Time for
another KA quickie. For those of you who don’t remember what that means—no measurements,
also pretty easy and forgiving. I saw a recipe for butternut squash fries on
Cook Taste Eat—a very good online cooking show hosted by chef Michael Mina, and
often co-hosted by Michelle Branch, that is unfortunately no longer online.
Chef Mina created a batter for his squash and actually deep-fried the fries,
but since I am lazy (and also forgot to buy eggs), that did not happen. The
result is a quicker, easier, and still deliciously butternut-squashy side dish.
As the title indicates, these are not particularly crisp—unless you leave them
in the oven too long and the bottoms get black. Best to avoid that. These would
also be good sliced into coins and then put on a sandwich with the sriracha
mayo as a spread—the flavor combo of spicy-squashy-sweet-salty is quite nice,
no matter how you get it in your mouth.
Ingredients
Butternut
squash (I used about 5 pounds)
Oil that
can take high heat, such as canola
Maple syrup
Salt
Black
pepper
Granulated
garlic
Granulated
onion
Paprika
Cayenne
Dip
ingredients
Mayo
Sriracha
Maple syrup
1. Cut up the butternut squash into
pieces roughly fry-like in shape, and about the same size so they bake evenly.
This, more than almost any cooking task I have yet undertaken, is seriously
more easily said than done. Butternut squashes are intractable jerks, as
delicious as they are. The skins are tough to cut through, and the meat oozes a
slippery starch when cut. It is, in short, perilous to cut these. Use the
sharpest knife you have and BE CAREFUL. Make sure your fingers and other parts
of your body are not near the blade or in an area where the blade could slip
to. One good thing about this recipe is that it is unnecessary to peel the
squash. The peel becomes very soft when baked, so it tastes just fine left on.
If you don’t appreciate that yet, you will as soon as you start cutting the
evil squash. When purchasing a squash, try to get one that is a uniformly
straight-sided specimen—avoid the typical pear shape. This helps to make
cutting easier. Cut off the vine and flower ends and don’t forget to scoop out
the seeds with a spoon. Good luck!
2. At some point, take a break from the
frustration and put the oven on to 400 F to preheat. You can also cover one or
two cookie sheets with foil and oil them.
3. Toss the hard-won pieces of
butternut squash in a large bowl with some oil, the aforementioned spices, and
maple syrup. Don’t go overboard with anything—you just want a thin coating of
oil and syrup. If you happen to be married to someone who doesn’t love sweet
and savory mixed together, make one tray without maple syrup. Spread the squash
on the cookie sheet as close to one layer as your patience will permit at this
point.
4. Bake the squash at 400 F for 20
minutes, then rotate the trays. Bake for another 20 minutes. They are done when
a fork enters the fries smoothly. No need to flip the fries on the tray.
5. In the meantime, prepare the dip by
mixing mayo with sriracha and a touch of maple syrup. My version is about 1 cup
of mayo to 1 T sriracha to 1 t maple syrup—but make it how you like it. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment