Stripetti Squash with Garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Herbs

So we took a break for a few weeks (a much needed squash hiatus) and we finally got around to cooking the stripetti squash that I picked up at the farmers' market in early to mid-November.  One of the best things about squash is that you can buy it and then hang onto it until you are ready to cook it.  We also have a cheese pumpkin sitting on the hutch that I picked up a few weeks ago that we hang onto until this coming week.  I don't have any inspiration for what I want to do with it, but I'm sure something will come to me eventually.  

If I hadn't bought the squash in the first place and seen the whole squash prior to cooking, I'm not sure that I would have been able to tell that this was a different variety of squash.  I think the stripetti squash was a little sweeter than spaghetti squash, but they are similar enough in appearance, taste and texture that it wouldn't have occurred to me that this was a different variety.  With that said, I really liked it.  And I would totally buy it again.  As for the recipe, I think it was nice.  I have never tried adding cheese and herbs of this variety to spaghetti squash so it was a very different take on squash for us.  But I wanted to use up some of the fresh herbs leftover from Thanksgiving so I decided this was a good opportunity to do so.  I originally planned to serve this squash with some turkey meatballs but I decided that after the meatloaf I wasn't really feeling meatballs.  But the dish had a very nice combination of flavors and made a really nice side dish.  Between Alex and I we ate the whole 4 cups of squash so that really says something.  In case you're wondering about the cooking method for the squash (boiling it, rather than roasting), we boiled the squash because that's what they told me to do at the farmers' market.  It seemed like a strange cooking method to me, but that's what they said to do so we did it.  And it worked.  I might try roasting it next time just for the sake of variety, but boiling it worked just fine. 

Recipe after the jump!

Roasted Acorn Squash and Onion with Tahini and Za'atar

I think it is time for me to stop buying so much squash at the farmers' market.  Every week I see a new variety and pick up more squash.  So we have been battling our ever expanding squash selection little by little.  Right now I have a stripetti squash at home (which is apparently a cross between a delicata squash and a spaghetti squash).  Once I read the little blurb claiming that it was a cross between a delicata and a spaghetti squash I couldn't resist buying a stripetti squash because those are my two favorite squash varities.  But I think we are about to hit Alex's squash tolerance soon and I am running out of new and inventive ways to cook squash.  So I might take a week or two off and then go back to buying more squash.  I am still determined to buy some more new squash varieties, but we just need a break until we use up all of the squash we have and until I come up with some new recipes.  I definitely want to make some soup and to also make some baked goods.  This Pumpkin Pecan-Praline Pie from Martha Stewart sounds particularly tempting and it might just be tempting enough for me to break my no pie rule...  Probably not though.

This recipe by Yottam Ottolenghi was one of two of his recipes that I had set aside for future squash experimentation this fall.  We had to make a number of modifications to the recipe becase we had acorn squash instead of butternut squash, we were out of pine nuts and we only had half of a red onion left, but we had a Vidalia onion in the pantry.  But we tried to stay true to the rest of the recipe as much as possible.  As with all Yottam Ottolenghi recipes my first thought upon tasting the dish was "this is interesting."  He combines ingredients in ways that I would never contemplate on my own (although the combinations might be totally commonplace to someone of Middle Eastern descent) and I find myself having to re-evaluate flavor combinations every time we make one of his recipes.  This was neither our most successful, nor our least successful Yottam Ottolenghi dish.  I liked it, but I would like to try it again as written and see how that changes things.  Acorn squash has always seemed a little starchier and less sweet than butternut squash to me and I think that this recipe would benefit from a slightly sweeter, moister squash.  We also incinerated our onions a bit because we lost track of time.  The onions that were salvagable were really delicious with the squash and the seasonings.  This is one of the few times that perhaps sticking to the recipe as written might have been the way to go...

Recipe after the jump!

