I've been thinking about comfort food lately. It's the season to need comfort, as everyone in Spokane knows. And, as everyone in Spokane knows, it is not that it is getting cold, that snow is in our near future, or the overcast skies that makes us need comfort: it's the time change. Thanks to Daylight Savings, it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon, and that is just not right. It took me a while to figure out why it gets so dark so early in the winter in our fair city. After all, we are no farther north than Seattle, and their days do not get quite so short. My father finally explained to me that it's because we are so close to the time zone line. If we lived in western Montana, it would get dark at 5:30 instead, and that feels at least slightly more civilized.
Comfort food generally refers to the high calorie food made from readily available, lower price ingredients. In other words, it is peasant food. Comfort food tends to be high in starches and carbohydrates and fats, both of which have a high calorie to price ration, and meats tend to be cheap cuts slowly braised until they are rich and tender. We turn to it because it is incredibly satisfying. It fills us up, the fat delivers richness and flavor, and the carbs convert to quick energy. Heck, even the napping that comes when that quick energy burns off and we crash feels good this time of year. Plus, we have nothing else do to with our weekends except cook a pork butt roast for nine hours now that it is too cold to be in the river but not cold enough to be on the mountain.
Comfort food is great if you have the calorie output of a peasant laborer, but it is not so good for us city-dwelling moderns. It is especially cruel that we crave these comfort foods at exactly the time of year when we can't be outside all evening taking advantage of all that Spokane does have to offer. So, the question becomes: what can we eat that is fully comforting but won't turn instantly into our clothing not being comfortable? I am not particularly health- or diet- conscious in my cooking or my eating. I believe fully in Julia Child's approach: better to have a small amount of something worth eating than a large portion of flavorless, textureless diet food. However, this approach fails when it comes to comfort food, since so much of the comfort comes from feeling satiated and full.
So, I offer my own spicy squash soup. If you roast your own squash, it takes a while to make, and it has the full mouthfeel of a higher fat carbohydrate. It is nearly fat free, and I'm pretty sure it is low calorie. I was so proud of what I thought was a unique combination of spices that I had put together, until I started cooking a lot of Indian food and discovered that I had reinvented a pretty basic garam masal. Next week, I have this great idea for this round thing that I think could have big applications in transportation . . .
Spicy Squash Soup
2 cups (about) squash puree
2 tbls. canola oil
1 large onion
1 cup apple cider or chicken stock
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
up to 2 tbls brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 cup plain yogurt
Start with your favorite of the hard orange squashes. I've made this soup with butternut, golden butter, hubbard, even acorn. Turn it into a puree. My preferred method is to roast it, which means cutting the squash into either halves or quarters, removing the seeds and strings, and putting it in a hot oven until soft, usually around 45 minutes. Scrape the flesh out of the skin. If you are short on time, you could microwave the pieces until it is soft, but I don't think that concentrates the flavors as well.
Once you have your puree, slice your onions into thin slices, and caramelize in the oil. Take this slowly, so that you get a consistent, deep brown color. To these, add the spices and toast for about a minute. Then add squash and apple cider, and stir to combine. Absolutely all of the listed amounts are approximate. Add enough cider or stock so that the consistency is where you like it (I like mine about the consistency of a bechamel). Taste, add sugar, and adjust until the spices are in balance, which means you should taste some heat, and you should not be able to tell when the cumin ends and the cinnamon begins. The sugar should bring out the flavors, but be careful not to turn this into pumpkin pie filling. If you use a sweet apple cider, then you most likely won't need the sugar at all. Make sure you add enough salt to bring out the savory-ness of the soup.
Once you have the flavors balanced, let the whole thing simmer about twenty minutes. Stir in the yogurt and heat through. If you are using fat free yogurt, don't bring the soup back to a full boil or it won't be smooth. You can either serve it as is, or you can blend it with an immersion blender to make it bisque-like.
