Butter nuts

It is the season for winter squash. Acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash are abundant and cheap right now and you can make them into just about anything.
That said, I hate squash, hate hate hate it. Now I have nothing against it, I really want to like it, because it's abundant, cheap and can be made into just about anything but the flavors have never really been my favorite. I can enjoy a butternut squash soup now and again, but generally I stay away from it.

Last week I decided that with my new found love of roasting all vegetables, I had to give them a second chance. It only cost me about $1 anyway. The roasting process itself is fairly self explanatory, but I admit I had no idea how to actually prepare one for cooking.

So here is a photo exploration of preparing the most phallic of all vegetables for roasting, the butternut squash.

Cut off the top and bottom so it will stand
Olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.

425 F for about 30 min or until crispy.

Verdict: This was okay, a lot better than squash I've had in the past. I'm sure actual squash lovers would enjoy it a lot more than I did. It actually was nice leftover, served with huevos rancheros as kind of of a pseudo plantain (another thing I don't like).
I need to find another squash recipe though, I bought 2 of the damn things and it's sitting in my pantry staring at me, imploring at me to use it before it goes bad.

Couscous Pie

This is the ultimate flexible leftover-user recipe. I adapted this from a polenta pie I made several weeks ago, substituting whatever I had in my fridge or my pantry.

Begin by cooking your couscous so it will have a chance to cool, approx a 1:1 ratio of couscous to water or flavorful liquid (I used chicken broth). Let cool and then dish into a pie pan. Form it up as best you can into something like a pie crust. I didn't get too fussy with this step, but I did try to compress it as much as I could so it would stay together. I put the crust into a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes before I put in the ingredients, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

Saute your ingredients before they go into the pie, to mix their flavors and soften them up. I went with Onions and Kale, and after they had softened up I added a can of tomatoes (Better than fresh this time of year), black beans, garlic, green beans, and some assorted seasoning. Feel free to use whatever you want, just try to keep it relatively dry or it will saturate the bottom layer of couscous.

Take your crust out of the oven and fill with ingredients.. but not too full. At this point you can either bake it as is, or cobble together some sort of pseudo couscous crust. I chose the latter, and I'm really glad I did.

Bake at 400, for about 30 minutes, or until the couscous on top starts to brown.
It's not going to hold together very well, but that doesn't matter.. just scrape it out as best you can and top it preferably with some decent parmigiano reggiano, but any sort of strong cheese would do.. it really brings the flavors together. The couscous on top should be crispy and delicious, and the "crust" should hold together fairly well.

This recipe works even better with cornmeal or polenta, so use it if you have it.

Cooking time start to finish. About an hour, with 30 minutes of that being in the oven.

The story of an impusive buy

Self control is not one of my strengths, especially when it comes to new cooking toys. I own a rice cooker, a digital scale, 2(!) sets of measuring spoons, an immersion blender, hand mixer, a George Foreman grill... even a magic bullet blender! So what do you think I did is when I spotted a brand new toy for the very reasonable cost of $39 at a local housewares store?

Why i brought it home of course.

The only down side to this particular impulsive buy is that I can't immediately go home and start playing with it, I had to let the bucket freeze overnight. That night I dreamed of the many delicious flavors I would concoct.. Strawberry, Chocolate, Strawberry Chocolate!, Coffee, mint chip...bacon? chicken? chicken and bacon topped with gravy ice cream? who knows where this could take me.

My ice cream creations will be a terrible hybrid of art and science, half Bob Ross, half Dr. Frankenstein. Soon my creations will be unleashed upon the world... and I'll blog about it.

Epic Fail

My cooking failures are far more interesting than my successes. They will be posted in due time.

I wish I could take credit for this

Roasted Vegetables

It's recently come to my attention that I have at least one more person reading this blog than I had previously thought. Welcome... I think this brings the total to a half dozen at least, I'll try not to disappoint. I will also put forth exactly 4.5% more effort into each post, starting tomorrow.

I have a real passion for food literature, and recently there have been an abundance of very good books about food. My obsession started with Michael Pollan's "The omnivore's dilemma", and continued on to his other books, as well as whatever else I can get my hands on. (recommendations anybody?) In fact, I've gotten to the point where the cooking section of my book collection rivals the science, and politics sections. In addition to being a pain in the ass to pack up whenever I move, these books have a real impact on what I cook.

The most positive impact has probably come from the aformentioned Omnivore's dilemma, an excellent book even if you're not that in to cooking. Everybody eats, and I think that everyone should become more aware of what is going on behind the scenes of big agriculture, and big grocery. The book is a bit of a slow burn, with the first section dealing very excluslivly with corn and soy, the two big crops of this country, but it quickly ties it back in to our whole food system. It's quite eye opening to know just how much corn and soy product go into the food that you eat every day. Michael Pollan boils the book down to the slogan "eat food, not too much, mostly plants". During the summer I tried to follow these simple instructions, and for a time I suceeded. An abundance of fresh ingredients in the summer makes this a lot easier than in the winter, when much of the fresh produce in the stores is of lower quality, or is shipped from very far away. Winter makes most of us crave warm, starchy comfort food as well, making it even harder.