Squash Half-Moons with Butter, Sesame and Salt

We actually made this squash recipe during the hurricane, but since I had a picture of it (unlike the Mexican Chicken Soup or the Lettuce in Sesame Sauce) I decided it deserved its own post.  Plus I didn't want to bury it in the group post because I thought it deserved better.  I know the picture isn't exactly the best picture in the world, but I think I deserve some credit for thinking to take a picture in the first place.  Actually, Alex took these pictures and he got all artsy with them - close-ups galore.  This picture was my favorite of the bunch.  Squash isn't an ideal subject, but we deserve points for trying!  Anyway, this might have been my favorite dish of the hurricane.  I loved the combination of the toasted sesame seeds, the spices (curry powder, garam masala and cinnamon), the butter and the squash.  Given how sweet kabocha squash is naturally you don't need any additional sugar.  It was absolutely wonderful.  The flavors of the spiced butter complimented, rather than obscuring, the sweet flavor and almost sweet potato-like texture of the kabocha squash.  And the toasted sesame seeds provided a really nice complimentary flavor and texture.  This recipe definitely has become one of my favorite squash recipes.

Recipe after the jump!

Roast Spaghetti Squash with Shredded Coconut

I am so excited that squash season is finally here.  Yay.  I know you can get butternut and spaghetti squash year-round at most decent grocery stores, but I love the selection of fresh squash at the farmers' market during the fall.  I have been on the lookout for delicata squash (which I think is my favorite of the squash varieties I have tried) but I am also determined to try a few new varieties this year.  I am thinking cheese pumpkins or blue Hokkaido squash (if I can find it).  We have a kabocha squash at home right now, but I pick at least one kabocha squash up per season.  Strangely enough, I never ate any variety of squash prior to moving to NYC.  My first year here I was wandering through the farmers' market in Union Square where I saw a squash that looked interesting and I bought it.  I haven't looked back since.

We tend to be a little lazy with spaghetti squash and we make our Spaghetti Squash with Moroccan Spices repeatedly without even considering searching for a new recipe.  This time I wanted to try something new and I took some inspiration from a pumpkin-coconut curry that I was considering making with our kabocha squash.  One thing I will say about roasting the spaghetti squash in the oven is that it cooks far more evenly.  Cooking it in the microwave is obviously much faster, but you end up with pockets of undercooked or inconsistently cooked squash.  So I would recommend that if you have the time, go ahead and roast your spaghetti squash.  It is worth it.  As for the seasonings, I thought that the combination of the heat of the cayenne chili (we added additional cayenne pepper, but it might be spicy enough with just the chili for most people) and the sweetness of the squash and coconut was lovely.  I have never tried cooking with coconut oil before but I thought it was a nice way to add a little additional coconut flavor to gently perfume the whole dish in addition to the more concentrated flavor of the dried shredded coconut.  I might try the coconut oil in a few more stir-fries until I figure out exactly what role it is going to play in our kitchen, but this was a good first attempt!

Recipe after the jump!

Parmesan-Crusted Summer Squash

I picked this Jean-Georges recipe for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, I just had a great meal at ABC Kitchen recently so it inspired me to get the cookbook out again.  I know I posted a little about ABC Kitchen not too long ago and said it was disappointing, but I have come to the conclusion that the restaurant is just inconsistent.  Although the service is consistently slow.  Our first meal there was good, but not great.  And it was expensive enough that it really should have been great.  But the lunch I had there recently was delicious so I wanted to see if the cookbook had any of the recipes for the dishes we had at lunch.  For the record, it has variations on some of the recipes (or what I assume are the recipes that we were served), but not all.  Secondly (and this is definitely more important than the first reason, although my meal at ABC Kitchen was the inspiration for my pulling out he cookbook in the first place) I thought the description Jean-Georges provides in the little blurb above the recipe of the squash as having an almost "fluffy texture" sounded really interesting.  I love squash but it does often feel heavy and soggy when you cook it.  And lastly, it looked really simple to make (which is a refreshing change from some of the recipes we make) and it used a novel roasting technique to cook the summer squash.  

So I bookmarked the recipe and ran over to the farmers' market and bought some cute little squash.  When we made the squash my reasons for making it totally panned out - the texture was really light and fluffy (which I thought was awesome) due to the way Jean-Georges roasts it on a wire rack and it was totally easy to make.  But it was missing something.  Alex and I both thought that some sort of fresh herb would be a nice addition to the recipe (I suggested fresh thyme).  The squash just needed something else, another layer of flavor to play off the salty Parm-Reg and the grassy evoo, to really make it shine.  The lemon juice helped, but it still left me wanting more.  So I think we will make this again (and maybe try this cooking technique with zucchini as well) and test out a few different fresh herbs or spices to see what works best.  So the recipe was not a resounding success, but it has serious potential to become one.  I'm going to play with it a bit more and see what happens, but I'm thinking a little fresh thyme would make this dish a total winner.

