Spicy Squash Soup

Recently I saw the basic recipe for this dish online, although I don't recall just where, at that time. I later found the original article (see below). The word "spiced," along with a nice picture, really caught my attention, as I tend to like spicy food. While this would typically be thought of as a fall (autumn) dish, soup is really good at any time of year, in my opinion, although butternut squash is not always easily obtained at just any time of year. But with foods now available from all over the globe, produce once limited to certain seasons, can now be enjoyed at other times of year. I found the butternut squash I used for this soup at the supermarket right up the street. This is my adaptation (there are some differences) from the recipe in the Daily Telegraph, London, November 22, 2014, by Stevie Parle: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/11245424/Spiced-squash-soup-with-sage-and-chilli-butter-recipe.html

INGREDIENTS (6 servings)
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium red onions, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
about a 2 to 2/1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks (or you could use like acorn squash in the equivalent amount)
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained 
1 habanero chili, seeded and chopped (if you're daring), or 1 serrano chili or jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped *
1 quart (32 fluid oz.) chicken or vegetable stock
6 oz. crème fraiche, sour cream (regular, reduced fat or non fat) or plain yogurt (use half for the soup and divide the other half to provide a dollop for each serving)**

TO SERVE
2 oz. butter
fresh sage leaves, which are also available in supermarkets. Allow about 3 leaves per serving.

Heat the oil in a deep heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, garlic and the salt, cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the squash and tomatoes, stir well. Add the stock, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 45 minutes until the squash is very tender. Pour into a food processor or use your motor boat motor (immersion stick blender) and process until smooth, or you can leave it a little chunky, if you like. Add the crème fraiche, sour cream or yogurt and stir well. Melt the butter in a small skillet and add the sage leaves. Sauté lightly until a bit on the crisp side. Dish the soup into serving bowls, add a dollop of crème fraiche, add a few of drops of melted butter and place the sage leaves around on top.

* You can make the soup as spicy hot as you want, but remember, it is a good deal of soup, and one jalapeno or serrano chili will not likely give you too much heat. I used one habanero, which gave the soup a nice kick, but it didn't overwhelm the taste with heat.

** I used homemade crème fraiche, which is slightly less tangy than sour cream, and which is easy to make: in a glass jar (with lid), add one cup of heavy cream and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk. Put the lid on and shake the hel... ahh, devil out of it. Remove the lid and place a paper towel on top, even folded is fine. Just sit the lid on top to hold the paper towel in place and let the mixture sit at room temperature, assuming you don't live in an igloo, or in the middle of Death Valley, until the mixture thickens up. Stir, put the lid on and refrigerate until cold, before using.

                                      
WORD HISTORY:
Sage-English has two words of this spelling, which apparently are unrelated. This is the name of the herb plant, which is related to both "safe" and to "solid." It goes back to Indo European "solw," which had the notion, "whole, well, uninjured." This gave its Latin offspring "salvus," which meant "whole, safe;" thus also, "well, healthy." This produced, "salvia," the Latin name for a plant thought to provide "health benefits," and this gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "sauge," which was borrowed into English as "sage" in the 1300s.