Gourd your Loins (Squash and Chilli Soup)

On arriving at the gite which we will call home for the next three months, our hosts had left us various gifts from their garden as a welcome. There was an earthenware jar with the last three sunflowers still holding on, cheering, oblivious yellow. There was a bottle of home brewed IPA, an expression named for a recently departed and much missed cat (I can confirm that a pint of Floofster really is the thing on a grey day). There were grapes and apples. And, crucially, there was a bowl of fire alarm red chillies, some long and elegant, others like Christmas lights, and a resplendent butternut squash, stalk curling rakishly. They inspired the below soup, which is a variation on a Good Food recipe I’ve been making since I was a student. The amount of crème fraiche you add is entirely a matter of personal taste, and you can leave it out altogether if you have vegan company. The result is a more invigorating bowlful, but no less pleasing for that. I served this with croutons of deep-fried baguette as I could neither bite the stale bread with my teeth nor bear to give it to the chickens and be shamed for my greed in the boulangerie. They are entirely unnecessary but come highly recommended to you. Pumpkin or sunflower seeds are an enjoyable addition, and you can, as I did in my younger days, serve it in a hollowed out pumpkin, should the mood take you (one makes one’s own fun as a doctoral student with no scholarship, please do not open the book of my life and jump in the middle). My pumpkin whittling days are coming to a middle I fear.

NB: Will all of the recipes which feature here include crème fraiche? Perhaps. Will I apologise for this? That seems highly unlikely.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Olive oil (You can of course use butter if you wish. I would have considered it an offence to the dairy farmers of Manche not to.)

1 x Large Butternut Squash or other firm fleshed winter squash or pumpkin. Crown Prince is a strong choice with its grey-blue skin. Uchiki Kuri is a good shout if you are cooking for two (though this soup freezes extremely well).

850ml Vegetable Stock (if you have homemade, chapeau to you, I favour bouillon powder)

2 x Brown Onions, diced

Garlic Cloves (As many as you please, this is an intensely personal matter. 3 suffices for me unless I’ve a cold in which case all bets are off and I might put grated ginger and turmeric root in here too. Physician (‘but I’m not that kind of doctor’) heal thyself)

Red Chillies, seeds removed, diced (one long red chilli normally works here but again, if you have a high tolerance for heat, aren’t cooking for children, or are seeking to wreck revenge on a dinner companion, add one or two more. Alternatively, you can use dried chilli flakes but these are much more pokey, as I have found out to my cost so caveat emptor etc)

Crème Fraiche, as much as you feel appropriate.

Method:

1)      Heat your oven to 200c. Slice your squash in half lengthways, and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes or until the squash is soft to the point of a knife. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to the point where you can handle it (don’t be a hero, burned fingers are a friend to no one).

2)      In a large pan, heat your oil or butter over a medium heat. Add your onions and allow them to become translucent. If they go a little golden so be it. Add your minced garlic and chillies and allow them to cook down into the onions for 3 or 4 minutes.

3)      Scrape the flesh from your now cool squash, leaving the skin and seeds and add it to your pan. Mix to combine it with the onion mixture.

4)      Add your stock and allow to simmer for around 10 minutes. You don’t need long here, your oven has done the hard work.

5) Remove from the heat and allow to cool before blending until smooth. If it is too thick add more stock, if too thin reduce it on the stove for 15 minutes or so or claim your intended effect was always towards the broth end of things. The choice is yours. You can, if you wish, add the crème fraiche at this point and blend it in. I prefer to add it on serving, because I am a child and enjoy stirring it in. You also avoid the risk of splitting the crème fraiche by adding it to soup which is too hot. I speak from bitter, grainy, experience. Serve hot, with sufficient bread as not to feel abstemious.