Monday, October 31, 2011

Butternut Squash

If you read my last post, you might think that "butternut squash" has some deeper meaning, like rutabega. It doesn't.  In my continuing quest to conquer domestic tasks here in Paris, I realized recently that making dinner doesn't bother me - it's deciding what to make that does me in.  So I turned that responsibility over to Mr. Oil (he's not complaining) and he asked if I would please make butternut squash soup.

So I went to the verger and bought a whole butternut squash for the first time in my life. I found a delicious-sounding recipe on food52.com - creamy butternut squash soup with sherry.  At the store, I asked the man if they had sherry.  Well, I said, "Pardon, avez vous "sherry"?"  He clarified with the French word for sherry (xeres) and I thought I was home free.  I said, "Oui! oui!"  He replied, "Oui? Non."  As in - I know what you want but we just don't have it.  I asked why, and he claimed that the French don't use sherry - they just use wine.  Cook with wine!, he said. As if I was a five year old. I said, can you recommend a wine?  And he said, "Wine! White wine, red wine, in France we cook with wine."  He walked to the back shelf, grabbed a demi-bouteille of cheap cabernet sauvignon and handed it to me.  With a look on his face that said, "you American idiot." 

Red wine or sherry, the soup was amazing. I am not a food blogger (well, I blog a lot about what I eat, of course, but not about cooking) but I will say - make this soup. It is awesome. Using French butter, French leeks and French wine also helped.   Recipe here.