Dark Days: Sweet Potato Squash Soup with Roast Chicken

It is becoming abundantly clear that I am almost incapable of following directions. Even with recipes, I insist on doing it my own way. This week, I created two "original" dishes, one vegetarian and one for the carnivores. I am still generally unaccustomed to cooking with meat, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Sweet Potato Squash Soup

The inspiration for this soup originated with Vegan Fusion World Cuisine's "Sistah Jah Love Roasted Squash Soup." This is one of my favorite cookbooks, but it contains an overabundance of tofu, which I don't eat, and Hawaiian regional cuisine, which I would love to eat if I lived in Hawaii. But I live in New England in the winter, so I've gotta work with what I've got. So, by the time I was done modifying to suit my own needs, I completely ignored the directions and went off half-cocked, refering back to the recipe only when it seemed like an emergency. Here's what I did:

Butternut squash cut in half, scrape out seeds, bake face down in pan full of water on 450 degrees until tender
Celeriac peel and chop into small bits
Sweet potato (2) bake alongside squash
Onion chop into small bits
Milk
Curry Powder
Cinnamon stick
Olive Oil
water


I sauteed the onion and celeriac in olive oil until they began to soften (it's okay if the celeriac doesn't really soften, but at least sautee it until the onions brown). Pour about two cups of fresh milk on top and bring to a simmer. Add curry powder to taste plus one cinnamon stick. Add about two cups of filtered water.

Scoop in flesh of squash and chopped sweet potato, skin on. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about fifteen minutes. Turn off heat.

Meanwhile, rinse squash seeds and lay them on a pan. Sprinkle with salt and place in Toaster Oven for about twenty minutes on a high setting. I tend to overdo it and have them start popping like popcorn, but you can avoid that, I think, by using a lower heat over a longer time.

Use the hand blender to blend the soup in the pot (remember to remove the cinnamon stick) until creamy. Little chunks of potato skin are okay, but not big ones.

I sprinkled squash seeds on top to serve, but they got softer in a few minutes, so next time I would serve them on the side for optional crunch.

Chicken

Legs (2) white and dark meat
Olive juice from the bottom of an almost-empty jar of garlic-stuffed olives
Apple cider vinegar
Olive oil
Black pepper
Thyme
Turnip (1 large)
Red Potaoes (4)
Carrots (5 small)
Garlic (1 clove)

After rinsing the chicken legs and cutting off any skin that peeled away easily, I placed them in the bottom of a Creuset Cast Iron Dutch Oven, one of my new favorite cooking tools. I chopped all veggies into bite sized pieces and placed them on top of the chicken. I pushed the garlic through a garlic press and added that, and then I poured, oh, probably an eighth of a cup of olive oil on top of everything. I tossed in a little of the juice from the bottom of a jar of organic, garlic stuffed olives--a minor non-local transgression, but the olives were a holiday gift and the juice would have otherwise gone to waste, so I found it acceptable--and a spalash of local cider vinegar. Sprinkled on some black pepper and thyme, tossed the veggies lightly, covered, and placed in the oven on 450 for half an hour. After half an hour I turned the temp down to 375 and cooked for another hour. Probably overkill, but it was covered so it couldn't dry out. When done, I let it stand, covered, on the stove for another fifteen minutes before opening.

The flesh of the chicken melted off like butter and the flavor was really, really nice. But something was missing. It was bland. I ate a small serving before I figure it out....the gravy!



Gravy

All the drippings from the bottom of the dutch oven
One tablespoon buckwheat flour

In a small cast iron skillet, I heated the oil and added the flour a tiny bit at a time, whisking continuously to avoid clumps. I brought the whole thing to a boil and continued whisking for a minute or two, then poured it over my second serving. Mmmmm, tasty delicious comforting heavenly down-home local cooking.