A lot of fancy chef people don’t like squash. I love it, mostly because I love to grow them. My favorite squash–the triamble or shamrock squash–yielded a pretty good crop of five or six big ones this fall. I noticed that I hadn’t been eating them, partially because they are so beautiful, partially because what the hell would I do with an entire squash? During this little stunt, I found that I can eat a whole squash quite easily.
1. Squash soup obviously. I made mine with rabbit stock, squash, a jar of tomatoes, and a bit of milk.
2. Baked squash. God, look how gorgeous this looks! A ramekin of ricotta is lurking in the background….
3. Gnocchi. Squash gnocchi? Yup. With just a couple cheat tablespoons of flour, these squash dumplings per Ms. MFK Fisher were weirdly outstanding. The recipe called for 2 cups baked squash, 2 eggs, 2 tbs flour, and a pinch of baking soda. I let this concoction drain overnight, then dunked full spoons of the goo into boiled salted water. Amazingly, they held together and bobbed up to the top. I let them cook for a bit longer before scooping them out with a slotted spoon. Served with pepper and parsley. Baby! Like little carb and protein pillows. Note that I doubt I would make this dish again. The texture was kind of bizarre. But when you’re starving….
P.S. How did everyone else’s turn out, if you got Triamble seeds from me? I’ve saved the seeds, let me know if you’d like a few for your garden and I’ll send some over. Just email me at novellacarpenter@gmail.com with your address….
The Urban Orchardist 