Butternut Squash and Kabocha Pumpkin Ginger Soup

Recipe notes from Rick Eggers: This recipe was part of the Hawaiian Regional Cuisine at the Kea Lani Masters of Food and Wine Event in 2002. The way Chef Mark Ellman prepared this luxurious soup at the cooking demonstration bore no relation to the recipe he handed out. The printed recipe said to put the roasted squash and pumpkin in a pot with all the other ingredients, cook for an hour, purée, strain and serve with chopped parsley. Many other recipes for squash or pumpkin soup are just that simple. His demonstration, however, showed how you can layer the flavors of a soup to provide a more complex finished product. The purpose for adding the slices of ginger later in the cooking is to infuse the soup with the fresh ginger taste, enhancing the sautéed ginger in the first step. A blender is probably the best tool to puree this kind of soup. It seems to get a creamier result than when using a food processor. Mark Ellman did not remove the ginger slices or star anise before pureeing because he would be straining the soup later. I'd remove them both. The flavors can become too intense and you will have to be very diligent in straining out the remaining fibrous material. In this context, "base" means a concentrated powder, paste, or liquid that is added to intensify the original central flavors. Vegetable or chicken bouillon in either cube or powder form would be fine here. Click here to read more about the Masters of Food and Wine event and Hawaii's Regional Cuisine, along with more terrific recipes.

1 butternut squash 1 kabocha pumpkin (or another type of small pumpkin or a large acorn squash) 2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger 1 medium Maui onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, peeled, minced 1 medium carrot, chopped 1 medium celery stalk, chopped 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 1 cup. dry white wine (optional) 2 cups water 1 bay leaf 1 kaffir lime leaf (or regular lime leaf) 2-3 slices fresh ginger, sliced 1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds 1/2 teaspoon dried chili pepper 1 whole star anise 1 cup heavy cream (optional) vegetable or chicken base (optional, see recipe notes above) about 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Serves 6 Cut the butternut squash and pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and roast in a 375°F oven until the meat is soft, about an hour. Sauté the minced ginger, onion, garlic, carrot and celery in a little olive oil until softened. Add fennel seeds, cumin, star anise, basil, and salt and cook for about a minute more. Add wine, cook for another minute, then add the water and simmer for about an hour. About half way through the cooking time add the kaffir lime leaf (whole) and the slices of ginger. Taste the soup as you go along. At the end of the hour, purée the soup, taste for salt and pepper, and consider whether you want to add some base (see notes above). Strain the soup. At this point, you might not need to do anything else but sprinkle the chopped parsley on top. For a richer finish, add up to a cup of heavy cream, keeping the soup warm but not boiling. Instead of the cream, you could also thicken the soup with a cornstarch slurry. And for other garnishes, try sautéed mushrooms such as shimeji, enoki, or shitake, or poached and diced butternut squash or sweet potatoes.