French Market Recipe #41
Soupe de Halloween citrouille et crevettes / Halloween soup with pumpkin and prawns
Ingredients
- 500g prawns
- 500g pumpkin/ butternut
- 2 sticks celery
- 1 onion
- 1 lemon
- 4 tablespoons Olive oil
- 3 chicken stock cubes (or 750ml chicken stock)
- 3 bay leaves
- 6 sprigs of sage
- Pinch of Piment d’Espelette (or cayenne pepper)
- Pinch of saffron fronds or saffron powder
- 125ml double cream
- 200ml Cheval Noir Bordeaux blanc from the French Market
- Day old baguette for croutons
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Peel and cut pumpkin/butternut in cubes. Boil for 20 minutes until soft, then mash
- Dissolve chicken stock cubes in 750ml boiling water
- Peel uncooked prawns and remove black vein, place in a sealed container in fridge
- Peel and chop onion and celery
- Slice baguette into crouton sized slices
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy based frying pan
- Add prawn shells to hot oil and fry until brown about 4 minutes
- Add wine and boil until wine has evaporated
- Add chicken stock, onion, celery, saffron, 4 sage leaves and bring to boil
- Turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes
- Drain stock into a large saucepan
- Stir in the mashed pumpkin/butternut, Piment d’Espelette and cream (retain a couple of spoonfuls to pour over served soup
- Simmer gently for10 minutes
- Whisk soup to creamy consistency
- Add lemon juice and check seasoning, add fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste. The soup is now ready.
- Prior to serving, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in frying pan
- Fry croutons in olive oil until golden, remove from pan
- Fry prawns about 3 or 4 minutes depending on size, until pink
- Remove from pan and keep warm
- Reheat the soup, pour into individual bowls, spoon prawns and croutons on top of soup, add a few thin slices of fresh sage leaf, drizzle a little cream over soup, sprinkle a little Piment d Espelette over the top.
Serve hot, accompanied by a glass of Veyzier Boheme Viognier available at the French Market shop in Cape Town.
Bon Appetit!