Squash, Anyone?

As promised, here is my "legitimate" post for the week. Winter squash--butternut, acorn, buttercup, and so on--is one of the best vegetables you can eat in the months when fresh local produce is not really available. Squash can be harvested in vast quantities in the fall, and keeps really well for a long time, especially if you can store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Roasted squash is one of my favorite fall and winter foods, so I will be on a special campaign to look for ways to feature it on my menu at home this year. I was surprised to find out that one of the most popular varieties of butternut squash is the Waltham Butternut, an heirloom variety of squash that comes from my own (previous) home of Waltham, MA of all places, where I lived for many years. I am hoping to grow some of my very own next season...mostly in honor of the 'tham. I am in the midst of trying to post a pdf file with more information about winter squash varieties and how to cook them, but in the meantime (as I figure that out...) the best tasting varieties are generally Buttercup, Butternut, Acorn, Blue Hubbard (they are MONSTROUS in size, so look for slices wrapped in plastic at the store, rather than whole squashes), Sweet Dumpling and Delicata.

The following recipe is a great way to feature butternut squash, as well as carrots and onions (both good keepers in the off-months, too). The zucchini may not be super local year-round, but is very welcome and authentic in this dish, and this would be perfect for late summer/early fall when there seems to be nothing BUT zucchini coming out of everyone's gardens. It works well as a side dish (serving 6-8) or a main dish (serving 4-6), and is easy to make on a weeknight.

Moroccan Couscous (from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (3/4 inch) diced butternut squash
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion (about 2 medium)
• 1 1/2 cups (3/4 inch) diced carrots (about 4 carrots)
• 1 1/2 cups (3/4 inch) diced zucchini (about 2 medium)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoons saffron threads (I omitted these and it was still delicious)
  
• 1 1/2 cups couscous
• 2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place butternut squash, onions, carrots, and zucchini on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes until all vegetables are tender, turning once with spatula.
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil and turn off the heat. Add the butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, cumin, and saffron and allow to steep for at least 15 minutes.
3. Bring the chicken broth back just to a boil. Place the couscous and cooked vegetables in a large bowl and pour the chicken broth over them. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Add the scallions, toss the couscous and vegetables with a fork, and serve.
   

Sometimes You Just Need a Cookie

This will probably be my last apple post for a while--and let's be honest, this one really has nothing to do with apples...or really with my stated mission regarding seasonal and local eating. But you know, sometimes you just need a cookie, and least these were homemade, and contained nary a drop of high-fructose corn syrup (see King Corn or read The Omnivore's Dilemma for why that is so crucially important). And never fear, a legitimate post is on its way very soon.

This recipe is by far the best sugar cookie recipe I've found for rolling and using cookie cutters. It is great for Christmas cookies (or anytime cookies, as evidenced by this post), and you can roll and re-roll the scraps over and over without the dough getting tough or crumbly. I would recommend under-baking these for a softer sugar cookie, as mine (baked for the time specified) were a little crispy and more shortbread-like than I was going for. Still, nothing beats homemade cookies, and given my penchant for collecting cookie cutters, this was a well-needed (and delicious) way to start my week.

Best Christmas (or Anytime) Cookies (from Cook's Country, a great magazine from America's Test Kitchen that features classic recipes and regional favorites--you should subscribe!)

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on shape. If the dough becomes too warm or sticky when rolling and cutting, return it to the fridge until firm (resist the urge to add more flour).

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Directions:
1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk yolks, sour cream, and vanilla in second smaller bowl until well combined. Whisking constantly, gradually pour butter into sour cream mixture; whisk until incorporated. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir with rubber spatula until combined. Knead dough by hand in bowl until flour is completely incorporated and dough has formed ball. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and divide in half. Shape each half into 3/4-inch-thick rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour (can also freeze for 30 minutes).
2. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 rectangle of dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment paper to an even 1/8-inch thickness. (If dough seems soft, slide rolled dough, still between parchment, onto baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.) Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutter(s) and place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
3. Bake until cookies are lightly browned around edges, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through baking time. Repeat process with remaining dough. (Dough scraps can be kneaded together and rerolled.) Cool cookies on wire rack to room temperature before glazing with No-Fuss Icing (recipe below).

