Roast Chicken + Butternut Squash Soup

Roast Chicken

(Brine by Shirley Corriher, Roast and stuff by Julia Child)

- 3.5 lb. Fulton Valley Farm chicken from Guerra's.

- Clean chicken and giblets

- Brine chicken:  Cover chicken in salt.  Put chicken in a pot and cover with water.  Put everything in the fridge for 3 hours. 

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

- Rub chicken with olive oil and pepper mixture.  Put on v-rack in orange pan.

- Stuff chicken cavity with 1 meyer lemon (thinly sliced), 1/4 red onion, handful of thyme.  Put leftover 1/4 of the red onion and thyme in the bottom of the pan.  (By mistake, I poured some water in the bottom of the pan.)

- Tie legs together with twine.  Turn bird breast side up.

- Roast for 15 minutes at 425 F.  Baste with drippings/olive oil.

- Lower temperature to 350F.

- Roast for about 1 hour (basting every 15 minutes), or until juices run clear.  An extra 7 minutes per extra pound.  

- Bittman doneness temperature:  breast 160F, thigh 165F.

Butternut Squash Soup

- Preheat oven to 400

- Cut 3 small butternut squash (4.5 lbs total) in half, slather in olive oil, bake cut side up for 35-40 minutes, remove the hollow bits, then bake the rest for another 10 minutes

- Meanwhile, cut 2 tart (granny smith) apples in half, core, and roast them cut side up for 30-35 minutes with the squash.

- Find your immersion blender

- Saute for 15 minutes in olive oil (in French oven):  chicken giblets (remove when browned), 1/2 chopped red onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 small bunch of chopped carrots, 1 dried bay leaf, 1 cinnamon stick, minced ginger.

- Remove bay leaf.

- Prepare 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper, 1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- Skin and chop squash.  Chop apples with skin on.  Add them to the sauteed vegetables, and add water to cover.  Bring to a simmer and turn off heat.

- Blend everything thoroughly

- Bring temperature back up.  

- Add nutmeg, white pepper.

- Add milk or cream to taste.  (I don't add salt.)

Ingredients list:

3.5 lb. Fulton Valley Farm chicken

4.5 lb. butternut squash (3 small ones)

2 large granny smith apples

1 really small bunch of carrots

1 large red onion

1 small fresh ginger root from Rainbow

1 bunch of thyme from the garden

1 meyer lemon

milk and/or cream

garlic

1 dried bay leaf

whole nutmeg

cinnamon stick

olive oil

salt for brining

black pepper

white pepper

Butternut Squash Soup version 1

I finally took the immersion blender for a spin!  All those beautiful squash were asking to be blended into soup.  

I used Alton Brown's recipe for a base:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/squash-soup-recipe/index.html

Alterations:

- plus 1 medium red onion (chopped), one dried bay leaf, 3 cloves garlic - sauteed in olive oil for 10 minutes

- minus the honey

- double/triple the minced ginger

- add one roasted apple (chopped in half and roasted for 30 minutes) and a dash of cinnamon

- used 5 lbs of butternut squash (2 large ones - not very accurate Alton!!!), cut in half, covered in olive oil (not butter) and baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, removed the hollow ends and baked the rest for another 10 minutes.

- substituted water for one of the cups of vegetable stock

- substituted milk for some of the heavy cream

- added the pepper at the end

Notes for next time:

- use 2 large tart baked apples (peeled) instead of 1

- don't use vegetable stock - just add carrots and leek with the onion/etc - and then add salt to taste

- use milk only, not cream

- add more water (it was too thick)

- perhaps only buy 4 lbs of squash

- use only 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper

- possibly use fried sage instead of ginger?

In other words, version 2 should look like this:

- Preheat oven to 400

- Cut 2 small butternut squash (4 lbs total) in half, slather in olive oil, bake cut side up for 30-40 minutes, remove the hollow bits, then bake the rest for another 10 minutes

- Meanwhile, cut 2 tart (granny smith) apples in half, core, and roast them cut side up for 3o minutes

- Find your immersion blender

- Saute for 15 minutes in olive oil (in French oven):  1 chopped red onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 bunch of chopped carrots, whole sage leaves and 1 bay leaf.  

- Remove sage and bay leaf.  Keep sage for garnish.

- Prepare 1/2 teaspoon of white/black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- Skin and chop squash and apples.  Add them to the sauteed vegetables, and add water to cover.  Bring to a simmer and turn off heat.

- Blend everything thoroughly

- Bring temperature back up.  Add milk, water, nutmeg, white/black pepper, salt to taste.