PING Jill: butternut squash question

In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with olive
oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the squash at 350F
for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt; scoop the flesh from the
shell with a spoon and place in a large mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Thanks,
Joyce

--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary
and those who don't.

In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will cut a
butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw chicken
bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken at my place.
I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety before I could do
anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but they
sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off, leaving
the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an avacado out,
leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which is
what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about the
same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

wrote in message
...
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive
oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the squash at
350F
for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt; scoop the flesh from
the
shell with a spoon and place in a large mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Thanks,
Joyce


Trust me, I'm cheap, too. I'm sure not spending $40+ for a single knife! I
use a cleaver. Give it a good whack down the middle then use a rocking
motion with your hand on top of the cleaver to cut all the way through. (If
the squash has a woody stem on the end cut that off first.)

I don't find the skin of butternut squash to be too terribly thin, but once
it's roasted it *is* soft. The trick is to scoop out the flesh while the
squash is still hot (hence the oven mitt). I just use a table spoon. The
skin may tear a bit but I don't wind up with pieces of it in the soup. Nor
does it leave a lot of the squash itself behind.

I forgot to mention, a dollop of creme fraiche (or sour cream) is a nice
addition after you've ladeled the soup into a bowl. This is a recipe I
re-created after my Dad took me to lunch back in 1999 and was the soup du
jour. I loved it so much I just had to figure out how to make it

I don't think you could use pre-peeled chunks of squash for this recipe and
have it come out as intended.

Jill

"Yowie" wrote in message
...

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

Yep, they're the same thing. Technically all hard-shelled squash could be
called pumpkins and vice versa

Jill

ceramic knives are great for slashing bread dough before baking.
-I gave up on cutting the squash, i poke holes in the skin with a fork. then
i nuke it for 15/20 mins on high in the nuker... then pull skin off with
fingers like anavacado... then cut and remove seeds. add olive oil at this
oint if you want and sautee a bit, but i don't even bother with that
anymore, Lee
"Yowie" wrote in message
...
In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will cut
a butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw chicken
bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken at my
place. I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety before I
could do anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but they
sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an avacado
out, leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which is
what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
ceramic knives are great for slashing bread dough before baking.
-I gave up on cutting the squash, i poke holes in the skin with a fork.
then i nuke it for 15/20 mins on high in the nuker... then pull skin off
with fingers like anavacado... then cut and remove seeds. add olive oil at
this oint if you want and sautee a bit, but i don't even bother with that
anymore, Lee

Except Joyce (and Yowie) were referring to the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
recipe I posted for Matthew. Nuking it just won't create the same taste (or
texture) as roasting the split whole squash.

Jill


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will
cut a butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw
chicken bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken
at my place. I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety
before I could do anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with
it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but they
sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an avacado
out, leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which
is what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

have made similar recipes, the weight watchers sight has one very close to
what you posted. if you nuke then sautee there is very little discernable
difference in taste or texture, ymmv, Lee
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
ceramic knives are great for slashing bread dough before baking.
-I gave up on cutting the squash, i poke holes in the skin with a fork.
then i nuke it for 15/20 mins on high in the nuker... then pull skin off
with fingers like anavacado... then cut and remove seeds. add olive oil
at this oint if you want and sautee a bit, but i don't even bother with
that anymore, Lee

Except Joyce (and Yowie) were referring to the Roasted Butternut Squash
Soup recipe I posted for Matthew. Nuking it just won't create the same
taste (or texture) as roasting the split whole squash.

Jill


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will
cut a butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw
chicken bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken
at my place. I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety
before I could do anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with
it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but they
sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an avacado
out, leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which
is what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
have made similar recipes, the weight watchers sight has one very close to
what you posted. if you nuke then sautee there is very little discernable
difference in taste or texture, ymmv, Lee

Not trying to start an argument. But this soup is a signature dish of mine
and trust me, nuking is not a factor. It would definitely make a difference
in the texture.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
ceramic knives are great for slashing bread dough before baking.
-I gave up on cutting the squash, i poke holes in the skin with a fork.
then i nuke it for 15/20 mins on high in the nuker... then pull skin off
with fingers like anavacado... then cut and remove seeds. add olive oil
at this oint if you want and sautee a bit, but i don't even bother with
that anymore, Lee

Except Joyce (and Yowie) were referring to the Roasted Butternut Squash
Soup recipe I posted for Matthew. Nuking it just won't create the same
taste (or texture) as roasting the split whole squash.

