I had a pretty disappointing day on Tuesday, and since I had been craving BLT popovers for about a week (since Lori gave me a popover pan for my birthday), I decided I would make them to cheer myself up.  While I was shopping for the ingredients at the store, I also decided that it would be fun to make a squash and apple soup with my new favorite kitchen toy, my immersion blender.  New cooking toys and pans make everything better!

The BLT Popovers call for very basic ingredients, and the secret is the grated cheese on top!  You’re supposed to use Gruyere, but my store only had a very little bit, so I mixed Gruyere with Monchego. I’m glad I did since the Gruyere was very bland and the Monchego was delish!  The combo was good.

I followed the recipe exactly (just cut it in half), however, it just… fell… flat… My popovers didn’t pop enough! They were denser and eggier than the BLT ones and not nearly as airy.  Don’t get me wrong, they tasted GREAT, but they weren’t RIGHT.  Sad.  The recipe says to turn the popover pan halfway in the over 15 minutes into cooking.  The other recipes I saw said to not open the oven at all… so maybe this was the problem. 

When I turned them, they looked more popped than when they were finished:

The finished product looked great but… alas…

To make the squash soup, I had Delicata Squash (like a pumpkin but milder, more of a sweet potato flavor) on hand and bought an apple and some sage. 

I have been cutting many things using the cutting method I learned for shallots in my cooking class.  It worked quite well for cubing the raw squash.

I was basically using a recipe I had seen, but knew I was going to vary from it (especially to reduce it… 6 pounds of squash was not in my future).  Unfortunately, this meant I added WAY too much sage and I forgot to cut that down.  WHOOPS.  It was a very easy recipe, however, that mainly included warming the squash for 5 minutes, apple for 5 minutes, added chicken stock (and the seasonings) for 5 minutes, then using the handy dandy immersion blender to make it all creamy. (I love that immersion blender!)

Even with the added sage, the taste was actually still great, but it turn it into a very, very mushy greenish brown color… it was not pretty… but it was sure tasty!  I knew it was missing a little something though, so I added some cider spices to make it just perfect (brown sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg).  Perfection.

Together, the popovers and the soup made for a delicious meal. 

As a side note, I  received a request for a view of my personalized NYCNomNom apron from Kim (my awesome college and post-college roommate who taught me a lot about cooking AND was a witness to my early cooking days when I hermetically sealed a pot).  She put my NYCNomNom logo onto my very own apron!  So exciting.

And now, a shot of the cook!  Is this my first personal appearance on NYCNomNom.com?

And of course I always wear my hair like Pebbles Flintstone!

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Recipes:
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BLT Popovers:
(when I perfect this recipe and make sure they POP, I’ll post any changes)

Serves six (approximately twelve popovers)

Ingredients
4 c. milk, warmed
8 eggs
4 c. flour
1 ½ heaping tbsp. salt
2 ¼ c. grated Gruyere

1. Place the popover pan in the oven. Heat the oven and pan to 350º.

2. Gently warm the milk over low heat and set aside.

3. Whisk the eggs until frothy and slowly whisk in the milk (so as not to cook the eggs). Set the mixture aside.

4. Sift the flour with the salt. Slowly add this dry mixture to the egg mixture and gently combine until mostly smooth.

5. Remove the popover pan from the oven and spray with nonstick vegetable spray.

6. While the batter is still slightly warm, fill each popover cup three-fourths full.

7. Top each popover with approximately 2 ½ tbsps. of the grated cheese.

8. Bake at 350º for 50 minutes, rotating pan half a turn after fifteen minutes, until the popovers are golden brown. (I do not recommend rotating… I think this may be where I went wrong)

9. Take out of oven, remove from pan, and serve immediately.

(Note: Popovers DEFLATE after a few minutes out of the oven.  To avoid this, take a knife and pierce the tops as soon as they come out of the oven)

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Squash and Apple Soup:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Squash (peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
• 1 Granny Smith Apple (cored, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
• 1 can of chicken stock (I used 99% nonfat)
• 1.5 tsp. Sage
• 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
• Pinch of Pepper
• 1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• Pinch of Nutmeg

Directions:

1. Put a smidge of olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and cook the squash for about 5 minutes (don’t stir too often, browning on the bottom is good)
2. Add apples and cook for another 5 minutes (same thing with the stirring)
3. Add chicken stock, sage, salt, and pepper to pop and simmer for about 5 more minutes until apples and squash are soft
4. Use an immersion blender (make sure yours can go directly in a pot on the stove) to blend down the soup (if you do not have an immersion blender, take the pot off the heat and you can put it in a regular blender in batches when it cools a bit)
5. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg (adjust to your tastes… if you don’t like sweet, add less sugar)
6. Serve hot

Happy Nomming!

Tags: blt popovers, immersion blender, popover pan, popovers, recipes, squash and apple soup, squash soup