Maple Roasted Delicata Squash with Rosemary

Fall is here!! Anyone who reads my blog knows this is my most beloved time of the year. I'm slowly checking off my autumn bucket list. On my hopeful agenda this week and weekend is pumpkin picking, visiting a cider mill and maybe some apple picking too! 

Also on my list is stuffing my face with as many different varieties of winter squash as humanly possible. There are so many different varieties, each of them with different flavors and textures, and all of them are rapidly making their appearance at local markets. Amazingly I've never had a delicata squash before! This is a fail on my part, because it's delicious. Technically in the same species as summer squash, it has the texture and flavor of winter squash but with an edible skin that's both beautiful and tasty.

This dish is so simple, yet it would make an impressive side dish for any autumn dinner party, especially Thanksgiving. Sweet, savory, and creamy with a hint of maple and earthiness from the rosemary. Please promise you'll use 100% pure maple syrup in this. And if possible, definitely use the bacon fat instead of olive oil. You DO save your bacon fat, right...?

Maple Roasted Delicata Squash with Rosemary
(makes 2-4 side servings)

1 medium-large delicata squash, or about 1.5-2lbs

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup melted bacon fat, or olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary, divided

ground black pepper, to taste

1. Wash the squash well. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or nonstick foil.

2. Slice in half vertically and scoop out all the seeds. Slice each half into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and place in a bowl. Add the maple syrup, bacon fat or olive oil, salt, half of the rosemary and some fresh black pepper. Toss until all the squash is well coated. Spread the squash in one layer onto the prepared baking sheet. 

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning and tossing carefully 2 or 3 times, until brown and caramelized in places. Sprinkle with the remaining rosemary and additional salt, if needed. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

It's been awhile. Not that I haven't been cooking, I just haven't done much in the way of photographing what I cook. I fell off the regular blog updating wagon after a major snowstorm in October that knocked out power to parts of my state for over a week and cancelled/postponed Halloween. Then stupid daylight savings time kicked in. Curses! It gets dark around 4:30 in the afternoon which doesn't give me much available light.

Guess it's time to break out the artificial lighting and beat the ol' seasonal affective disorder in the process. I hope to update with a few seasonal yummies soon, but in the meantime these are one of my favorite recipes for super flaky, cheesy, scrumptious biscuits. 

I love making biscuits because they're so easy to throw together, but satisfying like a warm loaf of bread. These are great as a holiday side or just to whip up beside a nice bowl of soup on a chilly evening. The key is to not overwork the dough. Fold/knead the dough only until it just holds together in a solid mass, and hold yourself back from adding extra liquid unless totally necessary.

 

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

Makes 6-8 biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp sugar 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup very cold butter, cubed

1/2 cup high quality sharp cheddar, shredded

3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers (alternatively, you can use a food processor if you have one) cut in the butter until a coarse meal forms. Add the cheese and toss to incorporate. Stir in the buttermilk slowly, just until all the flour is moistened and the crumbs hold together if you pinch a bit between your fingers. You may use less than the 3/4 cup of buttermilk to achieve this.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead by folding the mixture over itself in half and flattening. Repeat 5-10 times, or until it holds together in a fairly solid mass. Pat into a 1 inch thick round and cut into biscuits using a 2 to 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Any excess dough can be folded back together and cut into additional biscuits. Place biscuits about 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 14-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Best eaten fresh and warm with a good schmear of butter!

Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

 

I live in New England. By now autumn should have been in full swing for weeks. But noooo, just last week it was 80 and humid and it feels like it has been raining for weeks. What's up with that?!

It's still raining, but that cool fall air has finally arrived! This is the time of year where a special kind of madness takes me over. My brain can't focus on anything but apple picking, choosing pumpkins, going to fairs, decorating for Halloween, and, of course, cooking and baking fall goodies!

I like to blame my urge to create deliciously rich and sinful meals and treats during the autumn months on necessity. I need all of those cookies and stews to fatten up to survive the long, freezing cold winter, you know. Winter is coming. What? Don't look at me like that…

Good news is this recipe for a baked pumpkin from Dorie Greenspan can be adapted to be as hearty and rich, or light and healthy as you like. The possibilities are virtually endless. I chose to stuff mine with all sorts of fall produce, but you could just as easily make a pumpkin full of brown rice, green veggies and go light on the cheese.

Whatever you do, you will be satisfied... especially if the sight of a whole roasted pumpkin overflowing with yumminess evokes a sense of autumn magic for you like it did for me!

Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

Makes 2-4 Servings

1 small sugar pumpkin, about 3 pounds

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp butter

1/4 lb stale bread, cut or torn into 1/2 inch chunks

1/4 lb Gruyere, or other melty cheese, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained and chopped

1 small apple, peeled, cored and chopped 

2 large handfuls fresh spinach

1/4 cup snipped fresh chives

 1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme

1/3 cup cream or whole milk

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet or small dutch oven with parchment. Cut away the cap of the pumpkin around the stem. Reach in and scoop out all of the seeds (reserving for toasted pumpkin seeds if you like) and stringy bits. Clean up the underside of the cap as well. Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, place on prepared baking sheet and set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally,  until they turn a rich golden color, about 20-30 minutes. Scrape out into a large bowl and add the spinach to the warm pan with a few drops of water, cooking just until wilted, 1-2 minutes. Add to the bowl with the onions.

3. Add the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, apple, chives, and thyme to the bowl with the onions and spinach. Toss well to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Pack the mix into the prepared pumpkin. Stir the nutmeg into the milk/cream and pour over the stuffing in the pumpkin. 

4. Put the cap back in place on the pumpkin and bake for about 2 hours, checking after 90 minutes - the pumpkin should be tender enough to easily pierce with the tip of a knife and the stuffing should be hot and bubbling. You might also want to remove the cap with about 20 minutes left in the cook time to let some of the extra liquid in the pumpkin cook off. 

5. Carefully transfer the cooked pumpkin to your serving platter. To serve, either dig into the pumpkin with a large spoon scooping out the pumpkin flesh with the stuffing, or slice into portions skin and all. 

Experiment with the fillings and enjoy again and again!


*Edit 10/11/11

I made this variation tonight and just had to share here. Loved the flavor combination and the way the rice turned into something like a risotto! I gathered most of the ingredients from my favorite farmers' market too making this a great way to celebrate some local fall flavors. Try it with a kabocha or kuri squash instead of a pumpkin!

Brown Rice, Kale, Leek and Oyster Mushroom Variation

1 cup short grain brown rice

1 cup water

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 bunch kale, thick stems cut away

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 very large leek, or 2 small, white and pale green part only, thinly sliced

2 big handfuls oyster mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 thai chiles, finely chopped (optional)

1/4 lb melty cheese of choice, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, I used a mixture of Dairyere and Brigid's Abbey from Cato Corner Farm

1/3 cup cream or whole milk

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 small sugar pumpkin, kuri or kabocha squash

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet or small dutch oven with parchment. Cut away the cap of the squash around the stem. Reach in and scoop out all of the seeds and stringy bits. Clean up the underside of the cap as well. Season the inside of the squash generously with salt and pepper, place on prepared baking sheet and set aside.

2. Combine the rice, water, chicken/vegetable stock, curry powder and paprika in a small pot and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, cover and cook until the rice is cooked through with just a slight chew, 20-30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the kale. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the kale is wilted. Drain well, chop into bite sized pieces and set aside.

4. In a large pan heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, garlic, chiles and a pinch of salt, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms are soft, another 5 minutes or so. 

5. Mix the cream/milk with the nutmeg and set aside. Add the cooked rice, kale and cheese to the mushroom and leek mixture and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pack as much of the filling into the prepared squash as you can, leaving a little space at the top. Pour the milk and nutmeg mixture over the filling and top with the stem.

5. Bake for about 2 hours, or until the squash is easily pierced with a knife, removing the stem for the last 20 minutes of cooking. (If you have leftover filling you can bake it in a covered dish for 20 minutes) Let cool for 5-10 minutes then slice or scoop out the flesh and filling and serve! 

Southwestern Potato Salad - Daring Cooks June 2011

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana! 

 I love potatoes. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned that. My Polish blood and all that. 

Strangely enough though, I'm pretty picky about potato salad. This is mostly because I'm not terribly fond of most mayonnaise and I hate it when potato salad is drowning in the stuff. I also don't love German potato salad because I do like it creamy rather than oily. 

The obvious way for me to deal with this is to replace some of the mayonnaise with greek yogurt as I normally do in many mayonnaise based recipes, but I wanted to try something a little different for this challenge. Instead of mayonnaise I chose to make a creamy sauce using one of my favorite healthy fats - avocado! And for the sake of reducing calories and adding some more veggies, I pureed the avocado with sweet peas which added a pleasant sweetness as well as keeping the salad creamy. 

