Things to do with butternut squash

Ever since we joined a CSA, I've been coming up with ways to use up the plethora of veggies we get each week. Everything we get is fresh from the soil and tastes wonderful.

Butternut squash, when we started getting it, baffled me a bit. My handy copy of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone recommended cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, then brushing it with olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Lay it on a cookie sheet, cut side down, and bake at 350F for 30 minutes, until soft. While this was a great introduction to its fleshy sweetness, I wanted to see what else I could do with it.

I next tried slicing it into disks, then layering it with potatoes and tomatoes, also cut into disks, drizzling the pan with olive oil and herbs, then roasting at 375F for 30 minutes. The advantage of this preparation was its versatility; it yielded a curry and an omelet as well. I didn't cook the potatoes quite long enough, though.

For my latest attempt I riffed off my previous salmorejo recipe, omitting the bread:

1 butternut squash, peeled, cleaned and diced

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup water

herbs to taste

1/2 lb. (~9) cherry tomatoes

1-2 T balsamic vinegar

Heat olive oil over medium heat in bottom of 2-quart pot; add garlic. Saute 30 seconds, then add squash. Stir, then cover until steaming; mix in herbs. Mix in cherry tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Pour mixture into blender and add balsamic vinegar. Puree until smooth. Return to heat and correct the seasoning. Serve hot.

French bread, with variations

Ever since Paul got a bread machine for his birthday, we've been experimenting with different kinds of bread. Lately we've had a penchant for a really easy French bread recipe that lends itself to many variations. It's crusty on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside, just the way they should be. It's not as flavorful as the ones in France, yet.

Basic recipe:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup water
1 t salt
1 1/2 t yeast
Grease bread maker with Pam. Add water first, then flour and salt, and finally yeast. Set bread machine to 'dough' setting. When the machine beeps, remove dough (it's fine to leave it in there for a few hours) and form into desired shape (e.g. a baguette). Let rest on a baking pan for 30-40 minutes. Bake in 410F oven for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy the crackle.

I've added garlic powder (around a tablespoon) to the dry ingredients, and Paul's added cubed cheese and minced garlic to the shaped dough with excellent results. Next time I'm going to add some herbs to the dough along with the garlic powder.

To fill a baguette, split a line down the middle and stuff the crease with minced garlic, then cheese. Bring the sides back together above the filling to close the crease. Bake as usual, positioning the crease at the top of the baguette. This way, as the dough expands and the crease reopens, the cheese melts and spreads across the top of the baguette, and browns to a slight crispiness. A side benefit of this is that the garlic roasts and becomes buttery. We've been eating all this with glasses of Pizza Port's Sunny Bumber ale, a bright, golden summer ale that's easy to drink, quite refreshing, and gently wheaty.

Vegetarian fish, two ways

One reason why I'm a flexitarian instead of a vegetarian is that I don't want to give up the chance to try native dishes that use animal products. I'm also not ready to completely forgo the fruits of the ocean--after all, seafood has always been one of my favorite foods.

My first experience with vegetarian seafood was terrible. When I was in college, a vegetarian friend and I discovered a place that was exclusively vegetarian, and served mock seafood alongside the usual mock ham, chicken, and beef. Intrigued by this, I ordered the vegetarian honey walnut shrimp. While the candied walnuts were wonderful, the shrimp was entirely flavorless, rubbery, and most definitely an unacceptable substitute. This made me wary of vegetarian seafood options until I tried some of Vegefarm's products.

Vegefarm makes a wide array of vegetarian meat substitutes of usually good quality. I've tried their salmon filet, shrimp, and cod filet. Remarkably, the filet had the texture of just-cooked salmon, yet none of the fishiness that people commonly dislike. I, however, love tasting the ocean in my seafood. The cod filet was decidedly more fishy, whereas the shrimp had flavor and a firmer texture, with more of the toothfeel that you would expect from actual shrimp.

Now for the recipes!
The first one, vegetarian salmon in a wine reduction sauce, was inspired by our trip through Western Europe. After enjoying many fine Spanish and French wines, we decided to use up the half-drunk bottles of wine that we had opened before our trip. They had been sitting in my refrigerator for about a month, and surprisingly were still usable, if not in prime condition.

1 salmon steak filet (about 6 ounces)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, cut in half and sliced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup red wine
1-3 tsp flour (optional)

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1 tsp olive oil. When hot, saute garlic until fragrant, about 30 sec. Add onion and saute until transparent. Add zucchini and tomatoes and cook until zucchini become translucent. Turn heat to medium-low and add red wine. Add flour to thicken sauce, if desired. Place salmon filet over vegetables and cover pan. Cook for 10 minutes, or until filet is heated through. Serve vegetables on top of filet.

After joining a CSA, we have the convenient problem of using up the vegetables we get every week. In a bid to clear space in the fridge for next week's vegetables, we baked some cod filets over a mirepoix of leeks, celery, and carrot.

6 cod filets, each about the size of a deck of cards
olive oil (about a tablespoon)
vinegar (about a teaspoon)
herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary, oregano)
salt and pepper
1 medium carrot or 2 small carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch sticks
1-2 stalks celery, cut horizontally into crescents
1 leek, cut into disks
3-5 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix olive oil, vinegar, and some of the seasonings together and brush a pan lightly with the mixture. Place veggies in the pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast veggies in the oven for about 10 minutes. Brush cod filets with remaining olive oil mixture and place on top of veggies. Roast until cod filets are heated through and carrots are soft, about 10-15 minutes. Let rest a minute before eating. Serve filets on top of a bed of veggies.

