A Last Hurrah

Here’s a last hurrah to the heirloom tomatoes out of the garden; a roasted tomato salad topped simply with good olive oil and balsamic.

Fall is here:Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Tomato Coulis and Tarragon & Poblano Chili Oil

Something is in the air besides the noise of my pager going off every morning at 3am (hence the delay in posts)-It’s Fall! So to encourage the fall feeling, here’s a dish with fall flair.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Tomato Coulis and Tarragon & Poblano Chili Oil

• 2 (about 1 pound each) butternut squash
• 1 Tbs butter
• 2 Tbs oil
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 cup sweet onion (rough chop)
• 2 carrots (rough chop)
• 2 ribs of celery (rough chop)
• 2 leeks (white part only) (rough chop)
• 1 shallot (rough chop)
• 2 cloves garlic (rough chop)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ½ cup white wine
• 2 qts chicken stock (or vegetable nage for vegetarian version)
• 1 Tbs maple syrup
• 1 Tbs honey
• Roasted  Grape Tomato Coulis (recipe follows)
• Roasted Tarragon & Poblano Oil (Recipe follows)
• Roasted corn for garnish (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel, seed and roughly chop the squash. Place in an oven proof baking dish and lightly cover with 1 Tbs oil, salt and pepper. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until tender. Remove the squash and allow to cool. In a large heavy bottomed pot, add the butter and remaining oil. Sweat the vegetables for several minutes; do not allow them to brown. Add the lemon juice and the white wine. Allow the wine to cook off until almost gone. Add the chicken stock, maple syrup and honey. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Then in small batches in a blender or food processor, or using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it has a homogenous consistency.

To serve, place the soup in the serving dish. Drizzle with the tomato coulis. Drizzle with the tarragon & roasted poblano chili oil and garnish with fire roasted corn.

Roasted  Grape Tomato Coulis

• 1 pound sweet grape tomatoes
• 1 Tbs tomato paste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the tomatoes in an oven proof dish and lightly drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes just start to split. Transfer to a food processor. Run the pureed tomatoes through a fine sieve and add in the tomato paste.

Tarragon Poblano Chili Oil

• 1 ounce fresh tarragon
• 1 red pepper
• 6 poblano peppers
• ¾ cup olive oil

Roast the red peppers and poblano peppers, allow to rest sealed in a zip loc bag and remove the skins. Remove the leaves from the tarragon and discard the stems. Place the peppers in the food processor along with the tarragon and oil. Puree. Strain the puree through a fine sieve and reserve the oil.

Roasted Corn Garnish

• 2 ears of corn, roasted
• Juice of 2 limes

Remove the kernels from the ears. Mix with the lime juice.