Recipe after the jump!

Roasted Acorn Squash with Chile Vinaigrette

As much as I enjoy the changing of the seasons, there is a part of me that hates winter.  It's not the bitter cold or the snow - I can handle both of those things.  What I really dislike is that it's impossible to get any fresh vegetables in season at the farmers' market.  After a certain point all you can really find in the farmers' market is meat, seafood, baked goods, squash, apples and potatoes.  Oh and mushrooms - those usually stick around for most of the winter too.  But what I really want from the farmers' market is only around in the spring through the fall.  Don't get me wrong, I like squash and I really like apples.  But I miss the variety.  At the farmers' market today the only things that I could find that I wanted were squash and apples.  There were some greens available, but none that I found really appealing.  It didn't help that I was in a hurry so I didn't have a lot of time to poke around the different stalls to see what was available.

So I picked up this acorn squash and had to figure out what I wanted to do with it.  Luckily I picked out a few squash recipes before deciding on the recipe for Roasted Squash with Mint and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds that we used for Thanksgiving.  So I decided to make this recipe for dinner tonight.  I have been been struggling while trying to figure out what to serve with this squash for some time now.  Somehow I couldn't get my head around what to serve as the entree.  When I think squash I tend to think Italian food or American food.  But the chili vinaigrette here skews more Latin American/Southeast Asian.  Alex and I couldn't figure out what type of food this squash would pair better with because there aren't any spices or ingredients here to dictate whether the dressing should be Asian or Latin.  We had originally planned to serve it with an Asian noodle dish, but I decided last minute to just make some quick and easy egg tacos to serve with it instead.  Alex says that he preferred this recipe to the Roasted Squash with Mint and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds that we served for Thanksgiving.  I think I actually preferred the other recipe by a hair.  And I think my preference is largely due to the fact that I just can't figure out what to serve with this squash (which I can admit is a somewhat ridiculous reason).  I also think that the vinaigrette here obscures the natural sweetness of the squash, rather than playing it up.  With all of that said, it was a really interesting and unique play on squash that I thoroughly enjoyed.  We will be making it again - I just don't know what we will be serving it with.

Recipe after the jump!

Happy Thanksgiving! Cider-Brined Turkey Breast with Star Anise and Cinnamon, Roasted Squash with Mint and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds and Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm not going to give much commentary because I think I deserve to be able to take Thanksgiving off too, but I wanted to post the menu I served my family (my parents and Alex) for Thanksgiving today before I fly off to Hawaii tomorrow morning!!!!!!  Since there were only four of us, we cooked a whole, bone-in turkey breast instead of a whole turkey.  We used the braise from Anita Lo's Cider-Brined Turkey with Star Anise and Cinnamon recipe, but revised the recipe for a whole turkey breast.  From the same issue of Bon Appetit we made the Roasted Squash with Mint and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds.  We served the turkey and squash (both of which my father assured me were properly traditional and American dishes) with some Momofuku brussels sprouts and homemade cranberry sauce.  Yum.

Recipes after the jump!

Buttercup Squash Soup with Rosemary

Ever since I stumbled across the Lee Bros. new cookbook at Barnes & Noble I have been dying to try this recipe (among others).  But when it's bitter cold outside, nothing appeals to me quite as much as a nice piping hot bowl of soup.  So when I received The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor as a Christmas present last year, I knew I had to try their Butternut Squash Soup with Rosemary.  Butternut squash soup is one of my absolute favorites and I have been dying for a new recipe to try.  But then the winter got away from me.  And soup is not exactly good summer-fare.  So I waited until it finally got cold again before I made it.  Since today was in the mid-60's and rainy it was perfect soup weather. 

