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.

Thai Pumpkin Soup a la Nicky

What is good for cold weather and using up farm share veggies? SOUP! Especially applicable if it involves pumpkin and a little bit of heat from a chili. (Don't worry English family, the heat part is optional.) Enjoy!

* 1 tablespoon oil (I used a combo of olive and safflower)
* 3 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
* 1 small bunch of green onions, chopped
* 1 large leek, chopped
* 1 small fresh red chili pepper, chopped into small pieces (optional)
* 1 small piece of chopped ginger
* 1.5 tablespoons of lemon grass paste (they have this in the fresh herb part of the vegetable section at the grocery store)
* 32 oz cups chicken stock
* 2 cans of light coconut milk
* 2 small peeled and diced pie pumpkins; OR 1 small pumpkin and 1 package of frozen pureed winter squash (from the frozen veggie freezer section); OR 2-3 packages of frozen pureed winter squash
* 1 peeled and diced eggplant
* 2 tbsp red curry paste, or more to taste (in the Asian food section)

Set aside a small bowl with your chopped eggplant and salt lightly.

In a soup pot, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Once warm, add garlic, green onion and leeks, ginger, chili pepper, lemongrass and red curry pastes in oil until onions and leeks are soft and fragrant. Add a little salt and pepper. Rinse the salt off the eggplant and then add it and all other ingredients left to the leek mixture. Stir well, bring to a boil and then turn down to medium, cover and cook until pumpkin softens, stirring occasionally.

Take your soup off of the heat, and taste test; add more salt, pepper, red curry paste and lemongrass paste to taste. Once your soup has cooled somewhat, using a blender or immersion blender, blend the soup in batches to your preferred consistency, whatever you prefer.

Kohlrabi, Cauliflower and Cheese Soup

Another excellent recipe for cooler temperatures. This one sticks to your ribs :) We had a bunch of large kohlrabi in our farm share, but this recipe would work equally well with a head of broccoli instead.

Ingredients
1/4 cup of butter salted
1/4 cup of flour
4 cups shredded sharp cheddar
Head of cauliflower
1 large kohlrabi or 1 head of broccoli
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
3/4 cups of milk
Chopped green onions to taste (white and green bits)
White pepper to taste
Mustard powder to taste
Salt to taste

Chop vegetable into bite-size or smaller pieces. Put broccoli or kohlrabi and cauliflower in to steam; cook until fork-in tender. In a separate saucepan, combine your flour and butter over medium heat. Stir constantly while butter melts until the mixture is caramel-colored and smooth to make your roux. When it reaches this state, throw in green onions and cook for 30 seconds, continuing to stir. Turn down the heat to medium-low and slowly stir in your milk, working it into the roux as you add it until smoothly combined. Add the stock slowly in the same way. Pour in the cheddar cheese and stir until it is evenly melted. Now add your spices to taste. Keep soup on medium-low heat. It's important to keep your soup from the boling point or from burning so keep stirring! Take 1/2 of your cooked broccoli and cauliflower and puree in the blender. Add the puree and the rest of your cooked veggies to your soup. Stir to combine and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until it thickens up. Serve and enjoy!