Hubbard Squash and Blueberry Jam
I did both the normal and the abnormal, the seasonal and unseasonal, the local and the distant...
Today, I will tell you about the normal activity of cooking a winter squash in the winter since you heard all about the making of fresh preserves out of blueberries from Chile yesterday. :)
I cooked a Hubbard Squash purchased from a pumpkin farm located about 15 minutes from my house. After being a pretty part of our indoor fall decor and being stored in the garage for several months, it now gets to be nourishing! I was hoping it will provide me with enough "meat" to make 3 pies with some extra squash for the freezer. Now I realize I have practically enough squash to last through the year.
If you aren't familiar with these squash, they are a very hard, large winter squash that store very well. They are blue-green in color, and get very huge. I bought a medium sized one from the patch, and it weighed in the 30 pound range. It has bright orange flesh, and sweet flavor. For the size, it doesn't have very many seeds or pithy stuff. I saved the seeds from my squash with the hopes of maybe growing a plant or two and then sharing the rest. My research showed that squash seeds will last for about 5 years if stored properly, so they are a good one to save in your seed bank.
To prepare this gourd, I first washed it really well with a scrub brush in the laundry tub. I had already brushed most of the dirt off it before storing it to avoid any premature rotting, so it was fairly clean. Then, I took it outside, and dropped it on the sidewalk. But instead of having dismay over my shattered pumpkin, I smiled at how easy it was to break! Yes, my friends, dropping it was intentional. I had read online of the various ways people cook their Hubbard squashes. If you have a pan that it will fit in, you can cook them whole in the oven, but it will take several (several) hours. Mine didn't fit in a pan and was so heavy, I didn't think it would be wise to try and put it in and out of the oven. So I decided to go with one of the prescribed methods that looked least likely to cause personal injury. Some people recommend a hammer and chisel, others go for a mallet and inexpensive knife, others hatchet them: these things are tough. Instead of attempting to use sharp implements, I dropped the gourd on our back patio. First, though, I found a spot the snow had just melted and dried from and swept it off with a broom. Then I lugged the squash out there and let it fall from about waist height (3 feet). Next time, I might bend drop it from less of a height to try and get pieces of uniform size and maybe even just split it in half. Some people put their squash in a garbage bag and then drop it to help contain the mess and keep the squash clean. I voted against that because I would have felt compelled to wash my squash again anyway. If I were dropping the squash on the road rather than my personal patio, I would use the garbage bag method. Either way, this method worked fine and resulted in pieces from half-an-acorn-squash-sized, to 1/3-hubbard squash sized.
I grabbed a turkey roasting pan (rated for up to 30 pounds!) and started loading up my squash pieces. I had to make two trips. The first load I quickly rinsed and left in the kitchen sink and then brought in the rest of the pieces, leaving them in the roasting pan while I removed the seeds and strings from the squash, thoroughly rinsed to remove any dirt, and laid them out on the counter. I did this until I had washed all of the pieces and had them all ready to go into a pan and in the oven.
Oh my... This was a big squash! I then realized I would have to cook it in two, or maybe three, batches in the oven. So, I carefully arranged and stacked my squash pieces two high in my turkey roasting pan. I added a bit of water, covered in aluminum foil, and stuck it in the oven. Because I stacked them two high, it took about 4 hours for the squash to be done. The second batch was much smaller, and I did in a single layer. It took about an hour and a half to cook and cooked more evenly. Next time, I will be patient and cook them in single layers.
I turned all of my squash into a puree. I scraped it out of the pieces, mashing it slightly, and then put it in my food processor. I blended until smooth. Then, I put the puree in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and let the water drip out of the puree. Since I am making pie from this squash, I needed to get the extra moisture out of it. And I repeated the process. It took a good hour to process all the squash. Then, I made myself sad and dumped out the squash puree water. I should have kept the broth for cooking grains in or even as an addition to the pie crust instead of cold water, but I dumped it down the sink because I was sick and tired of dealing with squash and squash mess. Learn from me and start early on this. I started at one p.m. and was dealing with squash until 7pm when I needed to wrap up and go to a Bible class. Clean up didn't occur just before midnight. That is not the way to do things.
