nom nom foody.

After being kidnapped by pirates during an excursion to the coast, I was held as a slave rower for months. My escape in the heart of darkness was marred only by the size of the porthole and the chilly waters of the Atlantic. Thereby, I found myself in the midst of the Sahara Desert, where I lived under the shade of a cactus for forty days and nights until I was discovered by a lone elderly Bedouin traveller. He graciously escorted me to the nearest city, where I discovered the glorious cuisines of...

...if only my disappearance from here could make work that exciting, eh?

To explain what did happen in basic terms:
--I became employed in the city, landing me a job as well as a two-hour commute each day.
--B and I moved into a small suburban apartment above a doctor's practice, and adopted a cat.
--I elected to finish up the remnants of my bachelor's degree at one of the local universities in the city, and now take evening classes.

In a nutshell -- state employee, homeowner (renter?), student, and foody. Anyway, I'm back... with roasted butternut squash soup!

I pulled this recipe off Serious Eats, a website where I've been lingering during slow periods at work, school, etc... originally, I was really attracted to this recipe because of its simplicity. More often than not, there's so much happening that all I want is to throw something on the stove and let it do its independent thing while I do something else.

(Adaptations: we lack a good blender in our kitchen, so after I roasted the assorted vegetables, I tossed it in our Cuisinart food processor and gave them a whirl. The resulting puree was thrown in our Dutch oven and simmered with the stock for the said 20 minutes. You can opt to add a small slice of ginger for flavour, but the soup will be delicious even without.)

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
(~7 servings)

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 three-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch chunks
1 softball-sized red or white onion, cut into chunks or rings
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
3 1/2 cups stock, divided
Salt and pepper
1 or 2 tablespoons cream

Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss squash, onion and garlic cloves with 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil; spread on glass baking dish and pour 1 cup stock over the top. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt.

2. Bake at 350ºF for 1 1/2 hours or until fairly soft and a little caramelized-looking; check on the pan every 20 minutes or so and if necessary, add additional liquid to keep it from scorching to the bottom of the pan. Stir once during cooking.

3. Add squash, garlic, onion, and any liquid from baking dish into a large Dutch oven or stockpot. Add 2 1/2 cups stock and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper to the pot, and cook over medium-low heat for at least 20 minutes.

4. Purée all ingredients in a blender. Add back to pot, stir in cream and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Leeks are odd vegetables.

The first time I ever saw a leek, I was in a grocery store trying to decide if I wanted broccoli or brussel sprouts for dinner. My first thought was, Is that a mutant green onion or what?

Ben suggested that we bring one home. I threatened to call it Teeny Leeky. He bought it anyway. It sat in our crisper for days, taunting me whenever I opened the fridge. Finally, on the verges of wilting into the vegetable underworld, it shook its various green arms at me and pointed out that today was a good day to cook.

That's how I came up with this recipe - because it was a stormy spring day, and I knew that if I was working at the time, this was what I wanted to come home to. Things happen when you have a rebellious leek in your fridge and a lot of time on your hands.

notes: this is a vegetarian-friendly recipe - that's because I live with two, and us meat-eating heathens like to keep the peace every once in awhile. For those who are inclined, you can add a cup of diced ham or salty pork.

Feel free to pre-soak the split peas about two to four hours beforehand. I can't stress enough that you should rinse the split peas thoroughly in a colander before you cook with them, even if they've been pre-washed. The only time we didn't do this, we were chewing through sand and grit - not fun!

Ingredients:
12-16 ounces of dried split peas
four cloves of garlic, peeled and smushed into pieces
one leek, sliced (about two cups depending on the size)
one stalk of green onion, sliced
four small red potatoes, sliced and diced (about a cup)
two carrots, sliced (about a cup)
1/4 cup red onion
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water (filtered, preferably - I'm a snob, I know)
about 4 tablespoons of olive oil
fresh thyme and rosemary
sea salt and pepper (go insane!)


Assembly:

In a decent-sized soup pot, lightly saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the vegetable broth and split peas, and bring to a boil. Keep it lightly simmering for a half-hour or until your split peas are tender (but not mushy) - if you haven't chopped up the other vegetables at this time, go ahead and do that now. Chop chop!

Add the water, potatoes, carrots, green onion and leek to the soup. De-stalk your rosemary and thyme, and add that to the soup along with the sea salt and pepper. Allow the soup to simmer quietly for another half-hour, or until your split peas are soft. Serve with a cozy blanket and a crust of French bread. Enjoy!