RETURN TO PREVIOUS PAGE Mark Slutzky Shares a Favorite Recipe for You to Try Hudson City Magazine - February, 2004 Butternut Squash Soup with Spiced Sour Cream    Serves 12    5 lbs. Butternut squash or any sweet winter squash    4 stalks celery    2 onions    6 cloves garlic    3 quarts chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Split squash lengthwise and remove seeds. Place squash in a baking pan with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and water. Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven until soft. When squash is cool, scoop out the meat and set aside.    In a soup pot, sweat celery, onions, and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add stock. When it boils, add the squash meat and return to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Blend the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.   For spiced sour cream: to one cup sour cream, add 1 tsp. cinnamon, ¼ tsp. nutmeg, ¼ tsp. allspice, ¼ tsp. cloves, and ¼ tsp. ground ginger. Mix and dollop on soup. You know it's going to be a worthwhile stop when a busload of New Your City's busiest chefs insists on making a detour on their way back to the city after a long day visiting upstate farms. The place is Hickory BBQ and Smokehouse on Route 28 in Kingston, fast becoming the destination for true Hudson Valley barbeque aficionados. Here, chef and co-owner Mark Slutzky serves the real thing: meat and fish slowly and gently smoked over a mix of hickory and applewood in a gigantic Southern pride smoker. No embalming bogs of sweet, sticky sauce here. It's smoke that makes the barbeque, and meat alone that carries its flavor. (On each table, however, there are squeeze bottles of house-made sauces, including sweet and spicy barbeque, jalapeno, and Carolina mustard). This is a family affair, with the CIA-trained Slutzky, former executive chef at Manhattan's Avalon Bar & Grill and at Neuman & Bogdonoff Caterers, in the kitchen; his wife, Debbie, at the books; brother and co-owner Steven the general manager; his wife, Jill, working the front of the house; and parents Michael (known as "Doc") and Carol ("Ma") who drive up from the city each weekend to help out. "We love this area," says Mark, "and we wanted to be somewhere where we could offer really fresh, quality foods but do a true barbeque and do it on premises. You really can't do that in the city. There are the barbeque workhorses - ribs, chicken (local and tasty), and pork - but also magret duck breast, lamb, and Eden Brook trout specials, as well as a kids menu. In other words, something for everyone. Side dishes - too often sloppy afterthoughts - more than hold their own against the rich meats. They include vegetables from local farms in season, roasted potato salad, thick onion rings, garlic mashed potatoes, and mac 'n' cheese. There's live music on weekends. By Jan Greenberg