Acorn Squash Soup

So tomorrow it is supposed to rain. I don't know if this will actually happen or if the meteorologists were studying meteors again instead of clouds. I swear: weathermen and LSD do NOT go together, though their accuracy rate is about the same. Hmm. There IS a band of weather just off of Eureka, so maybe it comes inland but weather it comes this far South is the real question. Anyway, lower temps, more angled sunlight, clouds, rain: this is soup weather!

So I've got various squash Dad and I have been growing all summer and they're ripening. We'll have to bring them in if it rains anyway and I've got a big green acorn squash anyway. A proper soup needs french trinity veggies, red potatoes, savory meat, and beef broth. I bought these things for that purpose. Oddly enough, last winter I figured out that kitchen shears and breakfast sausage make excellent meatballs. Cutting the little sausages even bends the edges into the right shape so they're mostly round.

Good soup is all about color and contrasts. If its just mush with no texture, no flavor, you screwed up. That is why I think that good soup is more of an art than people think. Most sad mortals are cursed with memories of busy mom using a can opener to heat some Campbells condensed in a pot on the stove, possibly burning it in the process, and hating the flavor of the bland stuff but glad Mom took the attention to notice so the emotional context is all messed up.

The essence of good soup is contrast. We have five flavor taste buds. Sweet, salt, sour, bitter, meat. Meat is spread all over the tongue, not just one area.

French trinity vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) should be cut into large enough chunks to be recognizable after an hour of simmering, yet steamed enough to be mostly soft. I always take off the outer two layers of an onion because they don't cook down right. Decades of experience, don't argue. Onions should be either half thin cut to dissolve or into quarters to leave recognizable chunks behind. I don't use white onions and instead focus on yellow because that's what grows here locally and they cost half as much.

The celery should be between 1/2 inch and 1 inch chunks, larger if its cooked longer. Keep in mind that celery is a spice when cut thin and a vegetable when cut thick.

Cutting carrots into the right sized chunks to be soft enough is tricky. You should have a good idea how long you're cooking this stew, and remember that carrots are sweet and you have to counter that with salt and sometimes small amounts of vinegar or peppers to bring back the sour and counter the sweet. Acorn squash is sweet as well. When served alone you halve it, scoop out the seeds and cook facedown in the microwave with a splash of water. Takes about 10 minutes. The water steams it until its soft.

The potatoes are mostly there for texture, and keeping them intact instead of venting starch into the soup and turning it into stew, wrecking the contrasts of the veggies and meat, this is why you use boiling potatoes like reds or Yukon golds, not baking potatoes. You can avoid this entirely with pasta, but in a winter soup I often want both. There's vitamins in each worth having, and their textures are really different. Only thing better is actual fresh bread served on the side.

Not unsurprisingly, you need really good broth and seasoning to make this work with the bigger veggies. They won't release as much flavor into the broth, so you really need to taste before serving, and sometimes unexpected spices are a good choice. For example, cinnamon and allspice are good with chicken, but I only learned that because its how they season meat in Morocco. If you DO put chicken in, be sure to preseason it, and cut it into small enough chunks that the seasoning will stick in enough places. This is a valid approach, and why hot spicy sausage is a good choice with soups because the cooking will spread it out.

As for oil, you need some and the reason why is many of the spices used in soup, like cumin or pepper, are oil soluble (miscible) rather than water soluble and you want them to blend into the ingredients. I find good quality olive oil is the best option there, though some people prefer dhal (butter). Don't use soybean or rape seed (canola) oil in soup. Its nasty and imparts bad flavor.

Good spices for soup are the classic fresh ground pepper (because fresh ground isn't oxidized and bitter yet), cumin, tumeric, sage, marjoram (best fresh from the garden still on the sprig), and thyme. Rosemary CAN be good in soups but usually its unwanted or too much. Sage has to be used sparingly as well. Wine and beer are both interesting flavorings if used sparingly, since the hops in beer is a strong preservative like cumin. Lemon is a preservative too, but I don't usually care for it in soup. Butter may be considered a flavor, and cream a thickener.

Soups can be thickened with cream, milk, flour and water, and masa which is the special corn meal used to make tortillas. It is NOT the same thing as corn meal because it contains lye (NaOH). Its best saved for stews and thick sauces including chili because masa does not clump like wheat flour will. I may get around to reposting my Better Than Third Place Chili in the near future. It is the right time of year, after all. Chili takes well to hops. Make sure you've finished cooking the soup properly before adding a thickener, and remember that thickeners absorb and dull flavor so a soup that is too spicy gets rescued by thickeners, but one that's bland gets more bland. This is often fixed with excessive levels of salt, which is why cheap soups have 1100 mg per serving. Chili too. It does perk up the tongue, but its bad for the kidneys. Be nice to your kidneys.

Anyway, sweat your French Trinity with the lid on for about 10 minutes over low heat. Add other veggies, meat, seasoning, and beef broth, using water to reach top of veggies if you don't have enough broth. Simmer on low heat for about 35-50 minutes, stirring every 20 or so. About 10 minutes before finishing, add about 1 cup of multicolored spiral pasta because it is healthy and tastes good. It should cook almost instantly in the hot broth and absorb some of it.

Serve with fresh bread if you have it. The darker the better. With room temp butter or cheddar cheese. Its allowed to sprinkle the soup with parmesan cheese, but no sour cream dollop. Not unless you put a bunch of peppers in there.

The above recipe also works with white or yellow hominy, which is a kind of large canned corn. Really large. Its healthy, just drain off the water its packed in. Another good option are beans. Not too many, but beans go well in this soup if you add some cumin and peppers. You can also add stewing tomatoes though they tend to turn any soup they're added to into minestrone, and I don't care for that dish much. Personal preference. Mushrooms are good in this, and eggplant chunks would probably be good too. Neither one is actually nutritious food, but for whatever reason people like their flavor. Maybe good childhood memories? Here's to nostalgia.

I hope you find yourself in the mood for soup this weekend. With the basics handy, its SOUPER easy. See, a pun. Praise my outer geek.