Raw Butternut Squash Salad ♥

Today's salad recipe: It's one thing to eat raw tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchini. But winter squash? When grated small, winter squash is surprisingly tender. Pair it with a little fresh ginger and add some dried fruit for sweetness. This is a salad that will delight the eyes and the tastebuds! A small serving is "low carb" and even a larger serving adds up to only 1 Weight Watchers point (old points) or 2 Weight Watchers points (PointsPlus).

As sweet as vegetables can turn once they're cooked, especially when they're roasted slowly in a hot oven, every once in awhile, "raw" vegetables can really hit the spot.

I first made this salad last fall -- on the very day the recipe was published in the New York Times. I made no notes, I wrote no post, mostly because mid-November didn't strike me as the "right time" for a raw winter squash salad. But I did take a pretty picture and it kept popping up when perusing the photo files for the scores of "work in process" recipes, many which are too "meh" or too "something" to meet my high standards for both A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade.

But the first small winter squash are showing up both at the farmers market and the grocery store. They're especially perfect for this raw salad -- because the flesh is slightly more tender, the proportion of flesh:seeds&gunk is high. And just like the Butternut Squash Soup with Mango & Toasted Coconut, it strikes me as a great "transitional" salad, one that spans the season, when the weather is still warm and

And -- Canadians readers, are you there? This would be a great side salad for Canadian Thanksgiving coming up so quickly now, especially with dried cranberries instead of dried currants.
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Chewy Choc Chip Cookies

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 170g unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg plus another yolk
• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Line cookie sheets with baking paper and preheat oven to 165 C.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

 

In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, brown and white sugars until well blended. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract until creamy. Add dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in the choc chips (today I used a mixture of small milk chocolate chips, and large white choc melts). Put heaped tablespoon sized balls (shape by hand) onto baking sheets, and leave plenty of space in between as they spread.

 

Bake for 12-15 minutes. They should be lightly brown around the edges, but still look and feel slightly uncooked in the middle. Remove from oven and leave to cool on trays for a few minutes, then move to cooling racks.

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One degree of separation

My husband gave me the 'Gourmet Farmer' series 1 DVD for my birthday earlier this month, and we have been thoroughly enjoying working our way through it. Matthew Evans (Sydney food critic) takes you on a journey as he moves from the big smoke and rat race, to a farm in Tasmania, where he grows his own food, mixes it with the local foodies and cooks up some inspiring meals. If you've ever seen River Cottage (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's empire), its pretty similar, just as enjoyable, and he calls ingredients by their aussie -known name (zucchini instead of courgette, eggplant instead of aubergine... you get the idea)! Both these guys are great inspiration and source of information for food lovers, or people like us who are eager to increase the productivity of our little farming plot and get that pendulum swinging further in the direction of self-sustaining, rather than supermarket reliant!

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/gourmetfarmer

Matt Evans introduces his vision for food sourcing:
to either:
 1. grow it himself,
 2. source it directly from the grower, or
 3. source it from someone who knows the person who grew it by name.
The idea is that the food has up to only one degree of separation from the farm to your source, none if you can help it.

This had me thinking. Could we be getting more of our food from growers that we can actually talk to? I headed off to my local butcher this morning, and was pleased to purchase beef that he grows on his own farm in Kotupna (about 40 kms from where I purchased it), and pork that his friend and neighbour grew. 

This got us onto a conversation about free range chicken. He sells Hazeldene chicken, which he said isn't free range, although advised that he can buy in free range chook - but usually cant sell it as well as his Hazeldene's products - for one simple reason. Free range costs more. If I want to buy it, I have to commit to 6kg minimum lots. Better get a deep freeze.

Think about the difference in eggs that come from free range chooks, compared with cage or "barn' chickens. Non-free range eggs are pale and anaemic looking.  They don't have that gorgeous bright orange yolk. And their taste doesn't compare. The same applies for the meat that comes out of them. Do you really want to eat meat from a bird (or any animal for that matter) that has spent its life in a cage too small to build up enough speed to raise a sweat!? Never experienced natural light? Thanks, but I'm not putting that in my body. For me, the argument is ethical, as well as nutritional.

So the butcher tells me this morning that the local supermarket chain selling free range chicken in those bright green plastic trays is in fact, 'gas flushed'. He explained this means that all the air is removed from the meat (kind of like the cryovac process), then preservative gas is pumped back in, which doubles the shelf life. Hmm. Delicious?? Ok... what are my alternatives? Grow it myself. Get the free range from the butcher which has a total kill to plate life of 7 days max. Yep, let's do that.

