Squash

Monday, January 26, 2009

I love winter squash - their taste, their looks, the waxy-smooth feel of their skin, their ease of storage. So, it’s no surprise that we end up storing a lot of winter squash. As I mentioned, it’s super easy - you just need a place in your house/apartment that stays between 50 -70F. (We put ours in the guest room.) My absolute favorite winter squash is Musqee de Provence, also known as Fairy Tale. As you can tell by the picture, these are gorgeous fruits - deeply lobed, a dusky light orange with green shading. They also taste fabulous - not dry (like acorn or delicata) and much sweeter than butternut. Their flesh is rarely stringy - even after months of storage, and is a brilliant orange. The only issue is their size - between 20 - 60 lbs. (The one in the picture is 55lbs). I’m sure this seems intimidating to many people - “Sixty pounds of pumpkin - how can 2 (or 4 or 6) people eat sixty pounds of pumpkin!” Never fear - read this post and never be afraid of large pumpkins again

First things first: find a weekend where you don’t have too much going on, then plan a few meals with pumpkin for the following week (a few ideas are below). There are basically three kinds of pumpkin recipes: ones that use a chunk of roasted pumpkin (think stuffed squash), ones that use puree (think pie), and ones that use chunks (lots of soups). This directions in this post will tell you how to turn your 60 lb pumpkin into ingredients for each.

Once you have some time where you’ll be in the house (4 hrs or so), start to cut up your pumpkin. Use the longest/largest knife you have, and cut off manageable chunks. I usually do wedges like a pie - but whatever works for you. Be careful! Once you have about 1/4 to 1/3 of the pumpkin liberated, set aside the rest and scrape the seeds off of your chunks. If you’d like save the seeds for pepitas, or just compost them. Huge pumpkins are not the best for recipes that use a chunk of roasted pumpkin, but if you like roasted squash with butter and/or maple syrup, you can chop your chunks to the perfect size and then either refrigerate (if you’re planning on cooking them within a week) or pop them in a Ziploc bag and stick them in the freezer.

Once you have all of the chunks you want, then you can chop the liberated pumpkin into 1.5” pieces. I find it’s generally easier to chop into pieces first, then remove the skin. These pieces can be put in an airtight container and refrigeratedd, or put in to Ziploc bags and frozen. If you come across a recipe calling for pieces of squash, just pull them out of the freezer - no need to defrost. (The cooking time may be increased slightly).

When you use up all of your liberated chunks, go back to the pumpkin and cut off and seed some more, Breaking this down really helps, so that you don’t have every counter covered in cut pumpkin. To make puree - cut the pumpkin into chunks that will fit into a casserole dish (I use the glass Pyrex brownie-type). Fill the casserole with about 1/4” of water, and put the squash in insides down. Roast at 400F for 40 - 60 minutes. When you can stick a knife in and it feels like cutting warm butter, they should be done. Let cool a bit and scrape the flesh out with a spoon. Blend. You can freeze the puree, or refrigerate if for a few days. Anytime a recipe call for pureed pumpkin pull it out. If it calls for pumpkin pie filling - you can add some cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger, to taste.

This shouldn’t take more than a few hours (depending on how many batches of roasting you have to do) and it makes many squash-based meals much more convenient - for example, every recipe that calls for you to roast a squash, scoop the flesh, then blend - well you’ve just eliminated about an hour’s worth of work. Two of my favorite squash recipes go from - weekend-only to weeknight because of this.

Squash with Chickpeas - this sounds really simple and bland - but is wonderful!

1 can of chickpeas (or 1 cup of dried chickpeas, soaked over night, then boiled for 45 minutes and drained)
2 c of squash puree
1 T thyme
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 T Parmesan cheese, grated
1 T oil

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat through. This is a really forgiving recipe - you can cook it anywhere from 10 - 60 minutes, so it can be ready whenever the rest of dinner is ready. If you end up needing to cook it longer than 10 minutes, just turn the heat down to low and put a lit on the pan. Adapted from Lucullian Delights.

Squash Mac’n'Cheese

1 lb pasta (penne, macaroni, shells, whatever)
4 c squash puree
4 - 8 oz cheddar (depending on how cheesy you like it) - grated
4 - 8 oz blue cheese (depending how moldy you like it) - chopped
1 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 t nutmeg
1 t peper
1 T flour
1 cup milk (cow, soy, rice, whatever - except probably coconut)

Heat the oven to 400F and get out a 2Q casserole

Cook the pasta according to the directions, drain and rinse.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a *large* sauce pan over med-high heat, when it starts bubbling, add the onions, nutmeg and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes until the onions are soft. Add the flour and mix very well. Then add the milk, a little at a time, stirring until it is completely blended. (I usually do the first half with a T, then do the rest free hand - you can add more at a time once the sauce is saucy). Make sure you don’t add more milk until any and all lumps are gone. When the milk is added, bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes until it thickens slightly. Add the cheddar a handful at a time, stirring each handful until it is melted. Then add the blue cheese the same way. Once all the cheese is added, stir in the squash puree. Once that is all blended, then add the pasta. Put the whole mixture into the casserole and bake for about 30 mins - until the sauce is bubbly. Adapted from A Veggie Venture.

For all of you vegans out there - you can try adapting the cheese sauce from this version of mac’n'cheese - or your favorite recipe. Just add the pasta and squash to your sauce and then bake.