curried pumpkin soup

Some recipes just work the first time you cook them. You do it, it's delicious and off you go - you've got another string to your bow.. Others are a bit trickier. I've been trying to make a good Thai pumpkin soup for a while now and I've made quite a few attempts without feeling I've really hit the spot yet. I've done one from Bill's book (too flavourless) and one from the Gourmet website (too much going on) and I think, with a bit of tinkering, this is going to be the one that will do it. It's from Tamasin Day Lewis' Tamasin's Weekend Food and I cooked it yesterday for my friends Jessica and Wendy, who both loved it and wanted the recipe. As I said, I'm not entirely convinced yet but welcome suggestions from others.. I still feel it's lacking something.

Ingredients:

1 butternut or red onion squash (about 750g.)
olive oil
75g. of creamed coconut (which Bart spices now sells in little sachets - good idea!)
1 onion
1 stalk lemongrass (although I used 2 tsp. Bart spices grated lemongrass)
1 bird's eye chili, seeded and chopped. Don’t do what I did – I dropped some seeds on the floor and the cat ate them, wow she was very unhappy.
1 thumb of grated galangal (although, again, I used Bart spices galangal. You can also substitute a knob of ginger and some lime juice).

1. Cut the squash into chunks and remove the seeds. Brush the chunks with oil and salt and pepper and roast at 200∞ for 20 – 25 minutes until done. Meanwhile, add 200ml of hot water to the creamed coconut and mix well.
2. Finely chop the onion and sauté it in the olive oil. Add the lemongrass, the chilli and the galangal or ginger. When the squash is cool enough to handle, remove the peel and add the flesh to the onion and spices in the pan.
3. Add more hot water to the coconut mixture to bring it up to about 800ml. Pour on to the vegetables and spices and simmer gently for 15 minutes. If you’ve used a lemongrass stalk, remove it now and then whiz the soup in a liquidiser until smooth. Taste it now – I found it needed a squeeze of lime, some salt and pepper and a bit more hot water. Finally, you can serve it with a swirl of crème fraiche and some chopped coriander.