TARBORO —
My garden is beginning to fade away! It's hard to believe that summer is so close to being a memory. I'm not ready! But, one of the things that I love about the end of summer is harvesting my winter squash. This season we planted butternut squash. We vary what we plant each season.
One of the great things about winter squash is that it keeps for a very long time and it's delicious in many dishes. I hope you enjoy these recipes. Give them a try.
The first is a pasta dish. It's fantastic and so easy that you will wonder why you haven't made it before.
The second recipe is butternut squash that is pureed and served with goat cheese. I absolutely love goat cheese. It's one of my favorite things in the world. It's really good with this squash.
The third dish is soup. My brother-in-law says this feels grainy to him but he likes the flavor. I don't think it's grainy, I just think it has texture. Put some croutons on top of this and a dollop of Mexican Crema and it's yummy.
The next recipe is a dip. It's great with pita chips or even wavy potato chips. I also like it on bruschetta.
The last recipe is a basic roasted butternut squash. It's so simple and yet so tasty. Brown sugar and cinnamon make it a favorite of everyone.
Pasta Pan-Fried with Butternut Squash,
Fried Sage, and Pine Nuts
1 medium butternut squash
1 small sweet onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup fresh sage leaves
1 pound farfalle pasta
3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
4 ounces high quality Parmesan, shredded or shaved (about a cup total)
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the strings and seeds the middle cavity. Flip the squash halves upside down and peel them. (Note: The raw squash rind can irritate your hands. If they start to itch or tingle, wear gloves.) Cut the squash into 1-inch cubes. Toss with the onion, garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper. Mince about half of the fresh sage leaves and also toss with the squash.
Spread the squash mixture in a thin layer on a large baking sheet and roast for about 40 minutes or until the squash is soft.
Heat salted pasta water to boiling and cook the farfalle until al dente. Drain and set aside. As the squash finishes roasting, heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in a large high-sided sauté pan. The oil is ready when it pops and sputters. (Don't let it start smoking.) Drop in the rest of the sage leaves and fry for about a minute, or until they begin to just shrivel up.
Remove with a slotted spoon and salt lightly. Crush with the back of a spoon.
Add half the pasta to the pan, along with half the roasted squash mixture. Crumble in half the sage. Cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes or until the pasta is heated through and getting crispy on some of the edges. Add the pine nuts and cook for another minute. Stir in half the cheese and serve.
(Repeat the last step with the rest of the ingredients. We split it into two because none of our pans are big enough to accommodate the entire recipe. It's very important that you not crowd the pan too much - you want the pasta to really pan-fry, not just steam up.)
Roasted Butternut Squash Puree with Goat Cheese
2 pound butternut squash
1/4 cup torn sage leaves
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 ounce soft mild goat cheese
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Rub lightly with olive oil and put the sage leaves in each squash cavity. Rub in a bit of salt and pepper. Turn upside down in a pie pan and roast for about an hour or until very tender. Let cool for five minutes, then scoop out the flesh and puree with the goat cheese.
Cream of Winter Squash & Tomato Soup
1 small winter squash of your choice - pumpkin, butternut, hubbard, banana, etc. You should end up with about 6 cups of diced squash.
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
Salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
4 cups canned diced tomatoes
3 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Rub the cavities with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until the flesh is tender enough to scoop out. Remove from oven and let cool to a point where you can handle them.
Meanwhile in a large pot sauté the onion, garlic, and bay leaf in the olive oil. Scoop the squash from its shell, discarding the skin. Add the roasted squash flesh to the soup pot and sauté for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in the paprika. Add the tomatoes with their juices. Add the chicken broth. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Remove the bay leaves. Puree the contents of the pot and strain through a mesh sieve. Return to the pot and over low heat, stir in the cream. Gently simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with toasted bread.
Butternut Squash and Parmesan Dip
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 sprigs of fresh thyme, divided
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk or half and half
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub each half of the squash, inside and out, with a teaspoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place upside-down on a foil-lined baking sheet, with one sprig of thyme tucked into the cavity of each half. Roast for about 45 minutes, until a fork poked into the non-hollow end of the squash slides in easily. Remove and let cool just slightly.
Scoop out the flesh of the squash halves and add to the bowl of a food processor (you can also mash by hand with a potato masher or fork; it will just be a bit chunkier). Add 3/4 cup of the cheese, the leaves from the remaining thyme sprig, nutmeg, and salt. Pulse until blended, and then pour in the milk or half and half while the machine is running.
Transfer mixture to a small gratin dish (about 8 inches long) or a shallow pie plate. Sprinkle on the remaining 1/4 cup cheese and return to the oven for about 20 minutes.
After 15 minutes, turn on the broiler so that the top of the dip gets brown. Serve with crackers, toast, or pita chips.
Roasted Butternut Squash
2 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
4 teaspoons butter
4 teaspoons brown sugar
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place butternut squash halves on a large baking sheet flesh side up. Place 1 teaspoon butter in the middle of each squash. Sprinkle brown sugar over each squash.
