Good Food Good Friends: Winter Squash

My choice this month and I chose Winter Squash. That would include butternut, pumpkin, acorn, delicata, hubbard, and spaghetti squash (to name a few). I love butternut so that is what I worked with.

IF you have read my blog in the past you know I love ethnic cuisine – Indian, Asian, Latin American – and I love to cook it. Using the butternut I made Thai butternut and chicken curry.

My cookbook collection includes everyday asian which is where I found the recipe but it is also available on The Williams Sonoma website. The recipe is here. It calls for pumpkin or butternut.

It was OKAY. I liked it but I didn’t LOVE it. I think the butternut was too sweet for a curry. But that’s just my humble opinion. I don’t think I’ll make it again.

More winter squash recipes from:

Kayte

Ulrike

Peggy

Next veggie: Any fresh produce for November 5th

We’d love to have more members in Good Friends Good Food so if you want to join in just let one of us know.

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{IHCC} Ingredient of the month – SQUASH!

I Heart Cooking Clubs has a new monthly feature.  In the past we have done Mystery Boxes – a combo of different ingredients to be used in a dish.  A Chef of the Month.  And now – The Ingredient of the month.  How fun!

This month the ingredient is SQUASH!  It could be any type of squash.  Summer squash.  Winter Squash.  The world was open to us.  The only restriction – the recipe had to come from one of our past chefs.  That meant we had HUNDREDS of recipes to choose from.  HUNDREDS!!  Not an easy task to pick one.

I found this one from Giada De Laurentis.  I have seldom cooked from her recipes.  I joined IHCC AFTER they had cooked with her for 6 months.  My Loss!!

Rigatoni with Squash and Prawns

The sweetness of the butternut squash mixed with the mellowness of the cooked garlic and the bite of the Parmesan and the Basil is a tasty combination.  

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
1 pound butternut squash, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt, plus 1 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus 1/2 teaspoon
1 cup vegetable stock
1 pound rigatoni
1 pound prawns {shrimp}, peeled and deveined
3/4 to 1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Warm 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butternut squash, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Saute until the squash is golden and tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the squash is very soft, another 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the squash mixture to a blender or food processor and puree.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta.
Meanwhile, warm the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the prawns with the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Add the prawns to the pan and cook until just pink, about 3 minutes.
In a large pot over low heat combine the cooked pasta, pureed squash mixture, and 3/4 cup milk. Stir to combine. Add the remaining 1/4 cup milk if the sauce needs to be moistened. Add the cooked prawns, basil, and cheese. Stir until warm and serve.

{Giada de Laurentis 2016.}\

Delicious.

For more  SQUASH!!  recipes!

 

{EwE} Fall Harvest – Butternut Squash

While it may be Fall in other states it is still summer in the Deep South.  But the fall gardens are granting good stuff to eat. {Which is why I chose Fall Harvest for this weeks theme.}  We harvested some good sweet Butternut Squash a couple of weeks ago and they are now ‘ripe’ and ready to cook.  While we didn’t get as many this year, too much rain then too dry, as last we got enough to do a few dishes like this Curried Butternut Squash soup from Ellie Krieger.

This was pretty tasty and much like the soup I made not long ago.  But this one is a little healthier.  Ellie used canola oil to sweat the onions and garlic rather than butter.  Just that one change saved quite a few calories.

I served it at a dinner and there was none left so it must have been good.  I think it is the addition of the yogurt that takes the flavor over the top.

The recipe came from Ellie’s The Food You Crave or you can find it HERE.

Need more Fall Harvest – Eating with Ellie

 

 

{CC#10} Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I have lots of friends who eat soup year round.  For me I don’t make soup until the weather turns cool.  I know that’s silly.  Hot food is hot food.  It’s the idea.  I like the combination of cool weather and soup.  It warms you up.

Today it finally turned cooler in the Deep South.  That means that the high today was only about 75 instead of 85 or 90 which we have had the last 10 days.  UGH!!! I am ready for SUMMER to be OVER!!

