugar, covering the custards. Caramelize the sugar with your trusty culinary torch. If you want to score bonus points with your guests, do this part in front of everyone, holding the custard in one hand, and the torch in the other. You’ll look like a real badass as you set fire to the dessert.

If you don’t have a torch (and you should really invest in one or ask for one for your birthday, because they’re so handy and give you an excuse to make creme brulee more often), you can caramelize the sugar under your broiler. Put the rack as close to the heating element as possible and cook until the sugar melts. But then you’ll have to return the ramekins back to the fridge for another hour or two to set the custards.

Serve immediately.

* If you can find it, try manufacturing cream instead. It has a higher percentage of fat than heavy cream, and creates a richer custard. Check Smart & Final for cartons.

** There are two common brands of Mexican chocolate found in supermarkets: Ibarra and Abuelita. If you use the latter brand, you may want to reduce the sugar a little for the custard because it tastes a bit sweeter.

Enjoy!

Sprinkles Cupcakes

It was a Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles. Trying to evade the drudgery of my law books, I skipped out for a “night on the town” with some friends in Beverly Hills. My “night[s] on the town” aren’t typical. Not the clubbing and boozing type, I usually head over to some delicious-looking find with a couple of savvy friends. I like my friends with discerning palates. But mistake me not. While I enjoy exploring the uncharted territory of my own palate, I am by no means a palate-ist. The palate-less or minimally palated make for the most amiable dinner guests and those of the discerning palate variety are often royal terrors and ingrates of the “free food” system. But this way I’m not eating incredibly slowly while making scrutinizing squinty faces at the dish all by myself. Awkwardness loves company.

This night, I and a couple of “discerning palate” types, headed over to Sprinkles Cupcakes on Little Santa Monica Boulevard. We made the fateful error of going on the Saturday of President’s Day Weekend, meaning there was a line clear down the holy block for this place; but it was worth the wait for the most part. According to the talkative lady behind us who had been there before, it gets like this sometimes. The management is wonderful though. They close at 7, but they kept their doors and the cupcakes coming long after to serve all the customers in line. One of the cupcake-istas even came out to apologize for the wait and informed us that the delay was because the cupcakes were being freshly frosted. We couldn’t argue with that. Instead, we harassed people in line singing jazz songs incorrectly in exaggerated Indian accents and found out frighteningly enough that the middle-aged Caucasian gentleman in front of us knew all the words to “I Like Big Butts” by Sir Mixalot. Not quite appropriate cupcake conversation, considering that I was here on account of the fact that cupcakes reminded me of tricycles and the sandbox. But delirium became us as weather rudely chilly for California whisked through our silly clothing and accentuated the war in our stomachs; and we resoundingly joined him in the chorus. Indeed, a proud moment for those who birthed us or contributed in some manner. If they could have only seen us girls belt crude, sexist dialogue into the streets of Beverly Hills.

When the moment of truth arrived, I bought four: (1) “Red Hot Velvet,” a traditional red velvet cupcake with untraditional spicy cinnamon frosting, (2) “Coconut,” a vanilla bourbon cupcake with vanilla frosting and shredded candied coconut, (3) “Dark Chocolate,” a Belgian dark chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate frosting and French chocolate sprinkles, (4) “Black and White,” a Belgian dark chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and French chocolate sprinkles. One should note, that the menu changes all the time, depending on the day, with some steady flavors and some specials (e.g., “Red Hot Velvet” and “Chocolate Marshmallow” were the specials on the night we went), so certainly check the schedule on the site if you’re having a hankering for anything in particular.

Overall, the cupcakes were delicious. But the trick, I think, to eating Sprinkles Cupcakes is to make certain to eat the frosting with the cupcake. This may seem like common sense, until you happen to taste either alone, finding each mildly disappointing in isolation from the other. The inch-thick frosting is incredibly sweet, but the cupcake is not sweet enough. This place is really not for those who like to shed their frosting after a couple of bites like I do, when it’s become overwhelming, or those who just enjoy frosting-less cupcakes. I must say, however, that the spicy cinnamon frosting on the “Red Hot Velvet” was out of this world, despite my hate of frosting. The cinnamon sweetly stung like a dozen red hots and was smoothed away softly by the red velvet cake underneath. And the “Black and White” was like a hunky Oreo, which I was very pleased with, in my search for childhood favorites. Creme or cookie, was once again the option, and at least, for that particularly cupcake, I did not mind the minimal sugar in the cupcake portion. The cake is also incredibly moist which made up in part for the lack of sweet.

A big drawback is that the cupcakes are $3.25 each. Certainly tears a more sizable hole in your pocketbook than the $4 a dozen grocery store variety! On the other hand, they are a good size. Definitely bigger than the ones that over-zealous PTA moms brought to class on their children’s birthdays. The cupcakes are also deliciously fresh, and they have both coffee and milk on the premises (the latter I think is particularly key for those sweet-overload moments, particularly with chocolate). The cupcakes were warm in the box when we received them, and true to the cupcake-ista’s words, freshly frosted, with a cute little mod candy dot that is Sprinkles’ signature. The space inside the store, however, is rather limited. The boutique cupcake shop lives up to its reputation. It is indeed boutique, having space for only about ten to twelve people at a time, who are forced to get friendly rather quick. The decor inside is fun. The “pure material palette” is playful and does make one feel like she’s entering some sort of environmentally sound, grown-up cupcake wonderland, with chrome accents, primary colors, recycled paper boxes and clever little knives and forks made out of a material that reminded me of popsicle sticks. It’s a very thoughtful establishment, that maintains excellent quality and a sense of pride in its work. Cupcakes, after all, are a very serious matter.