Black Bean Soup with Smoked Butt and Butternut Squash

The inspiration for this soup was a hunk of butternut squash sitting unused at the bottom of the crisper drawer and a 1-pound bag of dried black beans that came back from one of my "food appreciation" classes.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of butternut squash and black beans together. My mind has been occupied with Southern food lately, so thoughts naturally drifted toward pork in the soup somehow. I wasn't sure if this was becoming a Southern soup or something Cuban or Caribbean. It just evolved. I stopped at the market for a piece of "smoked butt," something we used to eat all the time when I was a kid. You don't see much mention of it anymore. It's really just a cured ham, but made from the shoulder--or "butt"--end of the pig rather than the hindquarters.

This soup is a two- or three-day affair. Not much work, in fact, but you do need to cook the beans. Pick over a 1-pound bag of dried black beans and remove any stones. Then pour the beans into a large mixing bowl and cover with lots of water. There should be several inches of water over the beans. Let this soak overnight.

The following day, in a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven, saute a large onion, peeled and cut into small dice, along with three or four stalks of celery, peeled to remove the tough fibers and cut into small dice. You can cook this with bacon fat or extra-virgin olive oil. Stir in a teaspoon of coarse salt to season and draw out the juices.

Cook the vegetables over moderately low heat until the onion is tender, about 8 minutes. Place a smoked ham hock in the center of the vegetables along with four thick slices of pork fat back (or "streak-o'-lean) that have been quickly browned in a skillet. Drain the beans and add these plus 3 1/2 quarts water. Make a spice sachet by tying in cheesecloth a fist-full of parsley sprigs, several sprigs of fresh thyme, two or three bay leaves and a half-dozen peppercorns. Use a length of string long enough so that you can tie off one end to the handle of your pot for easy retrieval. Drop the spice sachet into the water, bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, with cover slightly ajar, for about 3 hours, or until the beans are perfectly tender and the soup is redolent of smoked pork.

At this point, I would remove the pot from the heat, cover it completely and let it cure overnight on the stovetop. But you don't have to. The next step is remove the spice sachet, the ham hock and the fat back and run the soup through a food mill or blender until it is smooth and creamy. If it's too thick, add some water. If it seems to thin, cook it some more with the lid off. Then add to the soup 1/2 of a medium butternut squash, skin and seeds removed and cut into medium dice. Also add about 1 pound of smoked butt, cut into medium dice and browned in a skillet for extra flavor.

Bring the soup back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the squash is cooked through and tender, about 30 minutes. Do stir the soup frequently, especially around the bottom to prevent the beans from scorching. To finish the soup, stir in 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander and 1 tablespoon molasses. I could also see finishing this bean and squash soup with some balsamic vinegar, some red wine or sherry. There's plenty of room for improvisation.

To serve, ladle into hot, shallow bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro. A slice of buttered corn bread would be perfect on the side.

Dark Days: Butternut Squash Lasagna

No, this is not an April Fool's joke. I really am writing about squash in April.

But when you think about it, winter squashes will store for such a long time they could almost be considered a spring vegetable. Especially this time of year we need every bit of vegetable goodness we can get: We've used up almost everything that overwintered in the garden, and it will be weeks before any of our new crops are ready to harvest.

So we walked to the farmer's market and bought almost everything we needed for this lasagna: the squash, the ricotta, the mozzarella. It made our hearts beat just a little faster knowing we could purchase such fabulous ingredients from local farmers within range of our home here in the District of Columbia.

But there's another compelling reason to write about butternut squash. Our friends Charlotte and Freddie at the Great Big Vegetable Challenge blog continue to work their way through the vegetable alphabet, searching for recipes with kid appeal. Their challenge to us: come up with a squash recipe Freddie will love.

Well, the first thing that came to mind was spaghetti squash with vegetarian marinara sauce. It's one of our favorite ways to enjoy squash--a lot like conventional spaghetti--but I thought the occasion called for something with a little more pizazz. Acorn squash glazed with pomegranate is a quick and elegant side dish. But it's almost too easy. And then I remembered this decadent, totally elegant butternut squash lasagna.

This is neither quick, nor something you will want to attempt every night.

In fact, you will get a few pots and pans dirty making this lasagna. You may even have to save a few pennies for the fresh ricotta and mozzarella cheese. And if you are obsessed with calories and cholesterol, you may want to substitute low-fat versions of the ricotta, the mozzarella and the milk.

