Pumpkin Soup

The soup for the dinner is the same as the portal or the entrance to a building, that is, not only the first piece but also, like the overture to a comic opera, its nature must be such that one can have an approximate idea of the glories that will follow.

Grimond de la Reynière[1]

Mr. Reynière, who is generally referred to as the founder of the gastronomic criticism, gave us a major target. That will also be the reason why Auguste Escoffier devotes a separate chapter to soups in his great standard work ‘Le Guide Culinaire’. He basically divides into clear and thickened soups. The bound are in turn divided into purees, creams, velioutés, bound consoles and special soups.

The basis for the first 3 types is always a puree. In Escoffier’s time, it could also be a meat puree. Today, thickened soups are mainly cooked as vegetable soups.

Classic purees are tied with rice, baked bread or flour-based vegetables. The creams and veloutés are made with roux, a roux as a basis and then finished with egg yolk and butter for the veloutés, with the creams simply with sweet cream.

One more thing was important to Escoffier in his thoughts on the soup. A soup must be served boiling hot. Because there is a risk that if the guests have already enjoyed starters, the soup will be perceived as sober and tasteless and that can only be prevented by serving the soup burning hot.

So then. Off to the pumpkin. We use when we get a butternut squash and tie with a roux. That means that we don’t actually prepare a pumpkin soup but a ‘creme de butternut’.

[1] Zitiert von A.Escoffier in Kochkunstführer, 15. Auflage, S.87

Ingredients

4 servings

– 600g butternut squash (peeled)
– 60g shallots (cut)
– 50ml white wine
– 750 ml Veloute (40g butter, 50g flour, 800 ml vegetable soup)
– 150g vegetable soup
– 150g of cream
– 2 egg yolks
– salt, pepper, nutmeg
– Butter and oil for cooking

Refine

Carrots go great with pumpkin. A small apple grated gives a pleasant acidity. If you want something exotic, you can add ginger or cloves. In the end, a little more cream is of course also very fine.

You can garnish the soup with pumpkin seed oil, a coriander pesto is also very good (1 bunch of coriander, 1 clove of garlic, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, salt, pepper. Chop everything together)

Last but not least, boiled chestnuts go very well with this. In pieces or whole in the soup.

CULINAMUS

For our CULINAMUS pumpkin soup we put a boiled chestnut in the center of the plate and decorate the soup with a little pumpkin seed oil. Otherwise as in the recipe.

Preparation

20 minuntes & 1 hour simmering

Velouté preparation:
Melt 40g butter, add flour and heat very carefully for 10 minutes without the multi-sweat taking on color. Add 800ml of hot vegetable soup, stir well so that no lumps remain and simmer very gently for 1 hour. (if the roux

– Peel the pumpkin and cut into cubes (3 cm).
– Cut the shallots into small cubes
– Prepare white wine, cream and egg yolk

Cooking

45 minutes
– Sauté the onion in a little butter without the onion taking on any color.
– Add the pumpkin and sweat for 5 minutes.
– Deglaze with white wine and let the wine boil down completely.
– Add Velouté and cook the pumpkin covered until soft (20-30 minutes)
– Chop with a hand blender
– Add the soup and cream and cook through
– add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
– Stir in 2 egg yolks and serve.

and then..?

As we have quite a substantial meal in front of us, we can drink a stronger white wine with it. Pinot gris would be such a thing. Maybe from the Fassold in Straden?

CULINAMUS!

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