Butternut with Sage Browned Butter Bisque and Butternut Muffins

I love butternut squash.
Moreover, I love that the plural of squash is squash.
Like deer.

If you've read below, you'll note that the twins have been enjoying butternuts as part of their developing palate, so I decided to embark on a butternut journey - with recipes lifted out of "Simply in Season" and of course, tweaked and kicked up a notch... (in my opinion)

Butternut Muffins Recipe:

The dry:
1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 cups of wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup of white sugar (I used 1/2 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of white sugar)
1 cup of brown sugar (in my first go around I left this out thinking it was too much sugar - did NOT play well with the taste testers!)
1 tsp of baking powder (the recipe called for soda - not sure why, no overtly acidic ingredients here, so i stuck with powder)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg (go buy yourselves so fresh nutmeg (see below) and grate it yourself, the dry bland crap in the tins needs to be thrown out) 

1/2 tsp ground cloves (yes, you can grind your own cloves too!)
1/2 tsp ground ginger (i didnt put this in)

The Wet:
4 eggs (I used 2 eggs and 1 cup of eggbeaters - cut some fat out of the recipe)
1/2 cup of veggie oil
(mix your honey in here if using honey)
2 Tbsp of maple syrup (the real stuff - not high fructose corn syrup flavored with maple, k?)
2 1/2 cups of roasted butternut squash (cut two butternuts in half lengthwise, scrape out seeds, and roast at 375 skin side down for about 90 minutes to 2 hrs - scoop out the good stuff)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Mix wet together
Mix dry together
Pour wet on top of dry
Mix to combine (try not to overstir and mix like crazy or you'll get tough muffins)

Lube up a muffin pan and dish the batter into the muffin pan and bake for about 17-20 minutes.

Let cool on rack - then enjoy with some room temp butter...

 

Butternut with Sage Browned Butter Bisque

Dice one medium onion and one carrot.

Heat large pot and add approx 2 tbsp of oil (i used safflower oil - high smoke point, mild flavor - no use wasting olive oil here)

Cook the onion and carrot for about 8 minutes, until onion turns clear (no browning here)

Add 4 cups of stock (veggie or chicken)

Continue cooking for about 10 minutes or until carrots are cooked through

Meanwhile - take a half a stick of butter (just do it) and melt it down on medium high heat.

You'll start to see the foam of the milk solids start to turn brown after a while - keep cooking until most of the solids turn brown (dont want burned butter, though).  Then turn off heat.

Wait a 2 minutes or so and add 5 sage leaves and let it "steep" - set aside.

After your stock and veggies are done cooking - add 4 cups of roasted butternut squash (see directions for roasting above - we roast in Pyrex pans skin side up sometimes too with a little water added to the pan... works well too)

Add 3 Tbsp maple syrup to the soup

Remove your sage leaves from your butter (you can leave them in too, i didnt) and pour in browned butter into the soup 

Take out your stick blender or transfer the soup to a blender and blend away until the desired consistency - i like mine smooth.   Transfer back to pot.

Add Salt and Pepper to taste  (me, i prefer to use my white pepper for this soup - who wants to see black specks floating around in their wonderful orange soup?)

Then...  heh heh - add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of heavy cream (amount depends...) stir it in on medium heat and call your family and friends, cause its time to eat

Optional - finish off the soup with a little nutmeg if you want and serve in bowls with some toasted bread...

 

Not the best pic - but it'll do...

Merry Christmas!!

T