2 Things with Butternut Squash

Huck, clearly impressed.

We got two butternut squash in our bountiful basket this week, and I'm a little souped out, so I decided to go huge and try making the most delicious of dishes: butternut squash ravioli.  I don't have any tools for rolling out pasta (besides a rolling pin), so I thought I couldn't do it on my own.  I planned on cheating and buying won-ton wrappers, but none of the grocery stores I went to had any.  The lady I asked at Trader Joe's said they didn't carry them anymore and that I should go down to any of the Asian markets on Spring Mountain.  It's something I like to do anyway, but I was so frustrated at that point that I decided to just do it myself.

 Since I've never made my own pasta before, I consulted my CIA contacts* for help.  Two young men involved with the CIA who will be known only as Boud and Pool to protect their identities explained the process.  "Flour and eggs," they told me.  "It's just flour and eggs."  They instructed me to create a basin of flour and crack eggs into it until it felt right (Pool said about four), mix it by hand, knead, and let it rest for 20 minutes.  I was instructed that the dough would be stiff, but that this was normal.

 While I fully trust my contacts, I did not trust myself to understand text-based instructions.  I am a visual learner, thankfully, I found this video on youtube.  Armed with instructions, I set out to create ravioli dough.  It turns out making pasta is messy and fun, and I love it.

The delightfully European man in the cooking video that refused embedding says to use egg yolks only or the dough will be stiff.  I chose to include the egg whites because I felt stiff dough would be easier to roll out by had without breaking.  When I get a pasta machine, because now I have to have one, I will switch to using just the yolks.

I managed to mix the flour and eggs into a firm dough and, after letting it sit for 20 minutes or so, rolled it out with a rolling pin.  I ended up with two very narrow ovals of dough which I tried filling in two different ways.  I placed spoonfuls of my butternut squash mixture along one side of the first oval and cut it into strips with a pizza cutter (fancy!)  Then I folded the strips in half with the filling in the middle sealing the edges.  This worked, but wasn't very pretty due to my imprecise dough.

I used a shot glass (fancy!) to cut the second sheet of dough into circles which were pressed together with a scoop of filling between.  These raviolis looked prettier, but wasted some dough.

The whole process was easier than I anticipated, and the raviolis tasted great but were a little thick.  Gotta get that pasta maker.

Butternut Squash Ravioli Filling

• 1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
• olive oil
• butter
• 1 large leek (white part only) halved and cut into small strips (be careful to wash between the layers of the leek; nobody likes sandy raviolis) 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 10-12 fresh sage leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400, brush olive oil over the cut sides of the squash and season with salt and pepper. Place the squash cut side down in a baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes (until soft).  Scoop the cooked squash out of its skin and place in a food processor to puree.
2. While the squash is cooking, melt 2 tbsp butter and saute the leek until browned.  Add finely chopped sage leaves and Parmesan cheese when the leek is nearly done.
3. Add the leek mixture to the butternut squash in the food processor and puree until smooth.
4. Stuff ravioli dough or won-ton wrappers with the butternut squash mixture and boil 3-4 minutes (until they float to the top)

Tonight's adventure in squash is less ambitious, but equally delicious.  I made a gratin of  butternut squash (skinned, seeded, and sliced with a small mandolin - microwave the squash for about 3 minutes to make slicing easier) to be served with simple pork chops. 

Butternut Squash and Spinach Gratin

1. Skin, seed and slice a butternut squash.
2. Blanch, drain and chop 1 bunch spinach (or use about 1 cup frozen chopped spinach).
3. Saute half a cup of diced onion and two cloves of garlic in 2 tbsp butter. 
4. Add onion and garlic to spinach along with 1/4 tsp nutmeg, salt and pepper, and 1/2 c cream.
5. Layer sliced squash, spinach mixture, and grated Parmesan cheese in a buttered casserole and bake at 400 for about half an hour or until browned and bubbling. 

*Culinary Institute of America  

Something Spicy

Pretty much every week, my bountiful basket offers me something that makes me pause and wonder, "What do I do with this?"  This week, that something was 6 Anaheim peppers.  I thought for a minute of gourmet burgers with roasted peppers and of home made green chili sauce, but decided to go for the obvious and make chile rellenos.  Too bad I've never made chile rellenos before.

I teach at a school with a heavily Hispanic/Latino population, and I've had chile rellenos made by my students and their families.  They are, basically, the greatest thing imaginable: roasted peppers stuffed with gooey melted cheese and fried to a golden crisp.  I felt a strange pressure to get this right.  When I told Nathan that I was going to try it, he got really excited which just added to the pressure.  "I must be a good cook.  I must be a good cook."


Step one is to roast the peppers.  Just put them on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven at 450.  Turn them once in a while until the skin is dark brown and blistery all over.  I was afraid of burning them (silly me) and did not let them get nearly brown enough.  Ah well, next time.

Once the peppers are blackened, put them in a paper bag and fold the top down to seal them in.  This allows the peppers to steam as they cool and is supposed to make them easier to peel.  I have a feeling cooking them more would have also made them easier to peel, so do better than I did and really roast those peppers.  I couldn't find a paper bag around anywhere, so I just put them in a bowl and stuck a plate on top.  Same thing.   Ashley, if you are reading this, you left some of your plates at the house on Ravenna.

split pepper, still good!

After the chili's have cooled enough to handle, peel the blackened skin off so you are left with slimy, but intact green peppers.  Cut a slit near the top of each pepper and slide in slices of monterey jack cheese.  Try to do this without splitting the peppers if you can.  I split one pretty badly, but held it together with toothpicks while I breaded it.  I pulled the toothpicks out before frying and it stayed together pretty well.

