Crema de Auyama

Ingredients

• 1 kg auyama or butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 30 g butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• ½ green pepper, chopped
• 2 culantro leaves, or coriander
• 800 ml vegetable stock
• 120 ml evaporated milk
• 1 tsp salt, to taste
• black pepper
• ½ lime, to finish

Method

1. Sweat the aromatics in butter

   Cook the onion, garlic and green pepper in the butter over low heat until soft and sweet, without letting them colour.

   8 min

2. Culantro in early

   Add the culantro whole and let it warm through. It is stronger than coriander and wants heat to soften; added at the end it tastes soapy.

3. Simmer the auyama down

   Add the pumpkin and stock and simmer for twenty-five minutes, until a knife goes through without resistance. Auyama is drier than butternut and takes a little longer than you expect.

   25 min

4. Blend smooth

   Fish out the culantro leaf and blend until completely smooth. A stick blender is fine; a jug blender is better and does it in seconds.

5. Evaporated milk, off the heat

   Stir in the evaporated milk away from the boil and season. Evaporated rather than fresh is not a shortcut — it is what gives Dominican cremas their particular slightly caramelised richness.

6. Sharpen it

   A squeeze of lime at the table lifts the whole bowl. Auyama is sweet, and without acid the soup reads as flat within three spoonfuls.