Help needed with Squash Recipes!

[Colin_M]

Can anyone recommend some good recipes for the following squashes:
- Turks Turban
- Uchiki Kuri
- Bon Bon

I have small quantities of the last 2 and several of the first. After reading Chantal's comments about TT's, I was worried about giving them best chance to display their qualities.


Thanks, Colin

[Tigger]

All squashes make the most wonderful soups. Just roast them along with other veg of your choice - such as parsnips, potatoes, carrots - then process them in the usual way.......softening onions in butter (perhaps also with garlic), adding roasted veg and stock, cooking down then blitzing in various stages according to the required texture(s).

Most squash also make a great roast veg in it's own right - cut in halves or sections, remove seeds, drizzle with olive oil and roast 'til soft.

You can also do the above then peel off outer skin and mix with cream cheese for a flavoursome pureed veg as it is or topped with a stronger cheese and baked off in a dish.

Wellie's courgette and potato soup is adaptable to squashes and very delicious.

You could make a risotto using onions and diced squash with arborio (or similar) rice, white wine, stock, herbs, butter and olive oil. Add chicken/mushrooms/fish/shellfish/veg/whatever.

[Wellie]

Follow what Tigger has said with roasting the squash, but only include shallot or red onion, roasted with a little garlic, add sufficient Swiss Vegetable Bouillon (Tesco do it)...
Blitz it all together, and don't make it too thick, it's not soup if it's too thick (IMHO) and once you're happy with the consistency, lob it into warmed bowls and scatter with a VERY generous amount of Grated Gruyer Cheese, and there's NO SUBSTITUTE. It HAS to be GRUYER.

I cannot claim ownership of this recipe in any shape or form, but it's heaven on your tongue, and you should try it.

[Colin_M]

Gosh thanks, I shall have a go at both of these.

Ok Wellie, since I have never found Swiss cheese tasted of much, can you describe what Gruyer tastes like? Is it similar to anything else?


Colin

[Wellie]

Colin,
It's not so much a 'taste experience' it's more the 'melting experience' of this particular cheese, into the gooeyist, stringyist gorgeousness, that brings out 'the complete kid' in you, like when you used to pull a string of bubblegum out of your mouth,
and stretch it as far as you could, until you put it back in your mouth again.... No? OK, well I did (!)

THIS, however, is a tad more 'grown up' and you just use the spoon to transport the gooey, stringy melted cheese mixed with the sweet pumpkin soup from the soup bowl to your mouth, and you leave it in your mouth, and it's just GORGEOUS.
just ENJOY.... Mmmmmm !

[Primrose]

I recently posted my husband's squash curry in the recipe section which is delicious and if you can't find the actual spices you can always substitute a good ready-mixed curry powder. This is a vegetarian recipe, but you can always put in small chunks of chicken breast if you want to make ita more susbstantial meal.

[Colin_M]

I recently posted my husband's squash curry in the recipe section

Thanks Primrose, that looks good.

I've recently become the sole ominivore in a housefull of vegetarians, so this won't be a problem. I also have access to the spices listed, thanks to my daughter who is into this sort of thing in a big way (as you can see at http://www.mangoidli.blogspot.com).

Colin

[Colin_M]

Just to say, I managed to have a go at the soup with roasted veg in it at the weekend. This scored 2 out of 3:

1) It tasted pretty good. I roasted:
- Turks Turban squash
- Parsnips
- Carrots
- Shallots
- Garlic
Then simmered these in some stock, then wizzed it all up.

2) Wellie's suggestion of Gruyere was a masterstroke.
I don't think it was essential for the soup. However I now realise what a tasty cheese it is!

3) Sadly, I think the Turk's Turban didn't play much part in this, other than as padding. I tried some of the roasted TT before adding it to the liquid. It was a mixture of tasteless and slightly bitter.

By comparison, Sweet Dumpling or Butternut taste superb, without any added seasoning.

Colin

[Wellie]

Colin,
It's good to experiment with tastes and textures, and with experience, it's amazing what you can teach yourself in terms of what you find out that you like and don't like, and that only comes with trying new stuff against or WITH what you already know.

No, the Gruyere WASN'T essential to your soup, and nor was it supposed to be. It was supposed to 'blow your sox off' as an element of surprise, and you said it did, so it proved it's own point as a 'surprises ingredient' I suspect ?!
That's the extra hidden element of cooking that 'blows my frock up' every time..... it's ALMOST as exciting as actually GROWING the stuff in the first place, but I get 'double bubble' this way....
I do hope that you go on to experiment further cooking with the vegetables that you grow, it's very rewarding - and as you say, with the addition of some meat, fish or poultry....

Glad it helped in some way Colin.
Here to help, anytime....

[Colin_M]

So to return to my original theme, can anyone advise some good recipes for Turk's Turban squash?

I remember Chantal saying she was disappointed with her TT. Someone (maybe Tigger) answered that TT needed the right recipe to show its true strengths.

In the meantime, if mine tases insipid, uninspired or averag after roasting, could it just be that I haven't managed to grow particulalry good TT's?


Colin

[Tigger]

Well, I don't rate them for taste, which is why I no longer grow them. However, you can use them for texture, substance, bulk, etc. providing you have stronger flavours in the mix. Add them to soups, stews, casseroles, bean mixtures, curries, risottos for colour and contrast but assume that soemthing else will be the lead flavour/taste.

[Wellie]

- Baked Pumpkin, Cashew & Yoghurt Curry
-Pumpkin Gnocchi with Spinach in a roasted garlic cream
Roast Pumpkin, Onion & Feta Tart in Walnut filo pastry with cucumber & yoghurt sauce
- Spinach ravioli of pumpkin, basil & Gabriel cheese with lemon & black peppercorn butter
- Pumpkin Soup with lime & a coconut peanut relish
- Risotto of Leeks, Pumpkin & Sage with Pumpkinseed oil & braised lentils
(Colin, all of these recipes you will find in a book by a very talented Irish chef called Denis Cotter, and the book is called PARADISO SEASONS)

- Fresh parsley lasagne layered with roast pumpkin & chard
- Pumpkin & Sweetcorn frittata
- Pumpkin risotto with saffron
- Spiced cream of Pumpkin soup with Seville Orange
- Tarragon Coucous with Roasted Pumpkin
- Herbed Pumpkin & pinenut sauce for Pasta
- Pumpkin Stew with coconut, chilli & coriander
- Roast Pumpkin Soup with Ancho chilli & lime
- Spiced Pumpkin Dip
- Sweetcorn & Pumpkin Chowder
(Colin, these recipes can be found in two of Catherine Masons books, entitled VEG amd VEGETABLE HEAVEN)
I'm sure you won't have much trouble tracking them down.

[Colin_M]

So Wellie, what you're basically saying is that in all these recipies, I could substutue Turk's Turban?

If not, and if these recipies actually need something with a bit of natural falvour of its own, I'll reserve them for my Butternuts & Uchiki Kuri.

In the meantime, I agree with Tigger. Since space in my half allotment is at a premium, I won't bother with TT again in the future.


Colin

[Wellie]

Caramelized Apple, Pumpkin, and Pecan Strudel with Ginger-Maple Syrup Ice Cream

Pumpkin Soup with Pheasant Breast and Fried Ginger

Pumpkin Tortellini with Brown Butter-Balsamic Vinaigrette

(Colin: from my new Charlie Trotter book called THE KITCHEN SESSIONS)

I tend to agree, by the way, certain Pumpkins don't 'stack up' the same as others in terms of taste and texture, and I've only learned this recently with trial and error, but if you HAVE Turks Turban and don't want to waste it - try a few different recipes out, and grow something different next year - It's all very much 'A Moveable Feast' I like to think. One year this, one year that.
As CHEZ rightly says, you narrow it down to what suits you best. The rest get left behind.

[cevenol jardin]

Hi Collin
Have you tried pumpkin chutney - i am sure i have a couple of recipes around if you want them posted. Will transform a dull TT into something tasty.