If you read my last post, you might think that "butternut squash" has some deeper meaning, like rutabega. It doesn't. In my continuing quest to conquer domestic tasks here in Paris, I realized recently that making dinner doesn't bother me - it's deciding what to make that does me in. So I turned that responsibility over to Mr. Oil (he's not complaining) and he asked if I would please make butternut squash soup.
So I went to the verger and bought a whole butternut squash for the first time in my life. I found a delicious-sounding recipe on food52.com - creamy butternut squash soup with sherry. At the store, I asked the man if they had sherry. Well, I said, "Pardon, avez vous "sherry"?" He clarified with the French word for sherry (xeres) and I thought I was home free. I said, "Oui! oui!" He replied, "Oui? Non." As in - I know what you want but we just don't have it. I asked why, and he claimed that the French don't use sherry - they just use wine. Cook with wine!, he said. As if I was a five year old. I said, can you recommend a wine? And he said, "Wine! White wine, red wine, in France we cook with wine." He walked to the back shelf, grabbed a demi-bouteille of cheap cabernet sauvignon and handed it to me. With a look on his face that said, "you American idiot."
Red wine or sherry, the soup was amazing. I am not a food blogger (well, I blog a lot about what I eat, of course, but not about cooking) but I will say - make this soup. It is awesome. Using French butter, French leeks and French wine also helped. Recipe here.