Jill


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will
cut a butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw
chicken bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken
at my place. I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety
before I could do anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with
it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but
they sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an
avacado out, leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which
is what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

we can agree to diagree here, Lee
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
have made similar recipes, the weight watchers sight has one very close
to what you posted. if you nuke then sautee there is very little
discernable difference in taste or texture, ymmv, Lee

Not trying to start an argument. But this soup is a signature dish of
mine and trust me, nuking is not a factor. It would definitely make a
difference in the texture.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Stormmee" wrote in message
...
ceramic knives are great for slashing bread dough before baking.
-I gave up on cutting the squash, i poke holes in the skin with a fork.
then i nuke it for 15/20 mins on high in the nuker... then pull skin
off with fingers like anavacado... then cut and remove seeds. add olive
oil at this oint if you want and sautee a bit, but i don't even bother
with that anymore, Lee

Except Joyce (and Yowie) were referring to the Roasted Butternut Squash
Soup recipe I posted for Matthew. Nuking it just won't create the same
taste (or texture) as roasting the split whole squash.

Jill


"Yowie" wrote in message
...
In ,
typed:
In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I
just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will
cut a butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw
chicken bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw
chicken at my place. I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry
variety before I could do anything useful (or at least, useful to
humans) with it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but
they sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve
leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an
avacado out, leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it -
which is what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking
about the same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

any suqash will work just like the "zuke" bread, Lee
"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Aug 6, 1:18 am, "Yowie" wrote:
,
typed:



In another thread, jmcquown wrote:

Cut squashes in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush with
olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Roast the
squash at 350F for 1 hour until tender. Handle with an oven mitt;
scoop the flesh from the shell with a spoon and place in a large
mixing bowl.

OK. I like cooking from scratch, so when I use butternut squash in a
recipe, I'll start with a whole squash, and do more or less what you
say above. However, I always run into two problems which make this a
very labor-intensive and somewhat unpleasant task.

First is, I can't seem to cut an uncooked squash in half. Maybe I just
need a better knife? I am so not a knife expert. Also, I'm cheap. A
friend of mine, an amateur chef and culinary knife hobbyist (I hasten
to specify "culinary" so you won't think he's some psycho), considers
a $40 knife to be a "cheap" knife. WTF? I've never spent more than
maybe $15 max on a knife!

Alright, I'm willing to spend $40 - can someone recommend a decent
type of knife in that price range? One that will fairly easily cut a
raw butternut squash in half?

Go to your local Asian store and get one of their cleavers or larger,
heavier knives - the cleaver I have (from an Asian grocery place) will cut
a
butternut in half, no problem. It would probably cut through raw chicken
bone, too, without a problem, although I don't *do* raw chicken at my
place.
I'd be mugged by two greedy theives of the furry variety before I could do
anything useful (or at least, useful to humans) with it.

For smaller knives, I like Victorinox brand. They ain't pretty, but they
sure do a good job.

But you can't beat a ceramic knife. They're awesome, and scary sharp.
Although you probably won't find one for $40 - but hey, you might be
lucky.

Second problem. The skin of the squash is so thin that there's no way
to scrape out the flesh without taking half the skin with it. How do
you do it?? There has to be a trick. I hope it doesn't involve leaving
large amounts of edible squash behind.

Roast butternut peices with skin on. Then just smoosh the flesh off,
leaving
the skin behind (sorta like how you take the flesh of an avacado out,
leaving the skin behind).

The other option is of course just to use a potato peeler on it - which is
what I do.

BTW, we call them butternut pumpkins, but I suspect we're talking about
the
same thing:

http://fruit4you.net.au/store/images/butternut.jpg

I'm about to break down and buy one of those bags of pre-peeled,
de-seeded, cut-into-cubes squash - what's the world coming to?

Noooooooooo!!!!!.

Yowie

Uh, I hate to bring this up, but one of our international friends here
has
already had a disaster with knives from Asian cutlery supply. What do
you think is gonna happen when they start with *cleavers*? Just
askin'.
Jill is a great cook but I hate squash, ditto zucchini.
Can't you make some kind of squash bread or cake, like how I learned
to like zucchini, in sweet bread?