Spicy Sweet Sauteed Butternut Squash

The farm share has blown up.

Boring greens are now squashes, eggplants, loads of peppers, heirloom tomatoes, tiny onions, a tiny pumpkin, tiny yellow tomatoes. We're in the rabbit hole now people.

Last night I couldn't sleep and decided to figure out what to do with our overfull and eclectic fridge collection.

After 3 hours of sleeplessness, I figured out what to do with the Butternut Squash.


Ingredients:
(you should know all of these measurements are a rough estimation of mad pouring and tasting as I like to experiment as i go. There's never any real forethought. Just a vague idea and then ensuing chaos. so taste as you go)



1 Butternut Squash
3 T brown sugar
1 T butter
salt
pepper
1 T all spice
2 T cup raisins
2 T walnuts
1/3 C brandy
1 tsp cayenne pepper (i like spicy and sweet together. totally optional, but makes for an interesting dish)

Chop the squash into quarters. Peel off the skin (i did this roughly just with the kitchen knife. probably is a better way but this worked fine). Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut the squash into one inch cubes.

heat skillet on medium heat. Add brown sugar and heat until it begins to melt. Add butter. Stir and let brown sugar melt, about 30 seconds. Add squash, coat with mixture.

Add everything else. Turn up heat to high, cook for 1-2 minutes. Add brandy.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stirring every 5-10 minutes. You want your brandy to cook off when you're finished. If it gets too dry add a splash to keep it from burning.

Taste it, make sure it's seasoned correctly and the squash is tender. At this point mine was a little bland. I added a little more brown sugar and all spice, then raised the heat to high and cooked it for a minute or two. Just to incorporated the new flavors and caramelize the sugar.

We ate this with pan seared pork chops with a marmalade glaze. And sauteed kale with soy sauce, lemon zest, lemon juice, sesame seeds, a little garlic and vermouth. I wanted a bitter dish to compliment the sweet and this worked really well. Eating a bite of bitter kale, then switching to the sweet squash made all the flavors come out.