Thursday’s Culinary Adventure

I have decided to add a new feature to my blog, Thursday’s Culinary Adventure!  I love to try new things, and I love to share my successes and failures with others! 

If you have no interest in cooking, or if you never cook (Brian), this post is not going to be your cup of tea (should I try to use culinary puns throughout this post?!  Too much?  Oh well, I’m doing it!), so pass this one by and I’ll catch you later.

Also, if you hate puns, please ignore the large, italic font.  I promise that this will be a one time thing. Or a two-time thing.  Thanks for your patience- you’re a peach!!

Today’s Culinary Adventure is:

Wowza!  I had been eyeing this baby in the grocery store for a while, and when it went down to 69 cents per pound, I took the plunge!  No sense in spending a lot of money on things that you might hate.  Plus, this squash comes from Sauvie Island in Portland! (Shout Out!)

First off, a bit about this FRUIT.  That’s right, fruit. It is obviously a squash, and, while it looks really ugly when it faces this way

If you put it right side up, it looks like a little guy with a turban!  Aww!

=

(Isn’t that little guy cute?!  I figured he wouldn’t offend anyone as a racial stereotype…I didn’t name the squash!!)

The smaller the squash, the sweeter it is, so SIZE DOES MATTER (snicker)!  The large squashes can be bitter.  Also, steer clear of any with a lot of “warts” on it, or soft spots.  That means that it is a bad egg!

(mine vs. a nectarine)

This squash is, apparently, primarily used for decoration, but the flesh is said to be sweet and reminiscent of hazelnuts.  We shall see…

First off, I sliced the cap right off of that little guy’s head!  The small bulbous part is almost exclusively seeds and should be discarded.  Unless you are REALLY desperate to get all of the meat out, and then, by all means, give it a try.

Scoop out the seeds.  What you see here is what a lot of people use to fill with soup for fall parties! Isn’t that cute?!  But, we persevere.

The skin is one tough cookie, and hard to cut off.  Here I am exasperated at the time it is taking me to cut off the skin.

 

Hahahaha!  Brian is going to hate this picture.

Now, I cut the peeled squash into little cubes because I am planning on feeding this dish to Joseph, but you could probably use bigger cubes.  It actually made a lot of cubes, filling up my 8x8 pan:

Now, I chopped up two organic Gala apples with the skin on (vitamins?  laziness?  You be the judge.) and stirred them in with the squash.

A scattering of raisins.

A hefty sprinkle of cinnamon.

About 1.5 Tb of brown sugar.

Dump in about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom (I actually used apple juice…)

Stir all together (how can we go wrong?)

I added some pats of butter on top, and another light dusting of brown sugar,

Cover with foil and bake at 375degrees for about an hour, then uncover for about one more.  Once you can pierce the squash easily with a fork, it is probably done.  Piece of cake!

And the adult taste-testers say:

Caitlin:

 

Brian:

Funny that we made the same face, even though he didn’t see mine.

Initial results say that the flavor is very mild, and the texture is firmer- less stringy than most squashes.  But, can’t taste hazelnut.  Or much of anything but raisins and apples.  It’s just alright for me.  And for Brian.  I bet that this recipe would be yummier with butternut squash though!

Here’s what Joseph thought:

Not so sure…

Yep, I want more!

Come back with that Squash!!! (He has a short fuse…)

So, it was a hit with Joseph – probably because he has a thing about texture, and butternut squash is too stringy for him.

SUMMARY:

Just okay for us, but great for babies and “texture-aware” people.  Probably would be good used in place of potatoes in a stew or hash or something.  Otherwise, other squashes would, most likely, be better.  

GRADE : C+

(this is how much we ate.)

 

STAY TUNED NEXT WEEK AS I EXPLORE ANOTHER RARELY USED (BY PEOPLE I KNOW) ITEM.  I’LL GIVE YOU A HINT- IT RHYMES WITH SHMOK SHMOY