I'm not going to say that the soup was disappointing.  But it wasn't the best squash soup we have ever made.  I had a butternut squash from the grocery and a buttercup squash from the CSA.  I have never cooked (or to my knowledge, eaten) a buttercup squash before.  And in this soup I'm not certain that I could say how a buttercup squash tastes compared to a butternut squash.  I know that the soup wasn't as sweet as I had expected it to be.  And I know that I prefer a squash soup with a bit of heat or curry, to this version with country ham, buttermilk and rosemary.  Part of the problem with this soup is that I felt like the flavors never really melded together.  It wasn't sweet from the squash or tangy from the buttermilk.  And the country ham didn't give it that deep, salty flavor I expected.  Instead it just tasted a little muddled.  It had potential, but it didn't quite make it.

Recipe after the jump!

Avocado Squash Stir-Fried With Garlic

Home for dinner two nights in a row?  Unheard of (at least this month)!  Yet somehow I made it home for dinner again.  Did I mention that we are on track for the lamest month ever in terms of cooking and blogging about it?  I think with this post we will only have 10 for the entire month of August.  And I am out of town next weekend, plus I am going to be busy at work this week (but hopefully not too busy to make it home for dinner at least once or twice).  Anyway, since Alex wasn't planning on my being home for dinner (and neither was I to be perfectly honest) we didn't really have anything planned.  He had defrosted the rest of the Panfried Pork and Scallion Mini Buns for his own dinner and it was pouring outside by the time we were ready to think about what to make, so we ended up just making those.  But seeing as I have been dining solely on restaurant food (with the exception of last night) for the past two weeks, I really wanted some sort of simple, homemade, vegetable side dish to go with our buns.  The only veggies we had in the fridge were two little avocado squash (pictured above) that I picked up at the farmer's market last week.  I had never seen or heard of avocado squash before stumbling across them at the farmer's market, but they were interesting enough to pique my interest.  So I bought them.  The description the farmer provided was that they were similar to zucchini only more tender, buttery and a little sweeter.  I was going to cut them in thin slices and grill them in the grill pan before drizzling them with evoo, crushed red pepper flakes, a little lemon juice and some fresh mint.  But when we were trying to come up with an Asian-ish squash side dish to go with our mini buns, I thought of a simple Chinese zucchini recipe that I had seen some time ago in a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. 

So this recipe is one that you could probably use with any type of firm-fleshed squash and it would yield similar results.  It was fine, but not amazing.  With that said, Alex and I ate an entire plateful so it couldn't have been that bad.  I really just wanted a recipe that wouldn't obscure the flavor of this particular squash so I went with the simplest recipe I could find.  I'm not sure that this recipe highlighted the squash exactly, but I thought that it was simple enough that I could really taste and appreciate the buttery flavor and silky texture of the avocado squash.  I'm definitely going to try to head to the farmer's market again this week to see if I can find more squash because it is really nice.  It lacks the firmness of a zucchini so I think you have to be fairly careful (and gentle) with how you cook it.  I'm very interested in trying this recipe from the NY Times for Cumin-Scented Summer Squash Salad with a mix of zucchini and avocado squash, just to see and taste the two kinds of squash together.

Recipe after the jump!

Pappardelle with Corn, Summer Squash and Basil

After a weekend of dining out at restaurants, it was nice to have something homemade and on the lighter side.  The corn and the squash came from a CSA I just joined called Holton Farms.  I picked up a huge bag full of produce from the CSA today, including zucchini, squash, corn, beets, radishes, and green tomatoes.  I have some serious plans for the green tomatoes (fried green tomatoes anyone?), but I decided that since we had a lot of pasta and zucchini goes with pasta, why not make some sort of pasta with zucchini mixed in.  My first candidate was this Fried-Zucchini Spaghetti, but we didn't have any spaghetti in the apartment.  My next thought was to make a No-Bake Summertime Lasagna from Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen.  But we didn't have lasagna noodles or fresh ricotta.  Then I started thinking about making some sort of pasta primavera with a variety of different fresh veggies from the CSA.  Seeing as I have never had a pasta primavera before I have no idea what veggies are usually in the dish, but for some reason I picture zucchini, bell peppers and carrots.  But I decided to use fresh corn and zucchini.  And out of the random pastas in our cupboard I decided to use pappardelle.

Alex liked the pasta because in his words it was "fresh and light."  I liked it because it let some very amazing produce take center stage. I wasn't in love with the recipe, but I thought it was pretty nice.  It was light and fresh.  And unlike a lot of heavier meat pasta sauces, it doesn't leave you feeling bloated and gross after you eat a serving.

