The world of squashes is a beautiful place, filled with succulent vegetables in all shapes and sizes, a plethora of greens and yellows and oranges, striped and mottled, round, fat, skinny, scalloped, pear-shaped ... ohh ... *so* good!
Yes, I bought some squash last week :) Acorn this time. Well, I got some zucchini and yellow squashes too, but that's it! And this is the story of an acorn squash that got made into this fabulous ... squashed squash?!!
So, did you know that the terms "summer" and "winter" for squashes only relate to current usage and not seasonal availability? Summer types are on the market during all of winter, winter squashes are on the market in late summer/fall. So why confuse us with non-seasonal seasonal terminology? Just because the terms summer and winter relate more to how long the squashes could "keep" - if the squashes were hardy enough to last well into december, they came to be known as winter vegetables.
Anyway, back to the acorn squash - we wanted a simple side to go with maybe some flatbread or rotis. And an acorn was waiting to be used up! This is one of the easily microwaveable/bakeable squashes - about 8 minutes and it is uniformly cooked. And it isn't too hard to scoop the meat out. We went for a strong garlic flavour with a touch of sugar to cut off the mildly bitter aftertaste that the squash seemed to have - it worked really well!
With a sweet garlic aftertaste!
Servings:2
1 acorn squash
4 cloves garlic - chopped
1 t thyme
1 t muscovado sugar
2 t olive oil
salt
1 t cayenne pepper
Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Rub the inside of the squash with 1 t olive oil and the thyme.
Place the squash halves flat face down in a bowl containing water about 1" deep and microwave for 8-9 minutes.
If the insides are not uniformly softened and cooked, microwave for another 1-2 minutes.
Heat 1 t of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the garlic till you can smell it ... *drool*!
Add the squash meat along with the sugar and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt and cayenne and saute for another 1-2 minutes.
That's it!
Good?
*nod* Surprisingly good! The garlic+sweet flavours kicked ass!
Thanks, Namratha for reminding me about sending this to Fresh Produce of the Month hosted by Marta - this month's theme is squash.
6 comments:
Learned something new about the summer-winter terminology today! I thought it was based on seasonal availability too.
The write on the non-seasonal terminology was an eye opener for me Kay, I thought these squashes were the seasonal kind!! The dish looks good.
Oh you should send this in to Marta for the "Fresh Produce of the Month: Squashes"
http://italianintheus.blogspot.com/2008/01/fresh-produce-of-month-6-roundup-and.html
Thanks, Namratha! Just sent it to Marta :)
Thank you so much! This is perfect for the event, and it looks simple and delicious!!
I have an acorn squash at home, and I've been wondering what I'm going to do with it! I think this is it!
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