— Kris Erickson

So, uh, days ahead of time. Hmm. So dishes like that sweet potato, those roasted sweet potatoes, uh, I really like that sweet potatoes are very resilient so they can handle heat. Uh, so you can make that a couple of days ahead of time and then just warm it through and put some cilantro on top of that, maybe top it with a cilantro, almond pesto. So you get that sweet. But also that savory wonderful goodness of that aromatic cilantro coming through. That would be a really good one that you can prep ahead of time, just lightly warm up or even serve just under room, just above room temperature is fine. Uh, soups are a big one, of course, because well soups improve with a little bit of age on 'em. So two, three days ahead of time, if you're making your butternut squash soup, great. Uh, you know, that is just simple reheat, obviously. Um, so that's another great way to, another good dish to think about. You can have more than one soup too. Um, two styles of butternut squash soup that I like. So I'll talk you through two of those. Uh, and I think I've done, I think I've done an episode, a Rouxbe live around soups as well. So maybe Patrick could go back and find that, pull that up. Um, but with butternut, one thing I really like to do is, yes, of course there's the puree soup that we're all familiar with, right? And I made one of these the other day that I particularly loved, which I used some curry powder in. So I started off with butter, though. You could use olive oil or any other oil, or just even dry toast. This, uh, if you're trying to do an oil free, uh, meal, so toasting some. Uh, now what did I do first, I deeply browned the butternut squash cubes. So I gave 'em a good bit of color and a bunch of butter in the bottom of a thick, heavy bottom pan. And when those got very nice and colored deep and rich caramelized, I added some onions on top of that, cooked those, a little bit of gar uh, roasted garlic. Uh, and then I added some curry powder, some apple cider to the mix, and then a whole bunch of water and just simmer that down some salt. And when I pureed it, what I loved is how mature the sweetness of it was, because by caramelizing the squash ahead of time, what you get is just, as I said, sort of a more evolved, a more mature sweetness, uh, but also sort of a, a more evolved depth of flavor to it. And in this way, I don't use any stock in the soup. Why? Because there's so much flavor in that squash. But something else that I do in my pureed sort of sweet vegetable, uh, soups. Hi, you ready for this one? I can store a bitters, right? Cocktail bitters. You very likely have this in your liquor cabinet, right around your bar. We've all seen these, right? We like, I mean, a, it's been around forever, right? And we use them in cocktails y to bring flavors into balance, to bring sweet and aromatic with just a touch of bitter into balance, right? That's what makes food really good, is when it tastes in balance. So use it in your cocktails. Why can't you use it in your butternut squash soup? It performs the exact same function, does the exact same thing, and the results are magnificent. Just a few dashes of this. You don't need to go overboard. It's not really an ingredient so much as it's in a, a flavor adjustment the same way, but adding a little bit of salt, you know, it's not really an ingredient, but it's something that needs to be in there. Think about this in that same way, it brings sweet into balance in a way that just makes it, just brings it into focus, uh, and makes it less one dimensional and really just, yeah, it, it brings it to life really, and makes the flavors of the soup of the squash that much brighter. So try that folks. Another thing I like to do with the butternut squash is I'll have a very flavorful broth, whether it's chicken broth or roasted vegetable broth, something of the season. I will take chunks of butternut squash. I will take, uh, chunks, diced fennel about the same size as sort of one inch cubes of butternut diced fennel in the same way. And then a little bit of very, very finely diced onion heavy bottom pot sear off those chunks of butternut squash, just to give them color on one side, just to elevate the flavor and add some depth and nuance to it. Take that outta the pan. Saute your fennel, your onion. Add in, uh, some fennel seeds. And I'm a huge fan of fennel seeds. I buy fennel seeds by the bag, by the pound. That's how many of them I use. And I go through about three pounds of fennel seeds a year. Handful of fennel seeds, toast those off, uh, in whatever fat you're using. Butter, olive oil. I used olive oil for this. Throw in a bunch of sliver almonds as well. Okay, so you're toasting this down. You add back your butternut squash, add in your broth season with salt and simmer it until your butternut squash chunks are just barely soft. You don't want 'em falling apart. You want 'em soft because this is a brothy soup. We're not gonna puree this at all. So this is sort of stewed butternut squash, if you will, with this rich amount of broth around it. And it's just a very interesting way to serve a soup that people are very familiar with. But then you also get the texture of those braised almonds in there, those fennel seeds plump up a little bit and just add some texture and so much beautiful flavor. And then the three different textures of the onions, the fennel and the butternut, the beautiful colors of that as well. Throw on some chopped fresh herbs. Some mint is really, really particularly good on this. Mixed with some chopped fresh parsley drizzle of olive oil. Woo, there you go. And that soup gets even particularly better if it, if it sits for a couple of days. So, uh, Chris, this is coming back to your question of a couple things, a couple of days in advance. So that's another one that I really like Patrick, put on the, um, the link for the hardy soups, uh, event that I did, and a cold soups event. So both of those are there over in the right hand side. Uh, and then Chris, one other thing that I would say is components for salads, especially, you know, rustic, robust autumn salads. So you've got your roasted root vegetables, uh, some radicchio or maybe some red Belgian endive sliced into nice little strands. Get some nice citrus. Citrus is coming out right now. It's really beautiful. Blood, oranges, grapefruit meyer lemons. Make segments out of that and then make a nice hearty herb almond vinegarette. You see, I'm always going back to the nuts, right? Texture, texture, mix it all good. So make a vinegarette out of some chopped fresh parsley, some mint, some sliver almonds, sliced almonds, olive oil. Sherry vinegar is particularly good with this. Uh, and so you have all these components made ahead of time. This is gonna be a room temperature salad. You've got roasted root vegetables, whatever melan of those you want, roast those off a day ahead of time, keep 'em on the countertop. I follow food safety protocol at all times to maintain the safety and health healthfulness of your food is the official line. What I do is roast 'em off a day ahead of time and just leave 'em on the countertop because, well, I've done it enough times to know that for my family. That is how I choose to do it. I can't recommend that necessarily for you, but that's what I do. Uh, so you've got your roasted root veg, you've got your lettuces, you've got your segmented citrus and your vinegarette, and there you go. Right? Throw in some arugula and you are golden. So these are dishes where you can do all of the prep ahead of time and that really are served at their peak, uh, when you mix them.

Barton's Hearty Soups

Barton's Cold Soups