Let’s kiss Fall right on the lips. We still got game. And who could possibly resist a hot, spiced pumpkin soup with smooth sweet maple cream. I mean come on now, really. Hello Fall. Hey there, you’re lookin’ good. How you doin’….
The Prep:
The Soup
- Halve a white onion, chop. Into pot with melted butter. Sweat it out, slow and low.
- Peel a green apple, core and chop. Reserve a bit for garnish, the rest in with our onions.
- Chicken stock, a box of the Kitchen Basics is where I go.
- 1 can of pumpkin.
- A good dose of curry powder, some kosher salt.
- Simmer, hit with the stick blender until smooth. Or into the regular blender, but hold the top down hard when you hit it or you’ll explode your soup. Been there.
- Pour of heavy cream. Taste, adjust. Pumpkin can stand up to a lot of curry, so don’t be shy if you aren’t feeling the spice.
- Keep warm until service. Too loose? Crank heat and reduce until it tightens up. Too thick? Thin with chix stock.
The Something-Somethings:
So we are tricking this out three ways: maple cream, diced apple and pumpkin seeds. Let’s get it on:
- A few tablespoons of sour cream, a short pour of maple syrup. Mingle and spoon into a ziploc sandwich bag.
- Pumpkin seeds – buy or make your own. Here I used the seeds from our Halloween pumpkins. Rinsed, dried and fried in 350° oil for a few mins until lightly browned, toss in sea salt while still warm.
- Cut the reserved apple into small cubes (brunoise), toss with lemon juice so they don’t get all brown and depressing on you.
Service:
- Ladle soup into bowl, keep the sides clean. Clean any splatters by running paper towel around the rim. Make it nice.
- With knife or scissors take a very small bit out of a corner of the ziploc. Lightly pipe the maple cream into a circle on top of the soup.
- Take a toothpick and run it through the circle a few times. Makes a nice little design.
- Drop a few apple cubes into the middle of the cream circle and throw around some pumpkin seeds. Serve.
- Looking at the pic here, I’d like a bit more color. Next time I’ll replace the apple cubes with some pomegranate seeds. That would really pop.
The Takeaway:
Surrender and let The Fall wash over you. That’s right.
p.s. The OWS crowd tried to have a ‘day of action’ down here where they would disrupt subway service and generally inconvenience everyone. They said 10,000 people would show but they only got 1,000, and nothing much really happened (except unfortunately this). A note to the OWS crowd: people are tolerating your taking away one of our parks, but they will have zero patience for you mucking up subway service and making everyone late getting home. Good initiative in trying to actually have a plan for once, but bad judgment generally.
