Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Squash blossom soup

Oh the joys of summer. I have a hobby garden and I always grow pumpkins, not because I am trying for lots of pumpkins, but because I am trying for lots of squash blossoms and boy do we get them. The kids are happy if we get one or two little pumpkins. I am happy picking the 4-5 daily blossoms. I only pick the male blossoms on long stems, all of the female blossoms appear on a fruit orb and those I hand pollinate to ensure proper seeds. Squash will cross pollinate and then the fruit won't seed true, so doing it by hand in the morning is the best bet. Just an FYI.

While I love to stuff and fry squash blossoms, my husband loves this soup. It is from a cookbook called Savoring Mexico by Marilyn Tausend. I high recommend Marilyn Tausend's cookbooks for authentic Mexican cooking that can be as fancy or as simple as you like. We have made so many recipes from her book and they are all fantastic. She also organizes these amazing looking culinary adventures in Mexico and I dream of one day doing all of them, except of course modifying all the recipes to be vegetarian.

I keep my blossoms refrigerated in a paper towel for up to 4 days for stuffing, or I freeze them in a baggie and once the baggie is full I know it is time to make this soup. It is always good to have one or two fresh blossoms for garnish, but I forgot this time. The frozen blossoms can be kept in the freezer for making a nice summer soup in the middle of winter, just be sure to pull out the stamen (big pollen covered thing in the middle of the flower) and the sepals (little green stems on the bottom of the flower) before freezing. This recipe originally called for roasted poblano, but I didn't have any so you will see serranos instead, but I do keep the peppers out of the kids soup and instead use them as garnish on the adult version.

ingredients du jour

chop your blossoms, mince your onions and peppers

saute onions and peppers, then add blossoms to sweat, note the two pans

you don't want to cook the blossoms for long at all, and I realize I forgot to add flour when I made this

add your stock - mine is from the freezer

and your dairy or dairy alternative

simmer for a few minutes and then blend


serve with homemade tortilla chips and fresh blossoms for garnish (I know I forgot)

Bon apetit!

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