Fall Flavors

Roasted Heirloom Cream of Tomato Soup

Shrimp with Truffle Cream Sauce/Roasted Butternut Squash/Quinoa

Poached Apples with Salted Caramel Sauce

The wonderful weather we have had has been a blessing for my tomatoes.  I still have quite a few on my plants, so what better way to enjoy them then by having a creamy soup.

Roast 6 pounds assorted heirloom tomatoes in a 300 degree oven for 3 hours.

Saute 1 onion, small dice until caramelized.

Add roasted tomatoes and sauté for a few minutes.

Add 28 ounce can of whole roma tomatoes with juice.  Mix well and simmer for one hour.

Using immersion blender, blend tomato mixture well.

Strain tomato mixture through sieve.

Return tomato mixture to pan and add 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2 cups chicken stock and salt and pepper.  Mix with immersion blender again and heat, but do not allow it to boil.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Finish with cream and chives.

Cube one butternut squash.  Add one tablespoon olive oil and mix well.  Roast in 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring 3 cups water and 1 1/2 cups quinoa to a rapid boil.  Reduce heat to medium low, put on a lid and cook for 20 minutes, fluff quinoa and remove from heat, keeping lid on.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Core 8 apples and put into large dutch oven.  Mix 1/2 gallon apple cider with 1 cup brown sugar.  Add cider mix to apples.  Squeeze in juice from 1/2 lemon.  Cover with lid and roast in oven for about 45 minutes to one hour.

Heat 1 c. sugar, 4 tbsp. brown rice syrup, and 4 tbsp. water until sugar melts.  While sugar mixture is cooking, mix 1 1/2 c. heavy cream and 1 whole scraped vanilla bean together.  Save the bean for another use, or put it in with the apples that are poaching.

Cook until mixture turns dark amber.  Remove from the heat.

Add the heavy cream (mixture will bubble) and start to whisk.  Return pan to heat. Cooking until caramel and cream have come together and start to thicken.

Remove the mixture from the heat and add 1/2 c. butter and 1 tsp. sea salt.

Serve poached apple with 2 tbsp. caramel sauce and a heaping spoonful of whip cream.  Sprinkle with vanilla powder to finish.

Once in a while a meal just comes together.  I mean, I rarely have misses, but this one was pretty close to perfect.  The tomato soup, with just a touch of cream, was perfect.  The combination of tomatoes made the soup taste pure.  It was silky and just downright delicious.

I love truffle.  We aren't talking the chocolate kind, but we are talking the beautiful, seasonal, fungus that grows underground.  They are expensive, but a good truffle oil and salt can help you enjoy the taste and aroma normally reserved for a 5 star restaurant.  The addition of the truffle oil to this dish mirrored perfectly with the sweetness of the squash and smooth cream sauce.  Shallots, mushroom and cream work so well together that anyone can make a dish great by just adding these three ingrediants.  The quinoa was perfect to absorb the cream sauce without being too heavy and allowed the complexity of the truffle flavor to shine through.  Bragging rights because I nailed this one.  Sorry, this recipe is not to share, but please feel free to invite yourself over for dinner and request this meal.  I'd be happy to make it for you!

And finally, how can you go wrong with a poached apple and caramel sauce?  You can't.  The apples were picked at the orchard on Monday, the salted caramel sauce is excellent, and of course, everything is better with cream!