Once your peppers are skinned and stuffed, dredge them in some flower and prepare the egg wash.  In order to get a crust that was both substantial and airy, I separated 3 eggs and beat the whites until they were stiff, then folded the yolks back in.  Julia Child (I just noticed her initials - hee) would tell you to whisk the egg whites until they form the ribbon, but I still am not sure what that means.  It takes a while to get those egg whites nice and stiff, so this step is a good place to prepare your frying oil.  I am lucky enough to have married a man who owned a deep fryer, so preparing my frying oil involves having my husband get the fryer off the top of the fridge and set the temperature.  If you are not as lucky as I am, use a cast iron or heavy skillet and heat some peanut oil until flour browns when you sprinkle it in.

Dip your skinned, flour dredged, cheese filled chilis in your whipped eggs and immediately place them in frying oil.  Leave them for about 3 minutes or until golden brown.  Eat them while they're still hot.

mmm diet coke

The chilis I made weren't the best I've ever had, but they weren't the worst either, so I am considering this one a win.  I served them with some enchilada sauce and carne asada.  Don't ask me for an asada recipe - I bought it from the butcher's counter at my grocery store.  You can have an enchilada sauce recipe though, made with all fresh ingredients.

All Purpose Red Sauce for Mexican Foods

• combine 2-4 peeled, quartered tomatoes, 1 onion roughly chopped, and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor and pulse until liquefied.
• heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan and add the tomato mixture, simmer for 10 minutes
• add 1/2 cup chicken broth, 3 diced jalapenos (or other small chilis), a dash of cinnamon and salt to taste and continue to simmer until ready to serve 

Science Rules!

I am just gonna come out and say it. I love pickles. I love them in sandwiches; I love them on burgers; I love them all by themselves. Whenever I get cucumbers in my bountiful basket, I make refrigerator pickles, but today, while searching for a snack, I noticed something curious.

The garlic in my homemade pickles has turned blue! I was frightened, so I turned to google.  Here's what I learned:

Raw garlic contains an enzyme that, if not cooked out, reacts with sulfur in the garlic and any copper in the water or pot to form copper sulfate.  Copper sulfate is blue and totally safe to eat.

Refrigerator Pickles  

• cucumbers sliced or in spears
• 2-3 cloves garlic per jar
• 1 head dill
• 2 quarts water
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. place garlic cloves and a few sprigs of dill in the bottom of each jar (I didn't have any fresh dill this time so I used a half teaspoon of dried dill)
2. boil water, vinegar, salt and sugar, stir and let cool
3. pack the jars with cucumbers and cover with cooled brine

The pickles are ready to eat in 3 days and will last about 3 weeks, if you don't eat them all first.

Full Stop

This morning I learned something that rocked my world: I have been typing incorrectly my entire life. I read in this article that even though my keyboarding teacher in elementary school told me to, it is incorrect to use two spaces after a period. I am practicing using full stops and the space bar correctly now, but it's going to take me some time to get used to this strange new world.

Anyhow, today is Saturday which means it's Bountiful Baskets day. If you're reading my first blog post, you most likely know me so you have no doubt heard me go on (and on and on) about how amazing Bonutiful Baskets Food Co-op is. Just in case you've missed the good word, BBFC is a co-op operating out of Arizona with sites in several western states including Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Each week, contributors log in at the website and pre-pay $15 for a half fruit, half veggie produce basket. There are also addons available every week like 9 grain bread, tortillas, honey, and 24-36lb boxes of whatever's in season. You can also sign up to get a guaranteed organic basket each week, but I don't. It's smaller, more expensive, and the regular baskets often include organic produce anyway.

Saturdays are now my favorite day of the week. I am the kind of person that finds a lot of comfort in routine, so the weekly trek to Sunny Springs Park to pick up my produce followed by unpacking, cleaning, menu planning and cooking is soothing. It restores my sanity. I am a barefoot zen master making refrigerator pickles each week. The sangria I usually make with whatever fruits I have leftover from the previous week helps too.

This week, the baskets had lettuce, spinach, asparagus, butternut squash, Anaheim peppers, cherry tomatoes, tangelos, apples, Asian pears, regular pears, kiwis, and a pineapple. I bought everything to make chili rellenos, and if I can find some pre-made ravioli or won-ton wrappers, I'll try my hand at butternut squash raviolis as well. Today, though, I am going to make stuffed shells because I still have tomatoes left from last week's basket that need to be used.

Since I guess this is mostly going to be a cooking blog, I should share my favorite recipe for marinara sauce. I try to use nothing from a can or a packet if I want something to taste really good, and this recipe only uses a few tablespoons of canned tomato paste for color since whenever I try to make sauce with fresh tomatoes it turns out sort of pinkish and not the robust, appetizing red one expects.

May Not Be Actual Marina Sauce Better Just Call It Tomato

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 mediumish yellow onion
• 4+ garlic cloves (I use at least 6. No matter what the liberal Forks media tells us, vampires are scary, not sexy, and garlic is your first and best line of defense.)
• a palm full of fresh chopped basil or 1tbsp dried.
• a smaller palm full of fresh chopped oregano or 2 tsp dried
• 1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I like it spicy)
• 1 6oz can tomato paste (though I use a few spoonfuls, not the whole can)
• 4-6 tomatoes or 1 28oz can whole tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp (or more) salt

1. Saute diced onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, add herbs, red pepper flakes, and tomato paste.
2. Stir in tomatoes (to prepare fresh tomatoes, I just core them and run them through a few pulses in my food processor), wine, sugar and salt
3. simmer as long as humanly possible

Today along with the garlic and onion, I diced up and added some mushrooms and yellow squash I had, but then I found the sauce a little too chunky, so I hit it with my stick blender until it was smoother. While it simmers, I am going to go back through this post and make sure I only used one space after each full stop.