Dressed up or served plain, butternut squash soup encompasses the flavor of the country's "rainbow cuisine."
By MARIAN BETANCOURT, Associated Press
Published November 10, 2004
NEW YORK - Conversation with South Africans reveals that a lot of people think of butternut squash soup as the national soup of South Africa - it's served in restaurants, at home, even on safari.
"If there's not butternut squash soup on the menu, it's not an authentic South African restaurant," Nicolas Smallberger, a visiting South African chef, explained at a demonstration lunch. "I've traveled a lot in the world and people always are talking about the soups of South Africa."
"Butternut squash for us has big use," said Grant Cullingworth, executive chef at Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa. "We call it "Boer pumpkin.' "
Smallberger, Cullingworth, Earl King, also of Table Bay, and Johannes Mokae were among the chefs in New York for a week of events celebrating South Africa's 10 years of democracy.
The chefs prepared a five-course meal for lunch and again for dinner at the James Beard House in downtown Manhattan, and spoke with journalists about their home cuisine, sometimes dubbed "rainbow cuisine". In South Africa, they said, the melting pot is also a cooking pot, given the number of ethnic groups the country has - rather like the United States.
"We took a little from all of them, but basically we have peasant food," Cullingworth explained. "It's very rustic."
In fact, it was the search for food, and especially spices, that shaped the history of what is today's South Africa. While the Dutch East India Company was looking for spices and other treasure in the mid 1600s, its explorers found the tip of Africa a convenient place to rest and restock their ships. They planted a first farm, then brought slaves from Java, Sumatra and Malaysia to work in the fields because the local black population was not terribly interested in the Dutch (or their cuisine, preferring their diet of fish and game, wild greens, root vegetables, berries and grains).
Malay slaves brought their spicy, flavorful cuisine, now among the most popular in South Africa. The French Huguenots, who arrived after the Dutch, introduced vineyards, today producing the country's well-regarded wines.
Sugar farmers brought laborers from India to cut the cane. British and German immigrants added European embellishments to the mix. Today, South Africa's population of at least 44-million people represents many races and mixed races.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed the country the "rainbow nation" after it established democracy in 1994.
All these influences and the wide availability of ingredients might overwhelm a chef, but Cullingworth, for one, keeps it simple. His credo is to present no more than three items on a plate, and his cooking philosophy is "to create simple and unpretentious cuisine."
"We are starting to focus on what's in our own country," added Cullingworth, who was born in Zimbabwe, grew up in Johannesburg and now lives in Cape Town. "We have amazing wines. We have amazing grapes. We focus on what we have on our doorstep."
And butternut squash literally grows at the doorstep. Every variety of squash grows in South Africa.
"If you gather up all that grow along the side of the road and toss the seeds away, it will grow everywhere," King said.
Butternut squash soup can be plain or fancy. Some cooks add apples or tomatoes, some use nothing else at all.
"It's like a vichyssoise," Cullingworth said. "You can make it as thick or as thin as you like, for the summer or winter."
The roasted banana and curry spices that Cullingworth used in the version from the Beard House dinner (recipe at right) help make it a velvety emulsion that is at once savory and sweet. His definition of it: light in texture, but rich, smooth and creamy in taste.
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Cullingworth dressed the soup with a spicy grilled langoustine flavored with chernmoula, an African spice-paste of cilantro, parsley, chili, garlic and paprika. It was topped with fresh cilantro and pineapple salsa. Mossbolletjie toast, a traditional Afrikaans sweet milk bread, was served with it.
Curry Spiced Butternut and Sweet Banana Soup
1 butternut squash (about 11/2 pounds), cleaned, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons butter
1 ripe banana, unpeeled
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock (use vegetable stock for a vegetarian soup), plus extra for adjusting thickness
Fresh cilantro leaves
Juice of 1 lime, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the garnish
Fresh cilantro, pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed oil (or truffle oil or hazelnut oil, if desired), bruschetta
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sprinkle diced squash with brown sugar, honey and 2 tablespoons butter and roast in a 350-degree oven until caramelized and soft to the touch, about 20 minutes; roast the unpeeled banana in the oven at the same time.
Melt the other 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan on medium heat, and sweat the onion, celery and carrot for a few minutes until tender.
Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, nutmeg and cinnamon, and cook slowly for a few more minutes.
Remove the banana from its skin, slice and add it with the butternut to the pan, along with the coconut milk and chicken broth. Simmer until hot. Blend the soup in a blender until smooth. Adjust to consistency desired with more broth, if necessary.
Add fresh cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Blend again until smooth and pass the soup through a chinois or household strainer. (The strainer should not be too fine or you will lose the body of the soup.)
Serve hot (reheat if necessary).
Pour soup into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil, a few toasted pumpkin seeds and a sprig of fresh cilantro. If desired, serve with a slice of bruschetta.
Makes six small first-course servings.
Recipe by Grant Cullingworth, executive chef at Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa.
Cream of Butternut Squash and Cranberry Soup
For the cranberry puree:
12-ounce bag of cranberries (about 3 cups), picked over
1 cup ruby Port
1/2 cup sugar
For the soup:
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced thin
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon white pepper plus additional to taste
3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 sweet potatoes (about 11/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 cups chicken broth
To make the cranberry puree: In a heavy saucepan combine the cranberries, the Port and the sugar and simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the cranberries burst and the mixture starts to thicken.
In a food processor puree the mixture and force the puree through a fine sieve into a bowl, discarding the solids.
The puree keeps, covered and chilled, for three days.
To make the soup: In a large heavy saucepan cook the onion and the carrots in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, add mace, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper, squash, sweet potatoes and 4 cups of the broth, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft.
In a blender or food processor puree the soup in batches, transferring it as it is pureed to a saucepan, and stir in the remaining 2 cups broth, the additional white pepper, and salt to taste.
The soup keeps, covered and chilled, for one day.
To serve the soup: Reheat the cranberry puree and spoon it into a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip. (Alternatively, spoon the puree into a small resealable plastic bag and cut off the tip of one corner.) Reheat the soup, divide it among soup bowls, and pipe about 1 tablespoon of the cranberry puree decoratively onto each serving.