Passover potato gnocchi

Believe it or not, it's possible to make great kosher for Passover gnocchi. It takes a while to boil the potatoes and stir the dough together (all in all, it took around two hours), but the results are worth it. We modified a recipe from ChefKosher.com and ate it with homemade pesto and steamed asparagus.

Gnocchi
3 potatoes (approximately 1.5 pounds), quartered
2 cups (12 oz.) potato starch
2 cups matzah meal (make it in a food processor--takes around 6 matzah)
Salt
Potato water (use the water in which the potatoes were boiled)

Place quartered potatoes in a dutch oven or similarly large pot. Cover them completely with water. Boil until potatoes are fork tender. While potatoes are boiling, combine matzah meal and potato starch. When potatoes are done, remove skins (you can make crispy potato skins in the oven with these). Mash potatoes until no lumps are left. Add matzah mixture to potatoes 1/4 cup at a time, incorporating well before adding the next 1/4 cup. Add potato water by the spoonful as necessary to create a smooth dough that isn't sticky. It should resemble firm mashed potatoes. Don't let it get creamy. Let the dough rest for 90 minutes (all the starches need to tie together). Roll dough into snakes, cut into one-inch lengths, and smash each piece slightly with a fork. When ready to cook, bring a pot of salted water (1 tsp salt per cup) to a rolling boil. Drop gnocchi into water and wait for them to float. Pick off the floaters with a slotted spoon, let drain, and serve with sauce.

Pesto
1-3 cloves garlic
Sweet basil (six or so leafy stems)
Rosemary (one to three stems)
Dried herbs
1/4-1/2 cup Hard, gratable cheeses (parmesan, romano, asiago, etc.)
Some handfuls of walnuts
Extra-virgin olive oil

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender (food processor is MUCH easier to clean afterwards). Aim for a cohesive paste.

Potato skins
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Lay out potato skins on sheet so that they don't overlap. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, herbs, and cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes until cheese melts and becomes a little crispy.

Warmer weather and sangria

Now that spring's finally here, strawberries are back in season with a bang. I took advantage of the grocery store's strawberry sale and bought two pounds.
Meanwhile, Paul and I have been gearing up for our Europe trip by trying different wines about three or four times a week. This usually results in a half-drunk bottle of wine sitting in the refrigerator, asking for some attention. What to do with all this fruit and wine? Make sangria, of course!

Sangria's I've had range from the cloyingly sweet to the delightfully fruity to the dryer than a martini. I tend to prefer red wine sangrias over white wine sangrias because of their body, but the last time I tried making one, I used a white zinfandel. I figured that fruity rose wine would lend itself well to a sangria, and I was not disappointed this time.

My basic sangria recipe:

1 bottle wine
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
2 oranges, sliced
1 lb strawberries, sliced
2 apples, sliced
fizzy water or soda, if needed
Large pitcher

Wash all the fruit thoroughly. Remove bruised or mushy parts. Boil 2 cups water in a 2-quart saucepan. Add sugar and stir until clear. Add sliced fruit and simmer for 2-5 minutes, until fragrant. Let cool. Empty bottle of wine into a pitcher and add fruit mixture. Stir thoroughly. Chill until cold. Serve over ice cubes with a sprig of mint and a splash of fizzy water or soda.

I haven't tried many variations yet. Some ideas I have are to add some mint or cinnamon to the sugar syrup step, use rose water, halve the sugar syrup amount and replace it with fizzy water or soda, and try steeping the fruit in the wine without sugar syrup.

Gyoza + Pierogi == Gyogi

In a fit of laziness the day after cooking class, Paul and I decided to try making the pierogi filling recipe with gyoza wrappers instead of handmaking pierogi dough. Not that pierogi dough isn't worth making, but more that we wanted to save time.

Gyoza wrappers really are quite brilliant. You can fill them with just about anything, and cooking them is as simple as boiling them in a pot of water or steaming them in a pan. For the record, won ton wrappers are the same dough, just cut into squares instead of circles.

The first incarnation of the gyogi follows.

1-2 packages gyoza wrappers, defrosted

Filling:
1 cup sauerkraut, well drained and washed
1/2 to 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup sour cream (vegan sour cream works perfectly fine)
1 tsp sugar or a dash of Angostura bitters
herbs to taste (basil, oregano, thyme, etc.)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan (non-stick cooking spray also works). Saute mushrooms until tender. Add sauerkraut and stir until heated through. Lower heat to medium-low and add sour cream, sugar (or bitters) and herbs. Stir until heated through. Sour cream should be bubbling around the edges. Correct the seasoning, remove from heat, and let cool.

When filling is cool enough to handle, begin filling gyoza wrappers.
To fill:
Peel off a wrapper from the stack. Wet your finger with some cold water and trace the edge of the gyoza wrapper. Place approximately 2 tsp of filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold one side of the wrapper to the other like a taco and press firmly. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal. Proceed until desired number of gyogi are made or until you're sick of making more.

I like to cook my gyogi two different ways. If making soup, just have a boiling pot of water or stock ready and dump them in after you're done folding all of them. They're done when they float to the top, which takes perhaps two minutes. Pan-frying and then steaming them takes about five minutes from start to finish per batch. First, find a pan with a cover. Heat it (nonstick is MUCH easier to clean afterwards) over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil to the pan (nonstick cooking spray will also work, but the gyogi tend to stick more with less oil in the pan). Arrange as many gyogi in the pan as will fit without them touching each other. Pan-fry until the bottoms are golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add 1/3 cup water to the pan and immediately cover. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook until all the water is evaporated. Serve hot.