Recipe after the jump!

Maple-Roasted Delicata Squash and Spinach Catalan-Style

If you're like me, you have no idea what delicata squash is.  But we ended up with a couple of random squash from the CSA and had to figure out first what it was and then how to cook it.  So I handed a squash to Alex and told him to start Googling.  A few minutes and one Wikipedia entry on squash varieties later, Alex told me that the squash we had been given was a sweet potato squash aka delicata squash.  And just for the record, there are way more varieties of squash out there than I realized!  I mean, who has ever heard of turban squash?  Anyway, we decided to simply roast the delicata squash as if it were a butternut squash with maple syrup, butter, and brown sugar.  As with roasting butternut squash, you end up with an amazingly flavorful layer of squash, with a bland layer down below that never came into contact with the maple syrup mixture.  Alex called it the "Tale of Two Squashes."  Yes, my husband is a dork.  But that's ok, because so am I.  It takes one to know one I guess.  Back to the squash.  Those bites you get where the sugar and syrup formed a nice caramelized crust on the squash are simply amazing.  I highly recommend using just a pinch of cayenne pepper on the squash because I think it really makes the flavors come together.  Otherwise you would just end up with a really sweet squash dish, without any complexity to it.

To go with the squash we decided to cook up the spinach that also came from our CSA.  We have a recipe for Spinach Catalan-Style from Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali that I really enjoy because it is tasty, easy, and best of all, it comes together in minutes.  I really enjoy the combination of the buttery pine nuts, the sweet currants, and the fresh sauteed spinach.  The first time I made the recipe I was a little skeptical that it didn't contain garlic or onions.  I quickly realized that it didn't need either.  This is probably one of the quickest and easiest side dishes in our repertoire.

Recipe after the jump!

Whole Wheat Penne Rigate with Summer Squash and Ricotta

I love zucchini and other summer squash.  It's delicious.  But it can get somewhat tiring trying to come up with new recipes and new ways to use all of the squash I pick up during the summer when it seems to overrun the farmer's market.  This summer I am determined to join a CSA so I am certain that I will be eating even more squash than usual, which means I need to figure out even more ways to use it.  So when I picked up Mario Batali's new vegetable-driven cookbook, Molto Gusto, and saw the recipe for Pennette with Summer Squash and Ricotta, I knew I had to try it.  Not only does the recipe use squash, but it pairs squash with ricotta and mint, which I think is a fabulous combination.  The cookbook also contains a recipe for Linguine with Zucchini & Bottarga that I am determined to try once I track down some bottarga, which I believe I have seen at Chelsea Market.

While I do intend to make this recipe as written at some point, today I decided to play with the recipe a bit.  Generally I make the recipe as written the first time and then start playing to my heart's content (unless upon first glance at the recipe I feel like I can improve upon it by adding this or cutting that), but we're doing it all backwards this time.  I included Mario's recipe as intended, as well as the recipe as I adapted it.  I like to give credit where credit is due, and I certainly didn't come up with the whole recipe on my own.  I didn't have any normal pennette rigate.  Instead all I had was whole wheat penne rigate.  I'm not sure how or if pennette rigate differs from penne rigate, but that's ok.  Since I was using whole wheat pasta, I had to amp up the flavor of the zucchini and the ricotta a tiny bit.  I find that whole wheat pasta is far drier than regular pasta, not to mention grainier.  I also find that it requires far more salt and seasoning to make it flavorful.  So I added some crushed red pepper flakes to amp up the flavor of the zucchini a little more, as well as some lemon zest to give the ricotta mixture a little more tang.  I also upped the amount of fresh mint that I added to the pasta, but that change was fairly minor in comparison to the others.

I really liked this pasta recipe.  It made a wonderful healthy lunch!  Actually, healthy or not, it was wonderful.  The addition of the crushed red pepper, the lemon zest, and the additional tablespoon of fresh mint were lovely.  Without them I don't know if the pasta would really sing.  I'm not sure if the creaminess of the ricotta and the sauteed zucchini could carry whole wheat pasta without the other additions.  Shockingly enough, I didn't even miss the regular pasta - which is saying a lot!  Give it a shot both ways and let me know what you think.

Recipe after the jump!