curried pumpkin soup

i guess it's time for a new recipe...

i've recently discovered roasting the various winter squashes to be quite fun and tasty. i started with roasting a small sweet dumpling squash with a bit of salt and pepper, slathered it with some butter, and lo and behold, a tasty side dish! i also procured some small sugar pumpkins with the intent of making pumpkin pie, but then i decided to make a soup with it, much to the delight of H. and it turned out so deliciously, i must share the recipe.

ingredients:

• 1 small sugar pumpkin, about the height of a canned coke or something
• chicken stock (or veggie, whatever you have)
• cream
• sour cream (for garnish)
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and rough chop
  
• cloves of garlic, peeled
  
• 1.5-2 inch piece of root ginger, rough chop
  
• cilantro, minced
  
• red curry paste
• salt
• pepper (i used some black and white pepper)
• red cayenne pepper to taste

first you gotta cook the pumpkin flesh. you can do this in any number of ways...what i did was to cut it into sections, scoop out the seeds (SAVE THEM TO MAKE THE ROASTED SEEDS), and then steam them until a fork easily pierces the skin/flesh. this took me about 10-12 minutes. alternatively, you could roast them in the oven along with the onion, garlic, and ginger (since you have to roast those anyway to get really good flavor). (next time i think i'll roast the pumpkin with the rest of the ingredients, if that helps you decide.) roast the veggies at around 350 for 45 minutes or so. just check them periodically, and when they look good, just take them out!

after everything's done, puree the whole lot in a blender. or food processor. i don't have one of those, so i used a blender. over medium heat in a pot, put your concentrated "soup" into it. add a cup of the chicken broth and stir. add more if you want thinner soup. i believe i added about 1 3/4 cup chicken broth. then add your spices. i ended up using about 1.5 tsps of the red curry paste, and then i put in some yellow curry powder as well. i like spicy food so i added a lot of cayenne pepper. basically, just add your spices and cilantro a little at a time, taste, and then adjust. i went through multiple tastings before i got it how i wanted, but that's just how soup is.

once everything warms through and just starts to bubble, turn the heat off and add a bit of the cream. the cream really helps to just smooth things out a bit. after you add the cream, you do NOT want to bring the soup to a boil. that is why you add the cream AFTER you've gotten your soup seasoned the way you want.

serve in a bowl. i garnished with a dollop of sour cream and H added some peanuts to his. it was a lovely soup with nice spice and heat to it...enjoy!