Squash Fight: Two Children, 22 Squash, Lots of Sharp Knives
Let me be your very opinionated guide to everything you could possibly make with winter squash.
Last month, we were a little gourd-giddy when we sent 22 squash to the doorstep of Phyllis Grant (Dash and Bella). Luckily, she was giddier. With cooking a month’s worth of squash under her belt, she’s passing along her most-definitely-earned-and-won wisdom on how to tackle winter’s most intimidating veg.
I just got in a knife fight with a sweet dumpling squash. I called it some horrible names. My largest and sharpest chef knife wouldn’t penetrate the belly of this striped beast. I was determined to get it open. I found a knife in the back of my kitchen tool drawer that was a prop from one of my husband’s movies. It still had fake blood on it. I plunged the extra sharp dagger into the top of the squash and cranked it open with a loud grunt. I put the garlic-and-oil drenched halves in a baking dish, covered them with tin foil and placed them in the oven. I let them cool, scooped the creamy flesh into a container, gave it all a vigorous stir, and shoved the purée into my overflowing freezer. No more squash until 2018. Your turn. I would love to be your very opinionated guide.
Just a month ago, I wasn’t qualified to tell you anything about squash. While I have always found it beautiful, it usually enters our home, hangs out on the counter in some sort of failed tablescape situation, and then gets shoved into the onion bin until spring.
When Good Eggs asked me to write for them, we talked through what kinds of projects I would want to take on. I told them that I make the same dishes over and over again: tart, salad, stew, repeat. It’s a rut that I love but it has been feeling too safe. They suggested squash. I thought oh my god, how intimidating. But I love a challenge and I’m not scared to use (abuse?) my kids in these adventures. Could I fall in love with squash? Could I help my kids fall in love with squash? Would my kids want to kill me? Could I demystify squash and help Good Eggs’ readers tackle it too?
I asked Good Eggs to send over hella squash. On Halloween, they left 3 boxes filled with 22 squash on my front porch. It felt like Christmas had come early. But only for me.
The first week was rough. The carved pumpkins on our front porch didn’t help. I was trying to convince my kids to eat their butternut purée while the pumpkins were sprouting a white moldy fuzz and collapsing in on themselves.
I was religious about getting squash into most of our meals even as I watched my children suffer through the five stages of squash grief.
Denial. Can we have hamburgers for dinner?
Anger next. Wait. What? Are you kidding me? You put squash IN the mac and cheese?
On to bargaining. I’ll eat three bites of the kobocha polenta gratin. But that’s it. And no squash for dinner tomorrow. Please. We need a break.
Then depression. Pass the squash. Pass the squash. Audible sigh. Pass the squash.
Acceptance was not coming easily.
I decided to be more journalistic about the whole process. I tend to hibernate in my little kitchen like a crazy scientist. But when you have almost two dozen squash to cook through, you need to step outside of your bubble and talk to the people. Turns out it’s not just my kids. A surprising amount of grownups are super cranky about eating their winter squash and they were more than happy to complain about it.
It’s intimidating and dangerous to cut.
Sharp knives really do help. But who the hell has sharp knives (or film props) lying around? So here’s a hack right off the bat: microwave your squash before you attack it with a knife. This makes the halving and coring and peeling much easier and safer. Plus you get a little bit of a jump on the cook time. You will have to experiment a bit with the timing. Start with 1 minute and cook until you can start to feel a bit of heat emanating from the inside. Don’t overdo it or you will have a mushy squash that is even harder to peel.
The texture can be stringy.
True! I have found that pumpkin and butternut are sometimes stringier than other squash varieties. But there are other factors such as squash getting picked too early/too late or stored improperly. If your butternut is stringy, even after it’s cooked through, purée it in your food processor. Or make soup. Or move towards the sweet and creamy delicata (bonus: the skin is so thin you don’t even need to peel it).
It’s too sweet.
With pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie being my only exceptions, I recommend staying over in the land of the savory. You want to play up the earthiness and the nuttiness of the squash. Do this by aggressively balancing the sweetness with salt, grated garlic, lemon zest, pickled onions. Squash also loves butter, cheese, and nuts (pesto being a wonderful companion).
It’s too much work and not worth my time.
I always say to people that if you’re going to caramelize one onion, you might as well caramelize eight of them. Same deal with squash. Buy more squash than you need for one meal (this is often the case anyway with the larger squash like pumpkin or blue hubbard). Prep the squash and then store half of it for later. Freeze it peeled, cored, and raw. Or freeze it already cooked and puréed. Or freeze it mixed with ricotta, lemon zest, roasted garlic purée, and salt, and you will be a third of the way to a squash lasagna.
It’s boring.
This was me a month ago. But I am now a convert. Stand back. I made about 30 dishes with squash. Here is a list of my favorites. And I am here to tell you they were the opposite of boring. They were fucking delicious.
- Squash tacos with Napa cabbage slaw, Monterey jack, crème fraiche, jalapeño pickles (4 times with different squash)
- Polenta and butternut squash gratin with pecorino (luxurious and creamy)
- Mac and cheese with roasted kabocha and garlic bread crumbs
- Sliced delicata roasted with garlic oil, Aleppo pepper, lemon zest, salt
- Risotto with roasted delicata topping
- All manner of squash toasts (with goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic, topped with sesame seeds, tossed with frisée and bacon, and on and on)
- Roasted butternut squash with baby kale pesto and pine nuts
- Grilled fig leaf packets stuffed with mashed blue hubbard, hazelnuts, and thick balsamic (very simple but felt special)
- Baked delicata halves stuffed with kabocha purée, topped with hazelnuts, pomegranate, parsley (squash inside squash was pretty cool but my kids thought it was excessive)
- Butternut hasselback with jalapeño, maple syrup, butter, garlic glaze (I adapted a recipe from Bon Appetit)
- Butternut and Kabocha squash soup with coconut milk and pepitas (simple, light, healthful)
- Escarole salad with lemon balsamic vinaigrette and prosciutto-wrapped caramelized kabocha (my favorite of them all)
- Pumpkin butter (recipe from Food52)
- Sweet dumpling puff pastry tart with sage oil and parmesan
- I roasted all different kinds of squash seeds with a combination of butter, balsamic, olive oil, salt, Aleppo pepper, and honey. My favorites by far were the pumpkin seeds. They were larger in size and were always the crispiest.
Stay tuned for three of Phyllis’ squash-centric recipes, coming this week to the blog.
Phyllis Grant is a writer and author based in Berkeley, CA. She blogs on cooking and parenting at Dash and Bella (@dashandbella), and when not making her way through 22 squash, is working on her upcoming food memoir and cookbook.
