I don't mind breaking down the whole squash. Many do mind. I think most often the squash gets halved, salted, buttered, and baked. You can scoop it out or cut serving size pieces. It warms the house, the cook, and after a while, the eater. It's very good.
You can buy the peeled, seeded, and chopped squash in our markets, but I really don't mind the cutting.
Most vegetable peelers make simple work of removing the hard, waxy outer skin, through the delicate green layer to the yellow flesh. Since I was already trolling around The Way to Cook, J Child, I went to the squash page. BOIL it?! I thought what a travesty. Not falling prey to my calcifying thinking I broke the squash down to 3/4" cubes, put them all in a large iron skillet, added water, and heated at medium with a cover. I was asked for 8 - 10 minutes but couldn't do it that long, so pulled them out into a serving dish around 6 or 7 minutes. They were perfectly done. Then I reduced the remaining liquid to a thick sauce and poured that back over. If I recall I only added salt to the initial preparation. Really sweet and tender and recommended. Who knew. If you really want to add something, butter, of course, would make a splash.
It comes to mind that I could have whipped the batch but I would guess it would be a little watery for my personal taste. However, I could see adjusting the water down and boiling and whipping to produce a wonderful iteration of the butternut squash. And come to think of it pairing with Nervous Nellies Hot Tomato Chutny would be a fine taste combination.
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I guess your wrists are stronger than mine. I have an excellent good grips peeler and still find it tedious to peel the squash. I prefer to halve and bake it as the skin then comes off easily. Nevertheless, your dish sounds delicious. Why not add some heavy cream instead of water says he who is trying to lose weight?
ReplyDeleteI'm with John on this one--peeling that squash is dangerous to an old lady with bad hands.
ReplyDeleteAt Taft Farm today I saw they are selling raw olives--didn't you and John cure some a while back?
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Berkshire Grown is hosting a Preserve Swap at Great Barrington Farmers Market Sat Oct 15 11 a.m. -1 p.m. We desperately need people to attend who have preserved goodies and are willing to swap with others. Could either or both of you show up? An artist in Pittsfield got so excited she made 10 jars of nasturtium pesto. You could score some.
Thanks L
ReplyDeleteI will be at Tafts today and check it out. I will also try to make it to
the exchange
Thanks much for the Taft olive tip. I actually have some olive jars that I could swap but, woe, will be away from town at that time.
ReplyDelete