I love the flavor and fragrances of curry so this recipe caught me eye.  AND we have some fresh butternut from the garden.  It was kismet!!

Delicious!  It hit the spot on a cool day.  Lots of curry flavor  Very filling.

The dollop of Greek yogurt added a little ‘tang’ to the soup when it was mixed in.  I almost left it out because it usually isn’t my ‘thing’.  So glad I didn’t it.  It was the perfect addition.

Sautee curry powder, onions and garlic in butter.  Throw in some diced butternut and cook until soft.  Add veggie broth.  Puree.  Done!  Easy! Tasty! Warming!

TIP:  You will need to peel the butternut.  That is near-nigh impossible if they are cold.  If I need to peel them I usually nuke them for about 2 minutes.  It makes them so much easier to peel.

The recipe is from The Colorado Farmers’ Market Cookbook (page 77).  I also found it HERE!

I’m linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by Kitchen Flavours and Emily’s Cooking (Makan2).

 

{EwE} Butternut Squash Risotto

This week’s theme – Rice is Nice – chosen by ME wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.  I mean, rice, people.  It’s used in all kinds of dishes.  Desserts.  Salads. Sides.  Casseroles.  Why was it so hard to find a rice dish?  Because Ellie has plenty of them.

I thought about a nice rice pudding but I wasn’t in the mood for sweet.  I had just made a salad made with rice .  Then I ran across this risotto recipe.  I love making risotto.  It is such a comfort food.  Rich. Creamy.  Full of flavor.

and since we had just harvested some butternut squash from the garden it was easy to decide.

Arborio rice, white wine, butternut squash, sage leaves, Parm cheese all came together in a love creamy dish.

Ellie called for 1 cup pureed butternut squash so I roasted the squash, cooled it, and pureed it in the blender.  I added a hint of salt to bring out the flavor in the squash.  I also needed a tad more broth for the risotto to be as creamy as I like.  The recipe called for 5 cups, I used 5 1/2.

This was tasty.  The FRESH butternut took the dish just over the top in flavor.

The recipe is from Ellie’s Comfort Food Fix (page 216).  I also found it HERE.

 

{IHCC} Fresh Start

How many times over the past 20 or so years have we made New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight?  Or at least eat healthier?  Only to have those initiatives fade after a couple of months.  Diet is a four letter word.  I don’t use it any more.  I also don’t make resolutions any more.  I use the word suggestion and it is easier to follow.  So is eating healthier when Ellie Kreiger is around.

Our ‘assignment’ this week was to find something from Ellie to give us a FRESH START.  So, owning 5 of Ellie’s books I went recipe hunting.  It is cold and windy outside.  It is supposed to rain and thunder.  I needed comfort food. What about Mac and Cheese?  Perfect!

Not as ooey-gooey as my regular M&C but tasty and definitely healtheir.

It’s all about not using as much cheese as you normally would and subbing in something to replace the flavor.  Like Winter Squash. And low fat milk.  And ricotta cheese.

1 pound elbow macaroni
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen pureed winter squash
2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but firm, about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.    Original Recipe The recipe is also from The Food You Crave. page 168
We liked the sweetness of the butternut mixed with the spice of the cayenne and dried mustard. The only change I would make would to make the chess sauce ‘saucier’ before adding to the pasta, or using less pasta.

I only made 1/2 of the recipe and cut the ricotta in half because I didn’t have enough.  (I think that is why it was just a tad dry.) It was plenty for two people to have more than two medium servings each.  Ellie said the whole recipe made eight 2-cup servings and I didn’t need that much. Each serving is only 390 calories.

Definitely something to make more of this winter when the wind is howling.  The rain is blowing.  The night is dark and dreary.

Check out what the other IHCC members made for their FRESH START.

 

 

{SRC} Homesteading….

