Curried Roasted Butternut Squash (Fight off those Fall and Winter Chills)

Slightly modified version of Marci Stohon's recipe from allrecipes.com

We are fortunate for many things in our little borough in which we live. Beautiful attractions, great old houses, and lots of things to see and do. However, one of the things we really love about where we live is the people - our friends and neighbors. We are especially fortunate to have friends who share the ample bounty from their summer gardens. We have one such friend who always seems to have an abundance of butternut squash from her garden and we're always happy to do her "the favor" of taking some of the beauties off her hands.

Since the timing of the harvest it always seems to correspond with the wet and cold Fall and Winter Months, this recipe is particularly welcome to help combat the cold and rain that accompanies the changes in seasons. This one in particular helps take the chill off because the curry and cayenne provides a little residual heat (but not too overwhelming) that gives leaves your tummy and core warm inside. It's a filling soup, but certainly not heavy!

Try accompanying this soup with a nice plate of warmed naan or pitas to dip in the soup (and of course sop up the bottom of the bowl!!!).

As Always,

Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

#BonAppetIT, #TheITGourmet

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash (approximately 2 pounds when seeded) - washed, cut in ½ lengthwise, and seeded

• Cinnamon (for roasting the butternut squash)

• Extra virgin olive oil – ½ - 1 tablespoon for roasting the butternut squash plus 1 tablespoon for making the soup base (or canola oil can be substituted)

• 1 cup finely chopped onion

• 4 large cloves garlic, minced

• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth (but you could substitute low sodium vegetable broth

• Salt

• Freshly ground pepper

• 2 teaspoons curry powder

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (use a little less if you’d like it less spicy, especially if your curry powder is on the hot side – TIP: If doubling the recipe – I would suggest not doubling the cayenne pepper)

• ½ cup Greek yogurt (I make my own InstantPot yogurt)

• 2 tablespoons honey

To garnish (for each serving)

• A small dollop of Greek yogurt to taste (Optional), sour cream, or crème fraiche

• Teaspoon of roasted / salted pumpkin seeds

• ¼ teaspoon crystalized ginger

• A sprinkling of cinnamon

Directions

Step 1

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Wash the butternut squash, cut it in half lengthwise, and place cut site up on a baking sheet.

• Brush the halves of squash with a little olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and a light sprinkling of cinnamon.

• Place baking sheet in the oven and roast for 1 hour.

• When the butternut squash is fully cooked (and nice and soft), remove from the oven and allow to cool until the squash is warm to the touch.

• Using a large spoon, carefully scoop out the roasted squash into bowl.

Step 2

• Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot (I like to use a 3 – 4 quart oval cast iron Dutch oven) over medium heat.

• Cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil until softened and is just starting to turn color, 10 to 15 minutes. TIP: I like to add a little water (about ¼ cup) while the onions are cooking to make sure the garlic doesn’t burn and the onions get nice and soft.

• Stir broth, cooked squash, curry powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper into the onion / garlic mixture.

• Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

• Stir yogurt and honey into the squash soup mixture.

• Place back onto the heat and heat for another 5 mins (you want to heat, but not simmer / boil the soup at this time).

• Remove from heat.

Step 3

Carefully pour the cooked squash soup into a blender no more than half full (trust me, you DO NOT want to scald yourself with piping hot soup due to a blender that blew it’s top). Cover the blender and hold the lid down with a kitchen towel; pulse the mixture a few times before leaving on for about 15 seconds to blend. Puree in batches until creamy smooth. I’m fortunate to have a stick blender – you can also blend the soup with one of those.

To Serve

Ladle the soup into serving bowls and top with a small dollop of Greek yogurt (I like to stir the yogurt a bit to make it smooth), sour cream, or crème fraiche.

InstantPot® Spicy Black Bean Soup (Vegetarian)

Photo Credit and Recipe Inspiration to bd.weld from AllRecipes.com™

This soup is quick to make and you don't have to soak the beans overnight because you make it in your multi-function programmable pressure cooker. If you are like me, I think you will agree that this soup recipe is a good one to cut through the chill on a damp and cold day. It's also a great accompaniment to serve over rice (e.g., we just made it last night for our family's traditional blackened fish taco Tuesday meal).

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 1 carrot, chopped

• 1 rib of celery, chopped

• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

• 1 orange bell pepper, diced

• 5 cloves garlic, crushed

• 4 teaspoons chili powder

• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

• 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano

• Salt (to taste)

• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper powder

• 1 bay leaf (whole)

• 6 cups low sodium vegetable broth

• 1 cup water

• 1 pound dry black beans

• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped canned chili peppers (mild), undrained

Garnish:

• Pico de gallo

• Red bell pepper, finely diced or sliced

• Lime, cut into wedges

• Mexican Cheese - queso blanco or shredded cotija are great cheeses

Directions

Step 1

Turn on you multi-functional, programmable pressure cooker (such as Instant Pot®) and select Saute function. Add oil and heat until shimmering. Add onion, orange bell pepper, carrot, celery, and jalapeno pepper; cook and stir until translucent and starting to soften, about 5 minutes.