I'll definitely make this little experiment again. It's like guacamole + potatoes! Who couldn't love that?

Southwestern Potato Salad

Makes about 6 servings

1 1/2 lbs baby red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

1 cup frozen sweet peas, thawed

1 avocado

juice of 1 lime

1 garlic clove, minced

1 small red onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, minced (veins and seeds removed if you don't want it spicy)

2 Tbsp cilantro, minced

3/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

1/4 tsp black pepper

1. Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Season liberally with salt, bring to a boil and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. 

2. Meanwhile, add the flesh of the avocado, peas, lime juice and garlic to a food processor and process until a fairly smooth puree forms. Transfer the puree to a large bowl and add the chopped onion, jalapeno, cilantro, corn, salt and pepper and stir until well mixed.

3. Drain the potatoes and let cool for about  10-15 minutes. Once they've cooled slightly, add to the avocado mixture and stir gently until everything is well incorporated. Taste for salt and pepper and add as needed to taste. Chill and garnish as desired!

Buttermilk Ramp Biscuits

It's that time of year. The time of year where I attempt to overdose on all variety of spring delicacies - ramps, fiddleheads, morels. If it's possible to get tired of eating them during their very brief season, then I don't know it. 

If I can't get out to one of the few farmer's markets open around here this early in the spring, Whole Foods usually helps me get my fix of the good stuff. I'm there every other day grabbing what I can. I seem to know the number code for ramps better than the cashiers do. Yes, I have a  problem. A delicious, delicious problem.

Of course if you don't live anywhere near where ramps grow, you probably have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. Ramps are wild leeks that are native to the Appalachian Mountain area. They're intensely oniony and garlicky, and in the spring you can eat everything from the green leaves, to the stem, and all the way down to the bulb. Most importantly, they're one of the first yummy green things to pop out of the ground after a long winter!

These biscuits are a great way to enjoy ramps in a number of different ways. They're perfect warm with just a pad of butter, but would make a great crunchy, garlicky roll for a nice sandwich! I also imagine they would store well in the freezer so you could enjoy them long after their season is over. And if you can't get ramps, you could substitute scallions and still have a very yummy biscuit!

Buttermilk Ramp Biscuits

(adapted from Bon Appetit)

1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup thinly sliced ramps (bulbs, stems, and leaves)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/3 cup finely grated parmigiano reggiano, plus more for sprinkling on top

6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 tsp coriander seeds, cracked

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Combine the ramps and buttermilk in a small bowl. 

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and cheese in the bowl of a food processor (or you can just do it by hand.) Add the butter to the processor and use on/off bursts to cut the butter into the flour until a coarse meal forms. Transfer the flour and butter mixture to a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and stir until the dough begins to hold together. 

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press into a round about 1/2 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut biscuits into rounds. Gather scraps and press into another round and repeat.

4. Transfer biscuits to an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the beaten egg. Sprinkle the biscuits with the cracked coriander seeds and grate a little extra cheese over the tops. 

5. Bake biscuits for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a rack and serve warm or room temperature.

Irish Champ

Anyone who knows me knows that I love potatoes. I could make a meal of just that bowl of potatoes right there. That little pool of irish butter is just calling out to me...

I'm not Irish, but I love to cook around St. Paddy's day. Maybe it's because I don't live too far from Boston or something. Or maybe it's just fun. Either way, I prefer something a little more authentic than green beer, so as the first part of my favorite St. Patrick's day dinner menu, I introduce you to champ - an absurdly simple but absolutely delicious variety of mashed potatoes.

These creamy mashed potatoes are filled with cream, butter and green onions. The onions are steeped in the dairy which mellows them slightly and really lets the onion flavor infuse the whole dish. And don't you worry on about carbs or fat - just make them for a day and enjoy!

Champ

Makes about 4-6 servings

2 pounds potatoes (russet or yukon gold) peeled and cubed 

1/2 cup heavy cream (or whole milk if you're no fun)

2 oz (1/4 cup) butter, preferably Irish (like Kerrygold)

1 1/2 cups green onions, sliced

1. Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with about an inch of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender, about 15 minutes.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, add the cream and butter to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Mix in your green onions, cover and set aside off the heat. 

3. Drain your cooked potatoes, return them to the pot and mash. Add the cream mixture and stir until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. When serving, make a little well in the middle of your potatoes and add an extra pat of butter to dip your potatoes in  as it melts. Enjoy!