Butternut squash race
Responding to this challenge from my mother: “Three minutes to peel, seed, and chop a butternut squash?! As if!! Even the Iron Chef can’t do it that fast!”—which was in response to my saying that I could prep a butternut squash in three minutes, and that it would taste better than buying it cut up from Trader Joe’s—I decided to put my money where my mouth was.
Pictured below are the 2.5-pound enemy and my tools:
Tell the kind folks don’t worry—that ain’t nothin’ but my hammer suckin’ wind—it keeps me breathing.
Two minutes and fifty-seven seconds later (ok, a few seconds longer to get the trimmings organized), we have:
Forty-five minutes later, we have butternut squash risotto with slightly overtoasted pine nuts:
Next!
Comments
You showed that butternut squash who’s boss!
I guess I’ve been told! You should make Ruth Reichl’s lasagne now, the one with the squash and hazelnuts. It’s perfect company food because you can make it in advance and it’s really impressive, plus it’s vegetarian (although not vegan) but at the same time quite satisfying since men love pasta and it has a rich sauce. All you need to complete the menu is a salad—I like some kind of bitter greens to offset the unctuousness of the main course and bread. The only problem is coming up with dessert; with all that dairy in the lasagne you don’t want anything creamy for dessert, or anything too starchy, either, with the pasta.
Yes, I want to make that lasagna in a bad way. Maybe I’ll do it this weekend and invite some menfolk over!
Your turn to post, Mommy. I’m making pierogies tonight!
I know it’s my turn to post but Poppy and I are dieting and I’m just not inspired to cook much of anything interesting.
I have a question about the squash preparation, though—did you peel the whole thing with your peeler before cutting it up? I usually cut it into smaller pieces and then remove the tough peel with a paring knife. That’s what makes it take so long. My mother never cooked it and I had an aunt who taught me how to prepare it that way. But the preparation was so tedious that I was fairly disinclined to do it very often, if you see what I mean.
Are you making homemade pierogies? With all those leftover wonton wrappers?
No homemade rogies yet, I’m still a Mrs. T’s queen.
Yes, I peel the whole thing before cutting it. I chop off the top and bottom, then just run the peeler up and down the length of it. Once I’m done with that, I chop it in the middle and dig out the seeds and fibers.
I guess this proves that you’re never too old to learn something new in the kitchen!
Meanwhile I just started some brown rice in my new Zojirushi fuzzy logic rice cooker, the one I had to have, that’s been sitting in the box for 2 weeks since it was delivered, and I’m quite upset to read in the instruction book that I can expect it to take at least 82 minutes to get done! Why?! It would only take 45 minutes on the stovetop!! It’s 5:30 and we are supposed to be at a meeting at 7:00…
Hmm…sounds post-worthy to me! :D
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