Nurturing my inner... upper body workout

When I think of October, I think 1.) falling leaves, 2.) an excess amount of snack-sized candy at work, 3.) pumpkins!  Naturally I wanted to make something with pumpkin.  But I hear they aren't necessarily the best item to cook with.  In fact, a lot of canned pumpkin pie filling on the shelves is, get this, mostly squash!  (Egads!  The lie!)  So why not just go straight to the squash then.

Butternut Squash With Israeli Cous Cous and Raisins

1 1/2 pounds of butternut squash, peeled and cubed
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, just the leafy parts
2 cups cooked Israeli cous cous (Trader Joe's)
3 tbsps grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 shallot
3 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Salt

Toasted Squash Seeds

Butternut squash seeds
Salt
Turbinado sugar
Sweet curry powder (Penzeys)

Introducing one of the world's most shapely and va-va-voomy vegetables - the butternut squash.

*Whistle* What an hourglass shape.
How you doin'?

I hope you've been to the gym this week, because you're going to need some serious arm work to be done.  Not gonna lie.  To split this sucker in half you really need an axe.  Preferably with a lumberjack attached to the other end of it.  If you live in a metro area, that may be hard to find.  So you're going to have to settle for a desk worker with big knife and a "never-give-up" attitude.

Wow, mostly squash and just a little
pocket of seeds. Bargain.

Time for scooping.  Any old spoon will do.  Scoop out the insides.  But don't throw away those seeds!

Like mini pumpkin carving preparation.

I do try to use as much of the vegetable as I can and not waste much.  I thought to myself, "If pumpkin seeds can be toasted, then I don't see why squash seeds can't."  What they hay, let's try it.

Squash guts! Oh, the horror!

A lot of times people just sprinkle brown sugar on the halved squash at this point, add a pat of butter, bake and be done with it.  But because I knew I was going to add it to cous cous and I wanted it to stay in tact and not just fall apart while tossing it, I decided to go a different route.

Did I mention it's best if you can bench press two times your body weight before you peel butternut squash?  Well, it's too late to run off.  You're committed to this.  You are not afraid!  *gulp*  Let's go!

Ordinary potato peeler turned power tool!
(With your super human strength behind it.) 

Now, you take a much needed break and hope before you started this whole endeavor you set out a glass of water for yourself with a straw in it, because your arms will be too dead to lift it to your mouth.  No, I do not jest.  Cooking is not for the unfit.




The hardest part complete. Phew!


As per what I hinted to above, I knew I'd be tossing this in with other things and I wanted the cubes to stay in tact.  So roasting it in cubes meant lots of surface space to get all crispy and help hold each one in its original shape.

Sharp knives. They are a must.

It's likely that you may need another break, but if you do that, it may take you 12 hours to make this dish.  So, no rest for the weary.  Buck up and carry on.

Drop cubes onto a cookie sheet.

Cooking just like your grandma - time to use your hands.  Add olive oil, salt and pepper.  Toss around a bit.

I suppose you could use a bowl and a large
spoon, but what fun would that be.

For best roasting, make sure they are all in a single layer.

It's not you, it's me. I need my space.

Into the oven they go, 400 degrees for approximately 30/35 minutes, turning them over once about half way through.  Now, on to other projects.

The seeds should be cleaned of all squash debris, washed off in a colander, drained and placed into a bowl.  Add a sprinkle of salt, a couple shakes of turbinado sugar and a super secret punch of flavor: a dash of sweet curry powder.

A little of column A, a little of column B.

There are no precise measurements, just do your best dashing, then mix around a bit.

Uh, yeah that looks about right.

Foil line a pan and spread the seeds out in a single layer.

A sweet, salty and flavorful future awaits.

Place in the same 400 degree oven the squash is roasting in, but it only takes about five minutes. You won't want to walk away or they will go from perfect to inedible in less than 30 seconds. I set timers because unfortunately, my mind is always onto the next thing and I get distracted.




Toasted up nicely.


Alright, put those aside for garnishing later.  On to herbs.

So fresh, so... already available in my fridge.

I know I've mentioned this before, but, since I cook a lot for just me, I can't use up all of the ingredients in one dish.  So I try to make meals that use some of the same things throughout the week.  That way, I don't waste very much and I still get to use fresh herbs when I want.  Thus, the thyme makes another cameo appearance.  Only this time, it's going to be chopped.

Take your thumb and index finger and run it
down the twig so the green bits come off.

Land them in a pile and then give them a rough chop.




It's sort of like an oregano type flavor.


Vegetable, check. Seeds, check.  Herb, check.  Now what's missing?  Oh yes, teeny-tiny pasta!

That looks like a nice recipe
on the box too.

I measured out 1 1/3 cups dry into a bowl, before I cooked it.

A few couses fell overboard. This is real
cooking. Unedited.

I've made cous cous many times before.  But never Israeli cous cous which are much larger than the more familiar kind.  They look like tiny pearls.  The directions were interesting.  It said to toast them in a pan with some olive oil until they tan up a bit.  Okay, sure.  Why not.

Stirring to make sure they don't burn.
Not meant to end up black pearls.

In another pan of 2 cups of water (follow the directions on the box), I added a couple of packets of chicken broth concentrate and brought up to a boil.

Those packets have become so darn handy.

After the aforementioned cous cous was lightly toasted, I added the broth infused water to it, made sure it was at a simmer, covered it and let it cook for about 12 minutes or until the water has disappeared.

A brothy waterfall.

Needed some old standbys to enhance the flavor profile.  Sliced shallot and garlic.  Sauteed in a pan with a little olive oil and set aside.



These two make everything that much better.


Your roasted squash should be done at this point. 

We're done!

And your cous cous should be done too and you can fluff it up.  I'm doing my best to get this timing thing down so things can be served up hot.  It's going okay-ish.

If only they were real pearls. I'd be
a kajillionaire.

Grab a mixing bowl, throw the cous cous in it and then toss in the squash cubes.

Cubing was the way to go.

I added the thyme, a little drizzle of olive oil, dash of salt, plus the Parmesan, cooked shallots and garlic.

It was good, but it needed a little somethin' somethin'.  Yes, something sweet would add balance.  I looked in my pantry.  Golden raisins.  Lightly sweet and fruity.  That'll do.

I could have added dried cranberries, but
decided on raisins for the day.

Gently toss the entire bowl of wonderful ingredients together, put a couple scoops into a dark green dish because the color contrast looks great and top with a sprinkle of the toasted squash seeds you made earlier.

This just needed a side of roasted turkey
to be complete.

Can't say I missed pumpkin in this dish because the butternut squash tasted similarly.  It was flavorful, in season and I'm pretty sure I built up my biceps with the preparation.  Cooking is a full contact sport.