Thanks so much, and happy anniversary! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. I’ve been working hard on the cookbook, and finding that it takes some time to get all my recipes together and ready for your kitchen. It’s great to hear stories like yours for encouragement! As soon as we have it ready, I’ll be sure to let all my blog followers know. Hope to see you again soon.

Chef Kroner

We were up at your restaurant 2 years ago this month for our 23rd anniversary. We had an amazing meal there and my husband still talks about your squash soup as the best he’s ever had. Last night I made it for him using the recipe on your January 2010 blog. I could not get the galangal, but I had all the other ingredients. It came out almost as good as yours, I have to say. I halved the recipe and cheated wth cut up squash, but it was delish. I love to cook and bake so it was a fairly easy for me to make this. Thank you for posting the recipe and we hope to get back up there in the future. We live in lower Westchester so we don’t get up that way too often.Let me know when your cookbook comes out in print. Thanks so much and best of luck on all your new endeavors.

Thanks! You can expect to find the recipe for the Golden Nugget Squash soup in my cookbook, but since you asked so nicely… here it is!

The technique I use here with the lemongrass, I adapted from the French technique Bouquet Garni. This is basically a teabag of seasoning that you remove after “steeping”. Lemongrass is very fibrous; even when you cut it up finely, it’ll end up getting caught in your teeth. So to extract the delicious flavor, I’ll have you make a giant lemongrass teabag.

4 Tablespoons Garlic chopped
4 Tablespoons Ginger, chopped
1 Spanish onion, chopped
4 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 each Golden nugget squash (or substitute butternut squash)
1 cup White wine
1 can Coconut milk
1 stalk Lemongrass, finely chopped and wrapped and tied into a cheesecloth purse
1 teaspoon Galangal (optional)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 quart Vegetable stock or water

Preheat oven to 375º. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Place open side down on a sheet pan with one half a cup of water. Roast in oven until squash is soft, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Remove pulp of squash with a serving spoon and set aside. Cook onions, ginger, garlic and olive oil in a soup pot over a medium heat until lightly caramelized. Add wine and reduce until almost dry. Add the coconut milk, lemongrass satchels, galangal, sugar, stock and reserved squash and simmer for two hours. Remove lemongrass satchel, puree and season with salt and pepper. You may add a dollop of crème fraîche at the end for additional richness if so desired.

Enjoy, and we look forward to seeing you again soon at Terrapin!

Chef Kroner

-dcc