Step 2

Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, pepper, and chipotle powder. Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add broth, beans, chili peppers, bay leaf. Add salt to taste until your broth and vegetable mixture meets your desired taste. Close and lock the lid. Select high pressure cooking according to your device's manufacturer's instructions; set timer for 60 minutes.

Step 3

Let the device's pressure to release using the natural-release method according to manufacturer's instructions (usually about 25 minutes - e.g., on my InstantPot - the little pressure relief valve will be fully depressed on its own). Unlock and remove the lid. Remove and reserve approximately 3 cups of the cooked soup. This is also a good time to remove the Bay Leaf. Use a stick blender to blend beans until creamy (if using a countertop blender only fill the pitcher to 1/2 full to minimize the risk of scalding yourself). Return the reserved soup to the pot. Serve this soup hot with pico de gallo, red bell pepper slices, a generous spoon of cheese, and lime wedges.

As Always - Best Regards and Bon AppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

#SoupsOn, #FoodPorn, #ComfortFood, #MexicanFood, #MexicanSoup, #SoupRecipes, #EasyRecipes, #InstantPotRecipes, #TheITGourmet, #BonAppetIT

Skirt Steak (Sous Vide) Style

Subtitle: Don't Skirt this Spanish Style Steak Recipe

TheITGourmet is branching out and adding a new cooking method to his repertoire - Sous Vide cooking. I have to admit that I've had a sous vide cooker for more than a year, but I had't used it very much until recently. Why??? Well, during the early days of COVID, buying protein from the store became harder and I didn't think it was wise to be experimenting with a new cooking device and technique and perhaps be wasting food. So sorry I didn't start using it sooner.

Traditionally, I made this recipe by marinating the steak and then moving it to the grill to sear and cook (which by the way, if you don't have a sous vide, you can still do). Wow though, what a difference the sous vide makes. By the way, although this recipe is something that we traditionally make as a Spanish tapas style appetizer, you can skip the crostini and assembly as an appetizer and just make this as a steak dish (like we are doing tonight at our home).

Ingredients (Steak Marinade)

• 1/8 cup olive oil

• 1/8 cup canola oil

• 1/4 cup vinegar (red wine, white wine, cider, or white - pretty much any vinegar you'd like - but not balsamic)

• 1/8 cup water

• 1-2 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 2 teaspoons piment d'Espelette (you can substitute red chili pepper flakes, but I would turn the heat down to about 3/4 of a teaspoon though)

• 2 teaspoons ground mustard

• 2 teaspoons adobo powder

• 2 teaspoons onion powder

• 3 heavy pinches of herbes de provence

• 1 - 2 teaspoon meat tenderizer

• 1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground

• salt

• 1-1/2 lbs flank steak or skirt steak

Tapas Assembly Ingredients

• small jar of roasted red bell peppers jar or roast 1 red pepper

• goat cheese

• fig jam or your choice of jam / chutney

• 1 - 2 baguettes

Steps (to marinate)

• In a glass bowl or measuring cup, mix together all of the steak marinade ingredients making sure to whisk thoroughly.

• Slice the steak in 4 - 5 inch pieces - it makes it easier to handle (flank steak generally comes folded by the butcher when you buy it).

• In a gallon ZipLoc (tm) freezer bag, add the steak, 2/3 of the marinade. Seal the bag trying to get as much of the air out as possible. Place in refrigerate to marinate for 6 - 8 hours (or up to overnight - I suggest marinating overnight if possible).

Steps (to cook)

• To cook the flank steak, get rid of as much of the air out of the bag as possible - you can either use the water immersion method (look up this technique on a sous vide cooking site) or with a vacuum sealer.

• Let your steak come up to room temperature (about 30 - 45 minutes) and place the sealed bag of steak into your immersion vessel water bath.

• Set your sous vide cooker to 131 degrees fahrenheit.

• When your sous vide water comes up to temperature, set an alarm for 90 minutes. NOTE: When you have about 15 minutes of cooking time left go and heat your grill to high heat and let it come up to temperature (you will want it to be about 500 - 550 degrees Fahrenheit). You can also cook this steak inside on a grill pan or cast iron skillet, but I think the flames impart a better flavor in the steak).

• Cook in the sous vide for 90 minutes. Remove the steak from the sealed bag and place onto a platter.

• Lightly pat the meat dry and grill, turning once, 1 minutes and thirty seconds per side medium-rare. Use the reserved marinade to brush over the steak on each side (both when you start cooking and when you do the flip).

• Drizzle the steak lightly with your best olive. Let steak rest before slicing.

• Thinly slice the steak against the grain. IMPORTANT NOTE: Resist the urge to gobble up the steak when you are slicing (if you are making this as a main course - go ahead and get this to the table and watch your guests and family to eat it all up and ask for seconds).

Steps (to assemble if making as a tapas appetizer)

• Toast the sliced baguettes lightly golden brown in the oven.

• Top each slice with a little bit of goat cheese, steak, a couple of red bell pepper slices, and a small dollop of fig jam (apricot, cherry, or onion jam or orange marmalade also work well with with this recipe.

Other Notes:

Experiment with other types of steak with this recipe. We have also tried it with flank steak, sirloin, and filet.

As Always,

Best Regards and BonAppettIT

TheITGourmet