Friday, November 11, 2011

French Fridays with Dorie - spiced squash, fennel, and pear soup

Happy Friday.  I'm actually writing my post on Friday at 5:38 am...cause I couldn't sleep.  I got up to read, and then remembered I hadn't done my Dorie post yet.  I made this terrific soup for the starter course for our Sunday dinner.  It was my middle sister's birthday, and she had requested her favorite meal (breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes, white gravy and white corn).  I decided that this soup would be a great start to this festive dinner.  As it turns out, I was spot on.  As she came in to the house and saw what was cooking, she said  "Butternut squash soup is my favorite soup, did you know that?"  I happily admitted that yes, of course I knew!  Under my breath, I also said it's for FFwD this week too.
Aromatics sauteing!
Well, that cat's out of the bag, but I'm glad the universe conspired to align my birthday sister's dinner with the week we make her favorite soup. (Who's we, you ask?  Check out all my fellow Doristas who are making their families oh so happy every week by cooking along.

This was a fairly simple soup, just roast your squash (I used butternut), saute the base of ingredients (minus fennel, because my store didn't have any...ugh!), add the roasted squash and stock, simmer for a bit, add the pear (for me the best part...I loved how you could feel the little granules in the pear...reminded me of when my sis and I were kids (like 6 or 7) and we loved to eat jars of baby food.  Don't know why, but we did.  I remember the pear baby food.  So smooth, creamy and with just those little granules.  Of course, you can get the same result by just eating a really ripe pear.

Everyone loved the soup (we were 10 for the dinner), except hubby.  He said it tasted like curry.  I asked him how that could be since there was a speck of curry in this soup!  He just shrugged.  I'm starting to think maybe he doesn't like ginger or cumin and just thinks it's curry.  I see a little experimenting coming soon.

Not such a pretty picture, but it was good soup!
Only got two photos this week (and the final dish I didn't remember to take until I'd already started eating...oops!)  But that's ok.  I love that I was so caught up in the cooking and being with my family that I forgot I was doing a dish for Dorie.  That's the way life is suppose to be.

Happy Veteran's Day and a big thank you to all who have given so much so that we can continue to have to much.  Living in Coronado has given me an even greater admiration for the men and women who serve our country.  Especially watching all the hot SEALS train every morning on the beach as I drive Ethan to school (and when I say HOT, I'm not talking about their temperature!)

10 comments:

Kathy said...

My husband didn't even give this a real try...just didn't like the taste! I truly loved it! Very nice post...glad all your company enjoyed the soup! Happy Weekend!

Cher Rockwell said...

Ha! Hot SEALS...
I think it has got to be the cumin - whenever I use cumin, it freaks everyone out (except for my youngest, but she's weird that way). I finally started just omitting it & life is happier.
Have a great weekend, beach bum :-)

Anonymous said...

Your soup turned out amazing. And, can I just say, jealous about the SEALs? All I see on the way to work is blacktop. :)

SoupAddict said...

Whoops! I'm Anonymous above. I hit the wrong button!

tricia s. said...

So nice that you were able to incorporate this into a family get together - and too funny that your sister loved butternut squash soup :) And good for you for focusing and family and forgetting to take a lot of pictures - as you said, it is how it should be. Glad most of the family enjoyed the soup !

Betsy said...

Wasn't this one delcious? My husband claimed I was poisoning him when he figured out there were pears in the soup though he did eat it anyway.
How lucky that your sister's favorite was just what you needed to make this week!

Anonymous said...

That birthday dinner sounds delicious, what a lucky sister.

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

LOL about the hot seals! Lucky you :)

What a nice coincidence that you could make your sister's favorite soup AND a FFwD recipe all in one. Yeah, I don't think my hubby could isolate what he didn't like, either. I wouldn't have been shocked if he thought it was curry as well :)

Kris' Kitchen said...

I caught up on this soup and Hubby and I have enjoyed it all through the week...made a big batch. We just finished the last bowls and I think it got better every day. I'm not usually a pureed soup person, but this one made me mentally feel healthy...all those yummy veges at this baking time of year with all the overload of goodies around our house. I was lucky on this one...Hubby loves it, even asked for it again today for Sunday dinner. Unusual for him, but made things really easy for me. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Elaine said...

What a wonderful sister you are! I am glad you were able to make this soup for her birthday. You did such a great job describing its consistency with the pears. You also made me smile with your description of the SEALS. How fun! :)