Coming soon will be pictures and the recipe for my winter squash pie--dairy-free, soy-free, and sugar-free!
Today, I will tell you about the normal activity of cooking a winter squash in the winter since you heard all about the making of fresh preserves out of blueberries from Chile yesterday. :)
I cooked a Hubbard Squash purchased from a pumpkin farm located about 15 minutes from my house. After being a pretty part of our indoor fall decor and being stored in the garage for several months, it now gets to be nourishing! I was hoping it will provide me with enough "meat" to make 3 pies with some extra squash for the freezer. Now I realize I have practically enough squash to last through the year.
If you aren't familiar with these squash, they are a very hard, large winter squash that store very well. They are blue-green in color, and get very huge. I bought a medium sized one from the patch, and it weighed in the 30 pound range. It has bright orange flesh, and sweet flavor. For the size, it doesn't have very many seeds or pithy stuff. I saved the seeds from my squash with the hopes of maybe growing a plant or two and then sharing the rest. My research showed that squash seeds will last for about 5 years if stored properly, so they are a good one to save in your seed bank.
To prepare this gourd, I first washed it really well with a scrub brush in the laundry tub. I had already brushed most of the dirt off it before storing it to avoid any premature rotting, so it was fairly clean. Then, I took it outside, and dropped it on the sidewalk. But instead of having dismay over my shattered pumpkin, I smiled at how easy it was to break! Yes, my friends, dropping it was intentional. I had read online of the various ways people cook their Hubbard squashes. If you have a pan that it will fit in, you can cook them whole in the oven, but it will take several (several) hours. Mine didn't fit in a pan and was so heavy, I didn't think it would be wise to try and put it in and out of the oven. So I decided to go with one of the prescribed methods that looked least likely to cause personal injury. Some people recommend a hammer and chisel, others go for a mallet and inexpensive knife, others hatchet them: these things are tough. Instead of attempting to use sharp implements, I dropped the gourd on our back patio. First, though, I found a spot the snow had just melted and dried from and swept it off with a broom. Then I lugged the squash out there and let it fall from about waist height (3 feet). Next time, I might bend drop it from less of a height to try and get pieces of uniform size and maybe even just split it in half. Some people put their squash in a garbage bag and then drop it to help contain the mess and keep the squash clean. I voted against that because I would have felt compelled to wash my squash again anyway. If I were dropping the squash on the road rather than my personal patio, I would use the garbage bag method. Either way, this method worked fine and resulted in pieces from half-an-acorn-squash-sized, to 1/3-hubbard squash sized.
I grabbed a turkey roasting pan (rated for up to 30 pounds!) and started loading up my squash pieces. I had to make two trips. The first load I quickly rinsed and left in the kitchen sink and then brought in the rest of the pieces, leaving them in the roasting pan while I removed the seeds and strings from the squash, thoroughly rinsed to remove any dirt, and laid them out on the counter. I did this until I had washed all of the pieces and had them all ready to go into a pan and in the oven.
 |
| The cleaned pieces of my Hubbard. |
I turned all of my squash into a puree. I scraped it out of the pieces, mashing it slightly, and then put it in my food processor. I blended until smooth. Then, I put the puree in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and let the water drip out of the puree. Since I am making pie from this squash, I needed to get the extra moisture out of it. And I repeated the process. It took a good hour to process all the squash. Then, I made myself sad and dumped out the squash puree water. I should have kept the broth for cooking grains in or even as an addition to the pie crust instead of cold water, but I dumped it down the sink because I was sick and tired of dealing with squash and squash mess. Learn from me and start early on this. I started at one p.m. and was dealing with squash until 7pm when I needed to wrap up and go to a Bible class. Clean up didn't occur just before midnight. That is not the way to do things.
Coming soon will be pictures and the recipe for my winter squash pie--dairy-free, soy-free, and sugar-free!
pie turned out deliciously smooth!
ReplyDelete