This is probably unlike most lasagnas you've had before. Not only is the creamy, butternutty filling a surprise, but the seasonings--fennel, cinnamon, garlic, sage--are more like something out of a Renaissance cookbook. Read the recipe through completely to get your bearings. Basically you make a filling with roasted squash, ricotta, fennel, cinnamon and sage. Then you make a sauce with butter, flour, milk, garlic and more sage. Finally you layer everything in a casserole using your favorite lasagna noodles (I used no-boil, simply because there is plenty of work to do elsewhere without having to cook pasta as well) plus some grated mozzarella and Parmesan.

This lasagna makes six generous portions, and some of those can be divided for children. I make mine in a non-stick metal pan 8 1/2 inches square and 2 1/2 inches deep. Getting individual slices of the pie out of the pan can be tricky. Consider making the lasagna a day or two ahead and refrigerating it. This would give the incredible flavors time to meld, and it would be a simple matter of removing the whole pie from the pan, slicing it into individual pieces and reheating them for dinner (or breakfast, or lunch).

For the squash filling:

1 medium butternut squash, about 2 pounds
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh sage, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (the Brits will have to make a conversion).

Trim about 1/2 inch from the top and bottom of the squash. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, then cut the halves into 1-inch pieces. Toss these in a bowl with the olive oil, sage, fennel, cinnamon, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread the squash on a baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes, or until the squash is completely cooked through.

Place the squash in a food processor (or do this in a bowl with a potato masher) and blend with the ricotta, the grated Parmesan and the egg. Place in the refrigerator to cool.

For the sauce:

1 quart milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons sage, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

In a saucepan, heat the milk until it is steaming, but do not boil

In a separate saucepan, melt the butter over moderate heat, then add the garlic and sage and cook a minute or two. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring frequently, for three or four minutes to make a roux. Begin adding hot milk to the roux, a ladle full at a time. Stir continuously as the sauce begins to bubble and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat.

For final assembly:

Greased casserole or pan
8 ounces no-boil lasagna noodles (or substitute your choice cooked noodles)
8 ounces grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Set oven to 375 degrees

Now it's time to put everything together. You'll make about four layers, so be sure to have some of the mozzarella and Parmesan for each layer as well as the top.

Start by ladling enough of the sauce to cover the bottom of your pan or casserole. Cover the sauce with noodles (some may need to be cut to fit). Use a spatula to spread a layer of squash mixture over the noodles, then ladle some sauce over the squash and dust with mozzarella and Parmesan. Repeat until you reach almost to the top of the pan or casserole--or run out of ingredients, which ever comes first. Ladle the last of the sauce over the top and finish with a dusting of more cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet and put it in the oven to bake for one hour. Remove the foil and bake an additional 15 minutes. The top of the lasagna should be bubbly and lightly browned. If not, set it under the broiler for a minute or two.

Add a fresh green salad and a cold glass of a buttery Chardonnay and you have dinner.

Dark Days: One-Pot Chicken

This meal starts with the roasting chicken we received in our weekly CSA package from farmer friend Brett.

This is not to be confused with the stewing hen I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Brett, being a man of many facets, deals in two kinds of chicken. One, the laying hen, needs to be cooked forever. The roaster cooks more like a conventional bird. Brett advises that it may be a bit chewier than the chicken you buy at the store. It does spend most of its time running around the farmyard pecking at things, after all.

We share our CSA subscription with friends Helen and Jeff so what we were dealing with in fact was half a bird. My visit to the farmers market over the weekend was intended to find some companion vegetables for the chicken. The dish that took shape--improvisational in the truest sense--was a one-pot affair with rice and squash on the side.

Divide the chicken into pieces and brown it in batches with extra-virgin olive oil at the bottom of a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Set the chicken aside and toss an onion, diced large, into the pot, scraping any brown bit off the bottom of the pot. When the onion has softened and browned a little, add about three cloves garlic, thinly sliced, to the pot and cook for a minute or two. Then add a large carrot and a large parsnip, peeled and sliced on an angle. Also add a large white potato and a sweet potato cut into 1-inch pieces. Place several sprigs thyme and a bay leaf or two amongst the vegetables and add two cups chicken stock and one can diced tomatoes with the juices.

Note: this dish cooks for about 1 1/2 hours on the stove top. If you like your potatoes and sweet potatoes more on the firm side, wait until 45 minutes or so into the cooking before adding them.

Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low and simmer until the chicken is extremely tender and ready to fall off the bone. Originally I had thought of serving this in a bowl with the broth, like a pot au feu, but changed my mind and decided to present it more in the Hispanic manner with rice.. I drained off the cooking liquid and used it to make brown rice, making the plate a bit monochromatic and bit redundant in the starch department. A squash I had intended to cook with the chicken was impossible to peel, so I baked it in the oven and served it--mashed--on the side, mixed with some brown sugar.