I'm going to have a go at living Matt Evan's philosophy grow it, get it straight from the grower, or someone that knows the grower. The supermarket will be the exception (the back up plan), not the rule.

Wish me luck!


Snow peas from our friends' garden, picked last night. Total carbon miles = 8.

Eggs from our gorgeous happy girls, including one super sized (101g) laid this morning. Tomorrow's breakfast. This is what I love about nature! Imperfections. Blue egg from the Araucana.

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Quince

Its not the right time of year, but here are some photos of honey baked quinces I did a few months back.

Quinces oxidise very quickly, but I don't think it impacts on the delicious flavour. The skin is pretty tough. I've done this recipe before and removed the skin, but I think they work best if you leave it on, as the skin holds all the juice inside. The skin is yummy and softens once its baked.

This is Stephanie Alexander's Honey Baked Quinces, from 'Cooks Companion' which is our home's most referenced book. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the finished article, but they turn ruby red when done, you drizzle the pan juices over when serving. Good with yoghurt or double cream. But double cream goes with everything!

Ingredients

• 3 Quinces
• 80grams butter
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup water

Method

Serves: 2-3

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 C.
2. Halve but do not peel quinces, then remove pips and core from each with a spoon to make a neat hollow.
3. Select a gratin dish that will hold quince halves snugly and grease with 1/3 of the butter.
4. Arrange quinces halves hollows uppermost. Divide remaining butter and honey between hollows and pour water gently around sides.
5. Cover with foil and bake for at least 3 hours until quinces are soft and a rich red. (Turn quinces over after 1 1/2 hours)
6. Serve hot or warm with hollows filled with honey juices and offer thick or clothed cream.

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Beet Salad with Sumac, Yogurt & Pita ♥

A quick beet salad turned appetizer when served with a garlicky yogurt sauce and fresh pita bread. For Weight Watchers, just three points (PointsPlus) or two points (Old Points).

So I set off to find another delicious way to use the sumac that makes a Fattoush (Traditional Middle Eastern Salad) so delicious. You see, I really want you to seek some out and the fact that I just might be a tiny bit smitten to sumac's earthy sourness, well, that might not be enough so, well, will another temptation help? :-)

But what I accidentally happened onto was another contribution to a meze (also spelled mezze and pronounced [MEZ-ay]). It's a happy style of casual eating, a few dishes, full of flavor and texture and -- let's be truthful here -- lots of garlic. Just one meze-style dish we might call an 'appetizer' but with a handful of different dishes, that would be a meal. It's easy to imagine sitting cross-legged on Turkish rugs eating this stuff but in my world, the kitchen table does just fine. A picnic blanket outdoors some fine fall day? That would be heaven.
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Butternut Squash Soup with Mango & Toasted Coconut ♥

Today's soup recipe: A smooth almost custard-like soup, served chilled on warm days or warm on chilly days.

But first, it's "back to school" for a quick lesson about vegetables, specifically 'squash'. What's the difference between 'summer squash' and 'winter squash'?

Is it that one grows in summer and one grows in winter? Nope.
Is it that one's eaten in summer and one's eaten in winter? Nope, at least not in today's global food distribution system that delivers year-round availability of many of our staple fruits and vegetables.

This book you can read by its cover, for the difference between summer squash and winter squash is up-front and visible, right in the skins.

Summer squash have tender, edible skins. Think zucchini (called 'courgette' in many parts of the world) and yellow squash.
Winter squash have tough, inedible skins. Think butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash and even pumpkin.
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Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas ♥

A vegetarian main dish salad -- or a side salad -- with a double-dose of protein, one from quinoa, another from chickpeas. This is a classic "concept recipe" -- and seasonal too. Here I've added late-summer vegetables but it's easy to imagine spring and summer versions too. Very filling and satisfying, even a half cup at a time.

It's a lesson an attentive cook learns early: apply heat to food to draw out flavor, to reveal an inner character. We toast nuts to make them nuttier, we toast bread for its warmth and crispy edges. We roast tomatoes and squash to not only cook but sweeten. We brown butter to darken its character and put a little burn on bones to make stock. So what would happen if I toasted the quinoa first, would it make a difference?

Side by side, I cooked red quinoa in salted water in one pot and toasted regular quinoa to a toasty brown before adding water to cook in another. Did it make a difference? Taste-wise, not a smidgin.
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