Butternut Squash and Crab Bisque

Makes at least 8 appetizer servings, or about five entree portions. Prep time: 15 minutes if you're using pre-picked crab. Much longer if you're picking the crab yourself. Cooking time: 1 hour.

The ingredients:

• 1 pound of crabmeat. The lumpier the better, but I usually just buy claw meat, pasteurized but not cooked. If you feel like picking it from the shells yourself, congratulations. I generally do not. I usually get a can of Phillips crabmeat, either "Claw" or "Special." And the Phillips, though pasteurized, is still great stuff, and is usually only about $8 or $9 per pound. Alternately, you can get about two pounds of snow crab legs, and spend thirty minutes or so picking it out. Picking it yourself does have the advantage of leaving you with the shells, which can add flavor--see below.
• 1 large butternut squash, or 2 small ones, peeled and diced, seeds removed
• 1 cup dry sherry (optional)
• 1 cup heavy cream (optional)
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup diced shallot, about 3 shallots (can substitute a small onion)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• lemon juice to taste (optional)
• 1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon (optional)
• cayenne pepper to taste (optional, I like four or five healthy shakes)
• salt to taste (but I like about a tablespoon of kosher salt)
• sugar to taste (varies depending on the sweetness and seasonality of the squash)

The algorithm:

If you're picking the crab meat from the shells yourself, do so. Resist the temptation to eat the raw crab meat. Have faith the final result will be better. If you save the shells, put them into the stockpot right now, and keep them in the pot through all the steps until before the squash is added, but let the water simmer for a while in the shells, then strain out the shells, pressing them to get out the liquid, before adding the squash. This will add nice, crabby flavor.

Separate your pound of crab into two half-pounds. One of the half-pounds should contain all the larger, more presentable lumps of crab meat.

Put a large stockpot on the stove, and melt the butter, then add the shallots and sweat them for several minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant. Deglaze with about a cup of the sherry. Turn it up to high heat, and leave it there until the liquid has almost entirely reduced.

Add the butternut squash, the non-lumpy half of the crab meat, and enough water to cover them both. Let the mixture boil on high heat until the butternut squash is soft, about 20 to 30 minutes. Stir at least every two minutes, making sure to scrape the bottom. Liquid may boil down a bit below the squash at some point. If it gets too far below so that to top squash isn't getting cooked, add more water.

Once the butternut squash is soft, you must puree the entire mixture. This can be tricky. In the amounts listed, it will fit into a standard blender in two batches. Yours may take more batches. A food processor will also work, but the blender will yield a much better texture. Remember when pouring to and from the blender that the liquid is still boiling hot. Be careful, do it over the sink, don't fill the blender more than 2/3 of the way up, and make sure to completely cover the top of the blender while it is on. You may have to take the top off the blender and stir, then puree again.

Rinse out your now-empty stock pot so that no chunky bits remain in what will be your silken soup. Then pour the pureed mixture back into the stockpot, and simmer on medium-low. Now you taste it and add salt and sugar to taste. If the soup needs a bit more brightness, add a squeeze of lemon juice or two. I use roughly the proportions listed above, but feel free to vary those. Add salt a little bit at a time (a commenter below said one tablespoon was still very salty for her), stir, taste, and see whether you want more. I listed the above amount of salt, but I probably add more than one tablespoon to the pot, and then add a little more to my individual bowl.

When the whole thing is seasoned to deliciousness (and really, it doesn't absolutely need anything but the salt and sometimes sugar), fold in the remaining half pound of crab meat (the larger lumps), and keep simmering for about five minutes. Then fold in the cream. For a nice presentation, you can also wait to add the cream: if doing this, just ladle the bisque into the serving bowls (preferably shallow, wide bowls), then pour some cream directly into each bowl. It will stay together (like latte art) and you can make patterns, or simply make a big circle of cream at the center. The person eating the bisque will stir it up anyway, but no reason not to make it pretty.