Spiced Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup

Over on my other blog, I mentioned I was going to have this soup for lunch, and immediately came the request for the recipe! Well, I call it a recipe, it's more of a guideline for making your own... My friend J makes a variant using pumpkin, and just cumin seeds for spicing, leeks instead of onion, and with a tin of coconut milk ... that's what I like about soup, it can be varied at will, with whatever's to hand. I've not made a truly bad soup yet! I find I can be creative with soup in a way I'm not with other dishes, and I'm willing to try all sorts of combinations...

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into chunks
1 large onion, peeled and sliced or finely chopped (it doesn't really matter, the soup is going to be blitzed)
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (okay, I cheat, the last two ingredients are the "Very Lazy" stuff that comes in jars)
1 tablespoon garam masala (this I grind from the whole spices, but the mix is ready made - use your favourite curry powder or spice paste, to taste)
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (ground with the garam masala, as I adore cardamom!)
100g - 150g creamed coconut (the stuff that comes in a block), in small pieces
vegetable stock, hot (I used about 1.2l, made with Swiss Bouillon powder, but it will depend on the size of your squash and how runny you like your soup).
3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil

optional garnish: fresh coriander

Method

Heat the oil in a large pan, and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Sweat gently until the onion is slightly softened. Add the squash and spices, and stir well until all are evenly coated with oil and ground spice. Add stock and bring to boil. Simmer until squash is soft - about 15 minutes or so but longer won't hurt. Take off the heat, and blend until smooth with a jug or stick blender. Return/keep the soup in the pan, and add the creamed coconut in small pieces - blend or stir well to mix. Taste to see how much coconut you want - and bear in mind, the flavour is a little stronger on simmering or reheating. If your soup is a little thick, add more water or stock. If it's a little thin, you can thicken it with a little cornflour made into a paste. It will thicken on storage in the fridge - mine looked like mousse this lunchtime! If you're being smart, you can serve garnished with chopped fresh coriander.

I think this would be nice with a little chilli kick in it, as well.

Banana and Cardamom Muffins

A quiet day, a nice reorganised kitchen, some bananas going spotty so what else was I going to do except bake?

I'm not a huge fan of bananas in cakes normally, but I wondered if whether adding some of my favourite spice would improve matters - and oh, it does, it does! Although I say so myself (as I am the one who came up with this recipe) they are nummy - quite subtle when eaten warm out of the oven but I imagine the favours will develop as they cool ... of course I will be testing this theory! ;o)

Banana and Cardamom Muffins

300g self raising flour
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, ground in pestle & mortar
115g demerara sugar (I'm sure granulated would be fine, but this is what I had in the cupboard!)
60g butter/margarine
2 tablespoons honey
125ml milk
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 250g)

1. Preheat oven to 210 deg C (Gas 6-7) and prepare a 12 hole muffin tin, either by greasing on putting in liners (which you might want to spray with oil spray, because this stuff sticks like ...)
2. Sift flour and ground cardamom together in a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the middle of the mixture.
3. Melt the honey and butter together in a small pan over a low heat. Remove from the heat. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a jug.
4. Add the butter mixture, egg mixture and mashed bananas to the well in the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined - don't worry about lumps, just make sure there's no dry flour visible.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin, filling each hole about three quarters full.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
7. Remove muffins from tin and leave them to cool on a wire tray - although they are nice warm!

If I had the necessary tuits (and ingredients) I think these would be nice with a topping made of cream cheese, icing sugar and some grated lemon rind.