THE RELUCTANT GOURMET COOKING COMMUNITY

[chefbear]

I know people will say they have been eating this for years, but I have just found this fantastic tasting vegetable this year. My local grocery store sells it all ready cleaned and cut up. I mix it with a litlle Wegman's (the best grocery store in the world, but that's for a different topic) basting oil and roast for about 40 minutes at 450 and I'm in heaven!!

[Reluctant Gourmet]

Chefbear, I couldn't agree with you more about Wegman's. I was just there today picking up some ingredients for Thursday including two turkeys. One for our conventional oven and one I am going to try and roast in our wood burning oven.

We don't have a Wegmans nearby, but whenever we go out to State College, PA to visit my wife's family, we stop in and load up our coolers. I hear they may be building a new Wegman's close to us very soon. Can't wait.

RG

[chefbear]

They're expanding like crazy. I think the one in Harrisburg just opened also. I go to the one in Hunt Valley, Md. It's on my way home from work. What I like so much is you have the choice of full gourmet or just the regular groceries. Everything is super fresh and there is always someone to help you find something. :D

[DianeDiane]

Having raised scores of these squash on the farm since a child, one of the ways to enjoy it is to:

Do the oil thing aleady mentioned.....

However: Cut the squash in half LENGTH-WISE; brush with the oil - place face-down on a sheet, and bake at 450 for 30 minutes.

Then: Turn the squash over; add a bit of a mixture of nutmeg; brown sugar, and a tiny amount of cinnamon - a big 'glob' of butter, and FINISH roasting it for another 10 minutes at the 450 degrees.

You can also scoop it out; all this butter and flavoring, and mash with a potato masher - serve with a bit of warm maple syrup, and that's delightful.

Obviously, this can be turned into a 'soup' ever so quickly; 2 parts of cream; one part of chicken or vegetable broth, and the mashed pumpkin stirred in. Keep it on a very low heat on the stove; enjoy it an hour later - even 3 hours later since the flavors continue to get better I think.

We used to toast the seeds from this squash (like you do pumpkin seeds) - again, that's a great way of enjoying every last bite of this wonderful vegetable!

If you like mashed potatoes 'with a bit of color', mix 2 parts of your white mashed potatoes with 1 part of the mashed butter-nut squash; enjoy! I also like a bit of garlic stirred into this combination - do leave the skins on the potatoes (my favorites are red), and it's another way to enjoy two vegetables (kind of a hybrid).

[chefbear]

Funny you should mention the soup. The other day I turned it into a fantastic Butternut & lobster soup (similar to a bisque). Very simple great tasting. :P

[enrico16]

I read all the posts on this subject and must say that I am almost seduced into trying out DianeDiane recipe, however as someone learning to cook, I am still learning the language. Basting .... is that a tern for smearing or spread oil .... and by the way is there a British equivalent of Wegman's basting oil .... or is this available in Morrisons, ASDA, Waitrose or TESCO supermarkets.

I like DianeDiane recipe because it provides three different options and it dont take too long to prepare or to cook. This is an ideal recipe because my wife is chronically ill with MS and has some difficulty with swallowing. I would like to try this out and hopefully include this in my weekly menu.

Thanks for the tip

Enrico

[Dilbert]

enrico -

basting is just repeatedly dousing the "object" with the liquid in the pan during the cooking process with the goal of keeping it moist and potentially adding some "pan flavor" to the dish.

most typically applied to meats - where the pan juices are a mixture of water / fat based stuff, also applies to roasting / baking vegetables _but_ they mostly do not produce enough "pan juice" on their own, hence use of extra introduced oil - vegetable / olive is common.

winter squash aka courgette - those with a hard skin and that keep well - can be treated in most cases with similar techniques. when properly / fully cooked, generally the flesh will mash with a fork - they are not crunchy things.
(edit: oops - deep fried variations exist - more crunchy than "chips" <g>)

I prefer to bake acorn squash - butternut I do a lot a ways - if the oven isn't hot for some other reason, I dice it and do it with a bit of water, covered, in a bowl in the microwave.

mashed butternut is a really good parallel to yams.
"candied" approach is also often used - cooked, mashed, sweet component added, baked to finish.

I'm sure you'll find a lot of help here - there's nothing mysterious about "cooking" - some tips on how/what to look for, basic methods to use, a bit of trial and error and it all works!

[enrico16]

Hi,

As an experiment, I cut up half a butternut squash, peeled the skin and cut them into bite size, (same with two small sweet potatoes), put them in a casserole dish and mixed them up in olive oil. Preheating the oven to 220 and roasted them for 30 minutes, adding a tablespoon of butter and cinnamon and 3 tablespoon of brown sugar .... I did not add nutmeg as I dont have any .... in any case it taste great .... much later, I made two third of a pint of chicken stock and blended the rest of the squash into a soup adding some cream....again in tastes great.

[jfield]

Now you're cooking, Enrico! That's what it's all about--basic know-how and the confidence to go beyond the basics. Yay! Best to you and your wife--hope she enjoyed the soup :D