This simple, rustic dinner could have come out of your grandmother's root cellar, but of course you have the satisfaction of knowing you made it yourself from the best ingredients around.

Kids Make Butternut Squash Soup

Do you take your squash perfectly smooth, or a bit lumpy?

That was the dilemma I wrestled with in my "food appreciation" classes this week. I wanted the kids to experience the old-fashioned method of turning vegetables through a food mill into soup, but I wasn't sure how they would react to the texture.

As much as possible, I try to make these sessions a hands-on tutorial. For the most part, we do without modern kitchen gadgets and especially electrical appliances. I want the kids to learn original techniques, and to appreciate the difference

between making food by hand and zapping it with electricity.

Turns out texture was a major issue for the smaller children. So on the second day of classes, we tried something different. All the kids got a turn cranking the food mill to see how the old-fashioned device turned sauteed onions, carrots and apples into a puree. Then, to get rid of the bumps, we processed the soup in a blender.

This makes me a pack mule, hauling all my equipment to school, and it does create a bit of extra work. But I think the final results are worth the effort.

This is a classic soup. The apple and winter squash harvests overlap, which leads to this fortunate blend of flavors, the sweetness of the apples giving just the right lift to the savory squash. I adapted this recipe from the many I looked at in my research. There is a startling number of variations, with ingredients including cream, sour cream, half-and-half, chicken broth, maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, curry powder, brandy, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg--and on and on.

Anything that goes with apples or butternut squash, it seems, is fair game for this soup, so don't be afraid to improvise.

In the end, the soup was a huge hit with the older kids--even the lumpy version. The younger children, however, were immediately put off by the rough texture of the soup using only the food mill mill. But they were eager to try it once it had been smoothed out in the blender. Still, many of them found the brownish color of the finished soup a bit intimidating. Some of them, on the other hand, absolutely loved it. And what's not to love about a soup that's practically half dessert?

I tried to keep my final recipe as American as possible, with the accent on maple syrup and brown sugar. Making it is surprisingly easy, really just a matter of combining the cooked squash with the other ingredients, hardly any cooking at all.

For 6 servings

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into small dice
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1 semi-sweet, crispy apple, peeled and grated
Coarse salt
1 cup half-and-half

1 cup chicken broth (or water)
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sour cream or crème fraiche for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place squash in an oven-proof casserole cut-side down and add water to a depth of about ½ inch. Place in oven and bake until completely tender, about 1 hour. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a heavy pot over moderate heat, heat the olive oil and add the onion, carrot and apple. Cook until the onion is completely soft, about eight minutes. Remove from heat. When the vegetables are cool enough to handle, process through a food mill (or in a blender or food processor with the addition of some broth or water).

Return pureed vegetables to cook pot. Scoop flesh from squash and add to cook pot. Add remaining ingredients and use a potato masher to thoroughly blend squash into the mix. (For a very smooth soup, process the mix in a blender or food processor.) Return pot to moderate heat on the stove and bring to a simmer. Adjust seasonings.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a swirl of sour cream or crème fraiche.

Note: if the soup is too thick, add half-and-half, chicken stock or water.

Acorn Squash with Pomegranate Glaze

I'm glad we're coming into fall vegetables. I just wish the weather would cooperate and cool off a little.

Making client meals over the weekend I improvised this tasty and very easy way of preparing acorn squash with pomegranate molasses.

Pomegranate molasses is one of my favorite pantry items. It has a delicious tang and of course a deep flavor of pomegranates. I suppose it's called "molasses" because it is about that thick, pouring very slowly out of its bottle, but is grainier, not nearly as processed looking. Just about any Middle Eastern grocery will carry it.

To prepare the squash, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut a medium acorn squash in half lengthwise and scoop out all the seeds. Now cut the halves across into slices about 3/4-inch thick, leaving the rind. Place the slices on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and prepare your glaze.

For the glaze, pour two or three tablespoon pomegranate molasses into a small bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon orange juice, a good pinch of brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or your favorite combination of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. Mix this thoroughly, then brush over the squash slices. Place in oven and bake about 15 minutes, remove the baking sheet, turn the squash slices with a pair of tongs and glaze the other side of the squash. Return to oven and bake another 15 minutes or so, or until a metal trussing skewer slides through the squash with no resistance.

Serve warm with pork chops or roast turkey, or however you enjoy squash.