I recently picked up Mark Bittman's new book "Food Matters - A guide to conscious eating", and I think it's convinced me to give the idea another go. His philosophy is the same basic one as Pollan's, without the catchprase. Basically it's an elmination of most of the processed foods, refined sugars and starches in your day to day diet. Now I've never been big on the processed food anyway, but I'm an absolute fiend for pasta and bread, especially considering I make so much of it myself. Now this isn't a "diet", or any sort of deprivation based food plan, just a gradual shift to making plants the main focus of more dishes. One of my newest loves is roasting vegetables; roasting a piece of broccoli or a parsnip or other hearty vegetable at a high heat will caramalize the exterior and give it a flavor and texture that you will never get with the more traditional preparation methods of steaming or (ick) boiling vegetables.

Here are two roasted vegetables which I used as the main component of the dish.

Broccoli

Preparation method:

• 1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
  
• Take 1-2 lbs of broccoli and cut into large florets. Make sure broccoli is dry or it won't roast correctly. I didn't even wash mine because I figured the heat would kill anything bad.
• Toss broccoli with a few tbs olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and chopped garlic.
  
• Place broccoli on lined cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until it starts to crisp on the outside. I shook the pan once or twice to flip the florets, but I'm not sure it's strictly necessary. Broccoli will crisp and darken.
  
• When broccoli is done, sprinkle a little more olive oil, the zest of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and the juice of 1 lemon over the broccoli. You can also add roasted pine nuts as pictured above. This last step isn't strictly necessary, I made this twice, the 2nd time without the cheese or lemon and it was still very good, but the lemon does give it a nice flavor.
  

Brussel sprouts

Preparation method:

• Preheat oven to 425 F.
• In a bowl toss sprouts with several tablespoons of olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Mix to coat the exteriors of the sprouts.
  
• Lay out sprouts on a cookie sheet.
• Roast for 35-40 minutes, occasionally shaking cookie sheet to turn over sprouts. I had mine in for about 40 and they were a little overdone. Exteriors should look brown and crunchy, almost burnt, and the interiors should be hot and steamy, but not mushy. Pull one out at 35 minutes and cut into it if you're not sure.
  

Now I've always loved broccoli, but this was unlike any broccoli I've ever had.. crispy, salty, and very delicious it can easily be the main event in a dish. I've never really liked sprouts, but roasting them gives them a wonderful buttery, crispy outer layer, and a creamy interior (the interior of the sprout steams using its own liquid). I served this along side some sauteed cumin and paprika shrimp for a perfect light meal.

Cavatappi with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans

Dinner in a box:

So having finished season 4 of Dr. Who, and being all caught up on Lost I've been watching season 1 of top chef. I've never really watched any cooking shows, but I find it interesting to see the beautiful food they prepare by just varying the theme of a classic, or basic dish. Most of their dishes seem to have a main focus, with variations on that theme, and then garnishes that play off those flavors. They know how to use their ingredients to full effect, and to really bring out all the flavor. The true test of a cook is when you can make a good dish with what ingredients you have on hand, rather than having to go out and buy specialty ingredients for everything you make. It's the difference between following a recipe, and instinctively knowing what goes with what.

So in that spirit I give you cavatappi with sun-dried tomatoes and Canellini Beans. This is a great weekday dish, everything comes from a jar, a box, or a pantry staple, yet it still manages to taste fresh and surprisingly substantial. It's a great way to avoid too-salty jarred pasta sauces, and could be varied in many ways. It also fulfills my vegetarian recipe promise.

Ingredients:

1 Box Cavatappi pasta - This could be substituted for any other substiantial pasta, but don't try with spagetti. I'll probably try whole-grain penne next time, but the Cavatappi is awesome if you can find it.

1 8oz Jar of sun dried tomatoes - find them pre-julinenned if you want to save yourself the trouble of cutting them yourself. I had to go to byerly's to find the cavatappi and tomatos.

1 Can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans), widely available... and no, the're not pictured above.

Olive oil
Red pepper flakes
Garlic

• 1. Start boiling the pasta until it is al dente. (tip, for great pasta use lots of salt in the water)
  
• 2. In a large skillet add 2 tbsp olive oil, and 2 tbsp of oil from the sun dried tomato jar. Add 4 large sliced cloves of garlic, and brown garlic for approx. 1 minute. Add 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes and let toast for another 30 seconds.
• 3. Add the sun dried tomatoes, which you've drained and cut into thin strips. Spread them out and let them toast for a minute or two, and then ladle in 1 cup of the pasta water. Simmer until the liquid reduces by half.
• 4. When liquid is reduced add 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed. In addition add salt (unless you salted your pasta water), and 1 1/2 cups more pasta water. Bring water to a slow boil and simmer for 4 or 5 minutes, or until you think you'll end up with a pasta sauce, and not a pasta soup. The pasta will absorb some of the water.

• 5. Once your pasta is al dente, drain it and add to the skillet. Stir around to cover in the sauce, most of the liquid sitting at the bottom should disappear.
  
• Add half a cup of your favorite cheese (I used parmigiano reggiano), and if you wish, garnish with fresh parsley or a herb of your choice. I had left over cilantro so I used that.

This recipe makes a lot of food if you make the whole box, so feel free to half the recipe if you don't want that much food, or don't have a skillet big enough to hold a whole box of pasta. I used a 12" non-stick. Top-chef material it is not, but I still think you will enjoy it. Stephen on that show is a total douche bag anyway, don't be like him.. make this for dinner.

Until next time.
Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands, and an infinite scorn in our hearts

Grapevine