Squashed

Last year's harvest from the garden included a number of acorn squash.  I had picked them up at the nursery on a whim really and set them in a part of the garden that hadn't been given the same care and preparation as the raised beds but they thrived.  The resulting crop of squash looked like little green pumpkins and I set them in a paper bag in the house at the end of the season waiting to figure out what to do with them.  Fast forward about 5 months and you would think that they had reduced to a pudding in the bag but other than a single fatality and a small blemish on another, the rest where as stiff as the day they had been picked.  The time in the bag had sapped the green into orange but apparently they are a type of 'winter' squash which have harder skins and are expected to last through the winter in root cellars which I can say they would appear to be able to do. 

I decided that before the rest where to go bad I was going to cook them.  I decided on a standby preparation I had learned to love while on a mission in the Philippines.  Ginataan more or less means to cook something in coconut milk.  For a savory dish like this one I started with diced onions, tiny diced garlic and since I didn't have fresh ginger, a very healthy dose of ginger powder sauteed in a wok to turn the garlic gold and the onions clear.  I made a big change to the normal dish by dumping in some raw sunflower seeds for added protein and some crunch.  Two cans of coconut milk were added which is the only thing that I could say was measured in this whole shebang.  When using the canned stuff it is important to make sure you get all of the solids and liquids in the can.  For authenticity I added fish sauce and bagoong but for the less adventurous salt and pepper would do fine.  To this 'sauce' I added the cubed sqaush and let it simmer for awhile.  I like to let it cook until the squash is soft enough to cut through with a wooden spoon and little effort.  The flesh of the squash also starts to turn translucent at this stage so you can tell either way.

While best served on rice, bread of any kind can serve as a counterpoint.  I would only change two things.  I find I don't like the process of getting the skin off of acorn squash and would probably plant/use butternut in the future.  I also found that the sunflowers seeds, while tasty in the dish, did not result in the added flavor and texture I was hoping for perhaps because of their small size.  I might try peanuts or cashews next time.