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What are your favorite fall foods? Whether it is for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or just seasonal food, I want to hear about the foods you love. And lets see some more #grubski posts.
I made Butternut Squash soup using Alton Brown's recipe. I followed it pretty closely, except I halved the recipe, and used black pepper instead of white.
Squash roasting with salt and pepper.
I cut the peel off, and added ginger, nutmeg, honey, more pepper, and chicken stock. I made the stock myself last week. I also put more nutmeg, ginger, and pepper than Alton calls for.
Alton also recommends using a stick blender to blend the soup, but I don't have one. I tried to use an electric beater, but that didn't work very well. So I mashed it through a mesh strainer with a spatula, and that resulted in a nice texture. Also resulted in a mess, so I don't have a picture of that.
And at the very end I added cream. The first one I mixed in, but the other two I tied to swirl around to make it photogenic. My wife just thought I was too lazy to mix any bowl but my own.
So what fall foods are you making?
I'm doing the same thing right now! Squash, carrots, sweet onion and garlic roasted in olive oil, turmeric, pepper and red curry paste. 400F for an hour and a half Blend with veggie stock and coconut milk to taste. I also put in a healthy squirt of sriracha.
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ThurberMingus · 329 days ago · link ·
That takes it a whole different savory & spicy direction. I'll have to try it some time. I think the sweet & spicy recipes are neglected too much.
coffeesp00ns · 329 days ago · link ·
am I the only one who thinks that white pepper smells like farts? Because I think it smells like farts. I recommend picking up a stick blender. they're super useful for all sorts of stuff, especially if you like to take coarse things and make them smoother. You don't say how it tasted! I hope it tastes good. I make a lot of soup - I make it 4-5 times a week at work - So I'm trying to bring in some fall flavours. For me, things like Beef Stew, Chicken Pot Pie, and Curried Carrot soups are all pretty classic cold weather soup. I also like to make a Potato and Bacon soup, (or alternatively, Potato and Leek).
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ThurberMingus · 329 days ago · link ·
I don't actually remember what white pepper smells like... I think the soup was a success. It had enough ginger and nutmeg and pepper to really taste them, but not too much. The squash was the main flavor. I'll be making that a few more times this fall. What sort of pot-pie crust do you make -- biscuit type or pie-crust type? I prefer the pie-crust type, but I hardly ever feel like it's worth the effort.
Damn, it sure looks yummy. Unfortunately I couldn't find any butternut squash in nearby grocery shops. Do you think that substituting it with something like avocado would work? I had attempted to make apple-cranberry pie. 'Attempted' being operative word because I made too moist filling it collapsed into itself like a black hole. If anyone could benefit from my failure: you probably can't decant too much juice from apples.So what fall foods are you making?
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coffeesp00ns · 329 days ago · link ·
You're in the EU, right? Squash can be hard to get there because it's native to North and South America. A similar soup could be made with carrot (like a curried carrot soup) or turnips/rutabagas, occasionally called a "swede".
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ThurberMingus · 329 days ago · link ·
There are two main categories of squash - summer squash, and winter (or hard) squash. Almost any of the winter squashes will make good soup. So if you find acorn squash, red kuri squash, or pumpkin, give those a try. However, pumpkins come in two varieties also - those grown for size, and those grown for eating. The small pumpkins taste best. As far as substitutes - I think coffeesp00ns suggestion of carrots would be great, they will go well with the ginger in the recipe. I haven't made soup with sweet potatoes though, so I can't imagine what it would be like, but it's certainly worth trying. Call it a dessert soup. Sounds tasty!I had attempted to make apple-cranberry pie. ... I made too moist filling it collapsed into itself like a black hole
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Thanks, I'll try the carrot version then. Hah. Honestly it wasn't tasting bad, but it looks and texture while eating… euch. It was closer to beef jerky than pie due to chewiness, but not as thick and congealed as fudge. And no, I didn't add any sugar into the filling. :/Call it a dessert soup. Sounds tasty!
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ThurberMingus · 329 days ago · link ·
I have only made an apple pie once. The recipe for the filling was just apples, sugar, and berries. And it cooked for ~45 minutes so the apples got soft and some of the juice from the apples dissolved all the sugar. It sounds like it may have been cooked too long, or maybe apples acted very different without sugar. I'm no expert though.
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Me neither, unfortunately. Although I can hazard a guess chemistry-wise. I think that my failure was a combination of: - crust that wasn't porous enough to allow quick enough escape for water that was effectively 'soaking it in' ; - too high moisture to begin with; - using apples of the sour variety that changed pH to more acidic (I never really liked sweets); - possibly too high temperature; that as a result allowed much more glucose/fructose to caramelise and seal the lower part of crust. And since most of the water was removed from the top crust, it probably was unable to bake properly inside, while getting all that 'too much Millard reaction' tinge on me. I'm perhaps talking out of my arse, but so far my cooking was 90% chemistry and 10% wondering WTF went wrong. ;)I'm no expert though.