No-Fuss Icing

Ingredients:

• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• Food coloring
• (optional) 2-3 drops flavored extract (vanilla, peppermint, or almond work well)

Directions:

1. With small whisk or for, combine 1 tablespoon milk and confectioner's sugar in small bowl to make soft, smooth icing. Stir in food coloring and optional flavored extracts. If mixture is too stiff, add milk in very tiny increments until desired consistency is reached.

Note: I divided this recipe into thirds--1/3 cup of confectioner's sugar each in 3 bowls, and then combined the sugar with the milk so I could have 3 different colors going on at once. It was almost enough to glaze my 2 dozen cookies (I had to make just a bit more at the end), and it hardens into a beautiful sheen.

Pump Up the Jams

As you may have inferred from my last post, I had a bunch of apples to use up this fall after we went apple picking. Now if you know me, you know that I am single-handedly seeking to bring back the lost art of canning to my generation. This usually leads to people staring at my giant water-bath canner and various tools of the trade with a lot of perplexity, and a general reaction that I'm a tad bit crazy. But somehow when the jam starts rolling out of my kitchen in the summer and fall and into the hands of my friends, that skepticism disappears. Canning definitely takes a fair amount of time and equipment to undertake, but it is vastly easier than you might think. If you are thinking of getting into it, I would definitely recommend investing in the Ball Home Canning Basics Kit for equipment, and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and the Joy of Cooking: All About Canning and Preserving for good basic recipes for jams, jellies, pickles, and sauces. Canning is a great way to preserve the fresh foods of spring, summer, and fall all year round, and is thus super eco-friendly (i.e. you are not expending fossil fuels by importing fruit from Chile in the winter, etc.).

In that light, here is the recipe for the Apple Maple Jam that I made this year. It is especially good on toasted English muffins, and tastes just like fall to me. The next time I make it, I want to play around with substituting some of the white sugar for brown sugar, and maybe adding a bit more maple syrup. Let me know if you experiment with it successfully, but before you do, make sure you know how to can safely!

Apple Maple Jam (from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving)

Ingredients:

• 3 quarts (about 6 pounds or 20-24) apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 6 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup maple syrup

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot (emphasis on the large!) and stir to coat apples evenly with sugar, spices, and syrup. Bring slowly to a boil.
2. Cook rapidly to the gelling point. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Cook until apples have broken down and mixture is thick and bubbly. (You may want to help things along by using a potato masher at this stage) Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary.
   
3. Ladle hot jam into hot half-pint or pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling-water canner.

Note: The original recipe says it will yield 8 half-pint jars, but I ended up getting more like 12-14 given the size of my apples, so make sure you have plenty of sterilized jars ready in advance. Great holiday gifts! (sorry for the spoiler, friends and family...)

Easy as Apple Pie

One of the best things about living in New England in the fall is apple picking. My husband and I have been going to Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, MA to pick our own apples for the past few years, and its great to see that farm doing so well (although it was insanely crowded when we went there in October, and seems to have gone a little bit too "Hollywood" for our taste lately). There used to be thousands of different varieties of apples available in this country, but mass-marketing and the rise of chain grocery stores has reduced the number of widely available apple varieties to just 15. One great thing you can do to help heirloom varieties make a comeback is to look for heirloom orchards in your area, or to buy local apples at the farmer's market in the fall--try a variety you've never heard of! Baldwin, Northern Spy, and Winesap are all varieties that grow beautifully in Massachusetts.

I decided to try a new pie recipe to use up all of my apples this year, and it was fantastic! A non-traditional technique of pouring caramel sauce over the apples through the lattice top crust made for a delicious filling and a yummy, crisp crust glazed with caramel. I used Spencers, Macouns, and Cortlands for this pie (and they weren't shipped from New Zealand!).

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie (thanks to allrecipes.com for this one)

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used Pillsbury unroll-and-fill crusts)
  
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 6-8 apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Place the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet.
   
3. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.