It’s reveal day for Secret Recipe Club. The day we trot out the new recipes we have discovered on our ‘assigned’ foodie blog. The day we glorify the fun dishes we have made from someone else’s kitchen. This month I Homesteaded with April over at Angel’s Homestead.

April lives on three acres with her husband and lives by her definition of Homesteading:

Engaging in a give-and-take relationship with the earth. Growing your own food, cooking from scratch, raising backyard livestock, collecting rainwater, simplifying your life, reducing your impact, and living in harmony with nature.

I discovered not only some easy and delicious recipes but some great ideas for the home as well. Like a great Emergency Substitution Chart when you run out of every day ingredients, Gardening 101 but since this is a COOKING Club…

If you been reading about my SRC adventures you KNOW I cannot make just one dish. I just find too many to decide on less than three. I mean it’s hard enough to narrow down to that let alone JUST ONE! I had decided to cook a roast for Sunday Dinner this month. That is something I don’t do often anymore for just the two of us. I remembered seeing that April had a Crock Pot Beef Roast on the blog so I used that one.

It was nice not having to worry about the cooking. And fragrance of that roast cooking wafted through the house all day.

To go with the roast that night I made her…

Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash

So good! I usually just cut the butternut in half, deseed it, and then nuke it adding cinnamon sugar after the fact. THIS was so much better!!! And so simple!!

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups, cubed)
2 tablespoons pure olive oil
2 tablespoons Organic Coconut Sugar I used Turbinado instead.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Place squash cubes into a large bowl, along with the olive oil, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and salt and toss together until the squash is well coated.
Spread the squash into one layer on a large foil covered baking sheet that has been lightly greased. Don’t crowd them or the pieces won’t brown.
Roast squash for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven, turning the squash over and rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time, until the edges are browned and centers are tender.

Not wanting to stop there I made the dinner complete with her Fluffy Dinner Rolls.

If you need some rolls in about an hour or less THESE are the ones you need to make. These were the best rolls I have ever made. And I have made a lot of rolls!!!

It won’t be long before I go back and make her Philly Cheese Steak Pizza, Pecan Pie Muffins, or her Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits.

Thanks April for some great EATS!

You can check out the other Secret Assignments by clicking below

 

{SRC} Living in Suburbia

I’m sorry! What month did you say this was? What? Already? Well, that year went fast. Now, don’t misunderstand 2014 is not over yet. In fact we still have (at this writing) 7 1/2 weeks left. But it is the last month for The Secret Recipe Club for 2014. Group C won’t post again until January 2015. 2015? Wait! What? Already?

The bright part of the month is finding and then posting (third Monday) new recipes from a new found foodie blog. And this month was just as much fun and just as hard as every other month since I joined SRC back in June 2011. Since that time I have never ever been able to find just one recipe for SRC so I end up making 4 or 5 and then posting about 2 or 3. With so many good dishes and so many great recipes how can I cook just one?

This month I cooked and baked with Lisa of Authentic Suburban Gourmet. Lisa has been blogging since January 2009. What I found on her site was a couple of ‘themes’ for her recipes:

Friday Nite Bites – a collection of tasty and easy Appetizers;
Weekly Inspirations – “will consist of quotes that resonate with me to a section on my favorite food bloggers to career advise to Bay Area favorites to wineries and restaurants to simply interesting inspirations. I hope you enjoy seeing what inspires me and hopefully will inspire you.” with recipes.

And in addition to those themes – more lusciousness. Such as her

Toffee and Caramel Cheesecake

Cheese cake is right up there with bread pudding in my dessert list. There is nothing better IMO than a good rich flavorful cheese cake. And this one is right up there. A decadent toffee flavored cake topped with a rich caramel sauce and pieces of almond/pecan toffee. **SWOON** I made it without the crust (she suggested gingersnaps but…), but next time I think a chocolate cookie crust would be great. And since I completely forgot to add toffee to my shopping list I was forced to make my own.

Oh, the sacrifices we make!

