With the merciful end of the legal bills, and generous scholarship for The Child, the financial crunch starts to ease … so much so, that in February, she and I attend an antique show. The Child ingratiates herself with a vendor selling antique radios, and somehow persuades them to sell her a 1951 Capeheart model, still functional, for $5. She lugs it from booth to booth, proudly, all afternoon.
I pick up a much lighter-weight, but more expensive, vintage Elizabeth David French cookbook.
On getting it home, I decide I’m not really that excited about the cookbook, but I am suddenly excited about cookbooks in general. Specifically, the idea of new cookbooks. So, a few days later, I head off to the used book store, where I pick up a baking book. And then a week or two later, I go back and get another one.
Then I start looking through all the cookbooks I already have, looking for something. Something new. Something different.
Lots of things sound good enough for me to sticky-note for later, but I don’t want any of them right now.
As I dug further into the cookbooks, I ran across a recipe that I’ve had for ages – but it didn’t come from a cookbook. Instead, it came from the mother of a former friend. I’d forgotten about the recipe, and mostly forgotten about the friend, and so haven’t made it for years. But I used to like it, and it was the first soup I ever made from scratch. Something old, familiar, and oddly comforting.
It’s easy enough to make: Pretty much just simmer the squash and onions until everything is completely soft, then puree the whole thing. An immersion blender would probably work well, but a regular ole blender or food processor work fine too.
Tart, crunchy apple slices make a nice contrast with the spicy curry and smooth soup, but I didn’t have any, so I cut up some crusty old bread into cubes and pretended they were croutons. The absorbed just enough of the liquid to become very tasty, but still with a bit of crunch.
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 2 cups onion chopped
- 4-5 tsp curry powder
- 2 medium butternut squash
- 3 cups stock
- 1 cup apple juice
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 granny Smith apple, shredded, for garnish
- Melt butter, add onions and curry, and cook, covered, over low heat until onions are tender.
- Peel the squash, scrape out seeds. Chop.
- When onions are tender, pour in stock, squash, and apples, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, partly covered, until squash are tender, 25 minutes.
- Strain soup, reserving liquid. Process solids in blender until smooth, adding 1 cup of liquid.
- Return soup to pot, add remaining cooking liquid and then apple juice, until soup is desired consistency.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. Rewarm and serve.
This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see what other savory delights await?
in a used bookstore. I’ve heard wonderful things about King Arthur recipes from numerous people recently, so I bought the book. It contained yet another recipe for banana muffins – completely different from both 
