The butternut squash battle
An indeterminate amount of time ago, my aunt gave me a big butternut squash from her garden. I thanked her and acted excited like any good niece should, but I was a little nervous. Not only had I never cooked butternut squash before, but I wasn’t even sure that I liked it. I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, sort of hoping that it would go bad. Unfortunately, squashes are pretty age-resistant and after more time than I care to admit, it was still looking fresh. I decided to go for it.
Since I wasn’t sure that I would like the squash by itself, I looked for a soup recipe. With some trepidation, I chose a recipe for roasted butternut squash and shallot soup that reviewers said turned out creamy without having to use any cream. There was a lot to be wary of. 1) Shallots. I had a sneaking fear that they were onions, but having never really seen one, I had no idea. I read some reviews that they were sweeter than onions, so I decided to brave them. They’d end up pureed, anyway. 2) Ginger. I’d seen my mother cook with ginger before, but I had no idea how to handle it. 3) The squash itself. The recipe called for peeling, cubing, and roasting it. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish any of those three things.
One night, I got out a pen and paper for my grocery list, and started Googling. How to peel squash, how to peel ginger, how to roast squash, exactly how much squash is 4 cups, etc. etc. The volume of tabs I had open on my browser made me anxious. My courage failed me, and I ended up with Froot Loops for dinner.
A few days later, I decided to really tackle it, after reading all my tabs and coming up with a game plan. I didn’t want to spend too long on the recipe, since roasting the squash alone took almost an hour. A few of the reviews on the recipe recommended cutting the squash in half without peeling it, and placing the chopped shallots and ginger in the cavity. I decided I was going to do that, to avoid having to peel the squash until it was roasted and would slide out of its skin easily.
I went to the grocery store to get everything, and realized I’d forgotten to Google one thing: shallots. I still had no idea what they were, and there was no way I was going to ask the staff. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, and the last time I asked someone there about a (not very) obscure ingredient (baby corn), the man raised his eyebrows and said, “Like… uh… baby food?” So I decided to wander around the produce section looking for signs.
Thankfully, they were on the end of one of the stands, and they sure looked a lot like onions. I decided on the spot to halve the number of shallots and add a little garlic instead, since I’d read in my research that shallots go well with garlic. Back in my house, I started the task of cutting and gutting the squash. After wrestling the knife through, I was glad I hadn’t decided to cube it. It would have taken me hours.
Then, I prepared the ginger and the shallots just like I’d seen on the internet. After that, I sliced some garlic and added everything to the squash cavities. Both halves went into a roasting pan. I set the timer for 50 minutes, and waited.
After a while, the kitchen smelled like heaven. When the 50 minutes was up, I pulled the squash out of the stove. I let it cool for a bit, then used a spoon to scrape the squash out of its skin. I had some misgivings that it wasn’t cooked quite enough, because it wasn’t as squishy as I thought it should be. But I figured it was all going into the blender, so I didn’t worry too much about it. All I had to do was add half of the squash mixture into the blender with chicken broth, blend, pour into a saucepan, then repeat. I started working, adding just a touch of olive oil each time (the recipe had called for it to be tossed with the cubed squash, so I wanted some for flavor).
When I was done blending, it didn’t look right. It managed to be very watery, while also looking grainy. It didn’t look anything like the picture on the recipe. I returned it to the blender, and blended more. That helped, but not much. I cooked the mixture on the stovetop for a little longer, hoping it would thicken up. I knew I could’ve added flour or even a little half and half, but there was another problem when I took a bite: it tasted like onions. All you “shallots aren’t like onions” people LIED. And I trusted you. And because the soup was grainy, I had the pleasure of crunching down on those slimy, crunchy shallots.
I ate it anyway. I didn’t want to be wasteful. I ate it with far too many crackers, to try and override the taste and texture. I’m not quite sure what went wrong, although I think it may be that the squash needed to roast longer, since it wasn’t cubed. Next time, I might go the lazy route and buy pre-cubed squash at the grocery store. And avoid shallots at all costs.
A week later, I threw the rest out, and bought this at the store. Two minutes in the microwave? I consider that a victory. And, I now know that I do like butternut squash.
Readers, is there anything you’d like me to attempt to cook? It could go well or it could go horribly. IT’S UP TO YOU.
looks goooood!
We’re actually making butternut squash soup tonight. I think that you’re right that the squash wasn’t quite done, and shallots are definitely very onion-y. We blend our squash with cream cheese, and it’s just heavenly.
I tend to find that new recipes often don’t work until the second attempt. I’d be interested to hear how things go on a second attempt.
But if you want ideas, I think you should definitely make cinnamon rolls. Yeast! It’s a whole other world!
I vote you make beef bourguignon, because you writing about food reminds me of Julie & Julia. :)
Way to step it up, miss Lauren. Maybe I will! Thanks for the idea :)