Food Lab: Throwback

Or, as Mad Kitchen Scientist termed it: Food Lab - Squashgiving! 

"Why 'throwback'?" you might ask. 

"Wasn't your very first lab about eggs?" 

(yes) 

"What does that have to do with squash?"

Not a damn thing. 

BUT! 

The *idea* for Food Lab came to Chef Spouse while he was working on cream of tomato soup.

Inspired by the season, we decided to take on winter squash soup, in part because all of us have found ourselves defaulting to curry spicing, which, while delicious, is also limited.

So Chef Spouse cleaned our favorite purveyor at the farmers' market out of butternut (most flesh bang for your squash buck) and we were off! 

We started with the same base for all:

Mirepoix (2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrots, garlic)

2 parts Chef Spouse's homemade chicken stock

1 part peeled, cubed, and roasted butternut squash 

Salt & pepper 

Once done simmering, all were pressed through a chinois before moving to the all-important seasoning step, giving us four soup bases of just over one quart each.

Option 1: Spicy

2 Tbsp arborio rice
1 tsp harissa (plus more to garnish for those who wish)

Option 2: US Southwest 

Poblano (roasted) 4-5 little ones
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp cumin
Sour cream & pepitas to garnish

Option 3: East Asian

1/2 c coconut milk
Ginger coins
4 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 tsp coriander
1 Tbsp red miso

Option 4: Pumpkin spice

1/2 c heavy cream
1 clove
1 star anise
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Juice of 1 orange
Diced apple to garnish

They came out thusly

clockwise from top

East Asian - Spicy - US SW - Pumpkin spice

Now, I have never been a fan of sweet takes on squash soup, nor am I a PSL fan, so I was shocked to discover that my favorite take on the soups was in fact pumpkin (really, baking) spice, particularly with the addition of the crisp diced apple. It was delicious.

The US Southwest was my second favorite, and the thing that most surprised us all there was that the roasted poblanos REALLY thickened it up - you may not be able to tell from the photos, but it was the thickest soup, even without any type of cream added. 

The East Asian was lovely, but needed more umami and/or acid. I still have my leftover portion, and I plan to add fish sauce when I reheat it for lunch this weekend.

The spicy harrisa was a bit of a fail. We had the idea of adding the rice for body, but the problem was we didn't pre-cook it in any way, leaving the grains a little too al dente. In retrospect, we should've toasted then ground the rice, then added it to the soup base. 

For dessert? The Executive Committee had recently picked up New Native American Cuisine: Five-Star Recipes From The Chefs Of Arizona's Kai Restaurant, which included a recipe for butternut squash creme brûlée, which seemed like the obvious choice.

Mad Kitchen Scientist decided to guild the lily, 

so to speak, 

by torching some maple sugar on top

Now, we are talking an "n" of 1 here, but this is not a cookbook for inexperienced cooks, as the recipe instructions were lacking. In short, if you don't already know the technique to make creme brûlée, you will not be able to figure it out from these instructions. The flavors were excellent, but the squash base probably would've benefitting from being passed through a chinois or tamis - it was a little grainy. 

Chef Spouse also proposed trying techniques to roast winter squash to the point of crispness rather than softness. We all thought that would be a fail, seeing as squash contains so much water, and we were right (honestly not sure what he was thinking there). And we experimented with trying to make spaghetti squash palatable, and, sadly, confirming all my previous experience with spaghetti squash, that was also a fail. It's just so freakin' bland. Spaghetti squash? Just say "nah," no matter how much pesto and parm you have on hand.