The butternut squash soup looked positively glorious, a shimmering bright orange pool centered with a white dollop of crème fraiche, a swirl of olive oil and a handful of toasted pepitas.
And though it hardly seemed possible, it tasted even better than it looked.
I think I know the secret. I think the chef did not just use cream in his soup, he used a cream base.
We were on our way to a funeral — and it is a matter of some concern to me that so many of my stories now begin “We were on our way to a funeral.” Along the way, we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants anywhere, which I will refrain from naming here because, frankly, I have mentioned it so often that people are starting to wonder if I am being paid by them (I am not).
I got the Philly cheesesteak sandwich — which, by the way, was simply fabulous: shaved ribeye and New York strip, with a beer cheese sauce and served on a fresh hoagie roll. My wife got a very unsimple simple salad and the butternut squash soup.
The butternut squash soup looked positively glorious, as I said, and tasted better than it looked.
A common restaurant trick when making soup is to add cream. Cream instantly makes any vegetable soup taste richer and more satisfying. You feel like you are getting more for your money when soup has cream in it, and the chef can bask in your praise and repeat business.
Cream is a natural and almost necessary accompaniment to certain kinds of soup, too. The combination of mushrooms and cream is one of the happiest romances known to man, and asparagus and celery root cry with happiness whenever they are added to cream.
And so does butternut squash. Other squashes go well with cream, too, including pumpkin, but butternut squash with its sweet caramel notes pairs with it the best of all.
If you want, you could simply simmer chunks of butternut squash in chicken or vegetable stock until they are soft, blend it all together, and then add cream (be careful, though. My sister-in-law made butternut squash for Thanksgiving and ended up with three stitches in her finger).
It would taste good enough, and you would impress your family and friends. Some restaurants just add cream and call it a day.
But not the really good ones. The best restaurants use a cream base.
A cream base cooks more flavor into the cream, which rounds out, deepens and enriches the taste of the soup.
The secret is aromatics. Aromatics and wine. And chicken (or vegetable) stock. It’s so much more than just cream.
Start by sautéing chopped onion and chopped shallots in oil or better still, in butter. When they are translucent, add some white wine and reduce until it is almost dry. Then add a cup of chicken stock or vegetable stock and reduce that until it is almost dry. Only then do you pour in the cream.
Cook until the mixture is reduced by one quarter. That is your cream base.
Cook your butternut squash soup, or your mushroom soup or your celeriac or asparagus soups the way you normally would. But instead of adding cream at the end, add the cream base, as much as the recipe requires.
You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make. Your soup will taste as good as it looks.
Maybe better.