Season with salt and black pepper. Roast 25 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender. Reserve 2 halves for future meal.
Karen's Kitchen
Related Photos
-
butternut squash puree
-
butternut squash soup.
Butternut Squash is easy and delish!
- Karen's Kitchen
-
-
Reductions add zip to flavor
When I cook, I often don't have a lot of time to spend making exotic meals, so I decided that I want to get more for less. In cooking that often means reductions. It’s amazing how the taste of something can change just by cooking it down until most of the liquid is gone. Reductions are so ridiculously easy that I often ask myself why I don’t use them more often. They also keep well in the refrigerator for several days.
When creating reductions, it’s important that the ingredients be good quality. Concentrating a flavor that was mediocre to begin with changes it from mediocre to terrible. That particularly applies to wines, oils and vinegars. Buy the best that you can afford and don’t use anything that you wouldn’t want to taste alone.
It’s also important to cook the reduction sauce moderately and until it reduces to a thick, syrupy consistency. It doesn’t take very long, but don’t be in a hurry or it will burn. -
Great Fondues
My husband and I love to entertain. We also love fondue. There is no more fun way to surprise guests with a great meal than to fondue. I have 4 or 5 fondue pots. I use them regularly.
There are several ways to fondue. You can make the dessert fondue and I have a great chocolate fondue recipe below. Another fondue option is to have a cheese fondue for a starter before the meal or at a party.
The last fondue option is to make the main course the fondue. With this option you can use either wine, a broth or oil for the fondue. I alternate usually between the broth and the oil. Sometimes I use peanut oil and sometimes I use canola oil. I don’t generally use vegetable oil because it has a lower smoke point.
The first recipe is my wine fondue. The important thing to remember is to use a good white wine. Never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t serve to guests. It doesn’t have to be expensive but it does have to be a table wine. You can play with the spices to find the taste that you like. -
How to Make Knock off Latte's and more...
One of my weaknesses is Starbuck's Grande latté with 3 packets of Splenda. However, I live in a small town, like Tarboro, that doesn't have a Starbucks and I'm a cheapskate and don't want to spend that kind of money on a regular basis. The answer to that is to learn to make your own. Obviously I am not the only one who has that I idea as I found recipes all over the internet. Many of the called for buying expensive equipment. If I have to do that, I might as well drive to Starbucks. So, these recipes don't require anything except blenders and pots. In a few cases they require a little patience. Find me on Facebook and let me know what you think!
-
Soup's On
Even though the weather has been very warm lately, it will be cold again soon. When the cold comes back, it will be soup time. Of course, any time can be soup time! We love soup around our house.
Our first recipe is ham and potato soup. It's a simple soup but will smell good and taste even better.
The second soup is my all-time favorite - French Onion. I love it with a good gooey cheese on top. It's not a hard soup to make, so give it a try.
The third is potato and cheddar. That's a hardy soup but will become one of your favorites. It also has ham so it's almost the same as the first soup but with cheddar cheese.
The last soup is a leftover or potluck soup with pasta in it. This recipe makes 20 servings so you will have some to freeze or share!
When winter rolls back around, enjoy the cold with one of these soups. -
Craving Comfort
Comfort food is different for everybody, but the deep satisfaction each mouthful brings is the same. To warm the body and the soul on a chilly day, give your favorite comfort foods a delicious makeover with recipes that use Wisconsin-made Grand Cru Gruyere cheese. Gruyere is a great melting cheese with lots of flavor, which means you get more flavor in every bite.
-
Crockpot Sweet Things
If you stay busy, your crockpot can be your best friend. Even for dessert. These recipes take 2-3 hours to cook in your crockpot, so they can be cooking away while you are enjoying little league games or t-ball.
-
Cooking with Rum
A few weeks ago, a colleague went to Jamaica. He came back with bottles of Rum for our team. A very nice gesture and of course that made me start looking for rum recipes! There are a lot of them out there. Here are a few that I really liked and that I think you will enjoy too.
-
Bounty of the Sear
I'm currently working in Charleston. Probably until about the end of November. Of course that means great seafood. I can go down and buy it within a few hours of it coming off the boats. I love it! There is absolutely nothing that I love more than good seafood. Besides, I need the Omega 3's that come from eating seafood. So do you!
-
Butternut Squash is easy and delish!
My garden is beginning to fade away! It's hard to believe that summer is so close to being a memory. I'm not ready! But, one of the things that I love about the end of summer is harvesting my winter squash. This season we planted butternut squash. We vary what we plant each season.
-
Cool Summer Drinks
It has been sooo hot! I guess that we are paying for the mild winter that we had. I know I felt that heat here in Charleston, where I'm working right now. So, when it feels like 110 in the shade, it's a great time to cool down with icy cold and delicious summer drinks. Especially since you can find fresh fruit to go in them right now!
- More Karen's Kitchen Headlines
-
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash
NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital
Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Could Tobacco Be the Next Biofuel?
Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Officials: Texas Tornado Likely Had 200 Mph Wind
Brothers Arrested in NOLA Parade Shooting
