Every month, the Canadian arm of the American Food Network, foodtv.ca, has a "cooking club challenge." Instead of organizing members into local chapters that meet regularly, the "club" is simply participants of an online blog called Food for Thought. Each month, blog writer Catherine Jheon chooses a recipe. Participants make the suggested recipe in their own kitchens, plate up their attempts, capture a digital image, and either e-mail the image and a brief description to the blog or submit the image and brief description to a Flickr group.

Personally, I like to check back from time to time to see what seasonal recipes are chosen. I also like to see what prizes can be won. You see, the images are also judged. Both winners' and losers' images end up on the foodtv website. Me, I haven't yet participated in the "challenge", but I have made one of the chosen recipes: Jamie Oliver's Pumpkin Soup.

And yes, this is another autumn posting for this week's lunch with my colleagues.

Presumably, Chef Oliver concocted the recipe for his "Jamie at Home" series. I found the recipe somewhat odd and decided to augment it with a quasi-Italian recipe from former Canadian food network star, David Rocco. The former recipe employs chestnuts for texture and flavor. It also starts with rendering out fat from pancetta. The latter recipe employs potato for body. Both recipes refer to squash as pumpkins. Apparently, Europeans do not distinguish varieties as we do in North America.

Me, I omitted the chestnuts and pancetta. I believe that both flavors will muddy up what should be a vegetarian dish that highlights an autumnal veg: butternut squash! However, I really liked Chef Oliver's approach for dry roasting squash to concentrate flavors.

Here's what turned out:

Butter Nut Squash Soup
The soup was thick and velvety, tasting distinctly of squash. The carrots provided a punctuated sweetness that went well with the squash. The onions and celery added a slight savory dimension.

Recipe:
What You'll Need:

• 1 large butternut squash (or 2 small ones)
• 1 tsp of freshly ground coriander seeds
• 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil for drizzling
• 4 tbsp of butter
• 1 large-sized carrots (approximately 1/4 cup when finely chopped)
• 2-3 stalks of celery (approximately 1/4 cup finely chopped)
• 1 medium white onion (approximately 1/2 cup when finely chopped)
• kosher salt for seasoning
• 3 cups of water or light vegetable stock
• 2 medium-sized russet potatoes
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream

Prep and Method follow after the jump:

Prep:

1. Finely chop the carrots, celery and onion and set aside in a container.
2. Grind the coriander seeds and black pepper and set aside in a container
3. Skin and cube the potatoes int half inch pieces
4. Place the cubed potatoes in a bowl of cold water. This will wash away excess starch.

Method:

Chopped Aromatics (onion, celery, and carrots)

Russet potatoes

One Half Roasted Squash

Second Half Roasted Squash

Squash Mixture, post Roasting

Pureed to Desired Consistency

1. Preheat an oven to 375°F (200°C)
2. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds
3. Sprinkle with pepper and coriander
4. Drizzle with olive oil and place into oven until soft and scoop-aple. For me, this took approximately 90 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, add the aromatics (carrots, onion, and celery) into a cold pot with the butter. The pot should be able to accommodate what will become 3 cups of soup.
6. Heat on medium heat and sprinkle with kosher salt
7. Sweat the aromatics until softened and any emerging liquid is cooked out. If any of the vegetation turns brown, turn the heat down to medium-low.
8. Pour in enough water or stock to just cover the vegetation
9. Add the cubed potatoes (minus the soaking water) and top up with more water or stock as necessary.
10. Bring to a simmer on medium-heat
11. Lower the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes soften
12. By the time the potatoes soften the squash should be ready.
13. Spoon the squash from their skins and add to the pot.
14. Puree the squash mixture with a stick blender (also called "a stick") to the desired consistency
15. Bring again back to a simmer
16. Remove it from the heat and stir in the heavy cream
17. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

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