After making THAT cheese cake I had to make something healthy and since it was chilly outside her

Winter Minestrone Soup

Minestrone is a thick soup of Italian origin made with vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice. Yep! That’s what this was. Full of celery, onions, toma…. well, here is her recipe.

Olive Oil
4 ounces Pancetta, ½ inch dice {I used regular bacon}
1 ½ C. Yellow Onion, diced
2 C. Diced Carrots
2 C. Dice Celery
2 ½ C. Diced and peeled butternut squash {I have never thought to put this in soup and we have tons from the garden.}
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoon Fresh Thyme leaves, chopped
26 ounce Canned or boxed chopped tomatoes
6 to 8 C. Chicken stock
1 Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 (15 ounce) can Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed {Nope – used crowder peas canned by an Aunt.}
2 C. Cooked small pasta, such as Tubetti or mini shells
8 to 10 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves
½ C. Dry white wine
4 Tablespoons pesto
1 parmesan rind
Freshly grated parmesan cheese, for serving
Browned chicken meat – altho Lisa didn’t call for this.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven. Add the pancetta and cook over medium-low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Add the onions, carrots, celery, squash, garlic, and thyme and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.
Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken stock, the bay leaf, 1 tablespoon salt, parmesan rind and 1 ½ teaspoons pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Discard the bay leaf. Add the beans and cooked pasta and heat through. The soup should be quite thick but if it’s too thick, add more chicken stock. Just before serving, reheat the soup, add the spinach, and toss. Cook just until the leaves are wilted. Stir in the white wine and pesto. Depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock, add another teaspoon or two of salt to taste.
I cannot describe how good this was. Hearty, filling, with some toasted whole grain bread. Perfect!!

And then I just had to try one of her Friday Nite Bites and the Pumpkin Empanadas caught my eye because I had just picked, peeled, baked, cubed a few small pumpkins.

I make empanadas, or hand pies, quite often. With fruit. With meat. With left over stew, etc. But I had never made them with pumpkin. With an Indian twist by adding garam masala. One of my favorite spice blends. Instead of serving the empanadas with the Cilantro Mint Chutney I made a Spicy Pumpkin Butter by adding some cayenne to some Pumpkin Butter I had made earlier. I liked the sweet/hot flavor. I think these would be great made with butternut squash or sweet potatoes. And maybe just a smidgeon more garam masala.

So many recipes with lots of time to try so many more. You HAVE to visit Lisa at Authentic Suburban Gourmet. Thanks for some great recipes, Lisa.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

{Tea Time} Butternut Squash Cake

I am trying to figure out why this particular cooking group has existed for the last 3 years and I had never found it. I mean really! TEA TIME TREATS!! As much as I love Tea and Scones! Well, I have now and this is my first post for this group.

Yes, I would like some tea, thank you!

The Challenge was VEGETABLES in a Tea Time Treats – either sweet or savory. This time of the year we are harvesting winter squash so it was perfect way to use some Butternut Squash in These Mini Butternut Squash and Cranberry Cakes.

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup WW flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
2 cups pureed butternut squash
2 cups sugar and 1 cup Splenda {or 3 cups sugar}
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries

You can use all AP flour, or use all sugar, or leave out the cranberries, or add in some nuts. It’s a very versatile recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine sugar, eggs, butternut, and applesauce.
Add dry ingredients slowly to the wet and mix just until all the dry is ingredients.
Stir in cranberries.
Baking Times:

Mini loaves and muffins – 20 to 25 minutes
Large loaf – 1 hour

Yield: 2 full loaves or 8 mini loaves and 6 muffins.
After cakes/muffins have cooled drizzle with Cinnamon Glaze.

1 cup (4 ounces) glazing or confectioners’ sugar
1 – 1 1.2 tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

The mini loaves, sliced, are just right for a sweet tea with a good cuppa.

Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen of Lavander and Lovage and Janie of The Hedge Combers This month the hostess is Karen so visit her Tea Time Page for all the wonderful Vegetable Tea Time Treats.