Omnomicon

Excited about winter squash, I wanted to make a pumpkin soup. I couldn’t find any recipes, so I tried to adapt a mishmash of recipes online for butternut squash soup. So uh, here’s a little documentation of the process.

I started off with more ingredients than I ended with.

I mean, look how beautiful!

The pumpkin gave me a hard time, and was much more difficult to make photogenic. The guts, however, are just so darn pretty.

I then prepared these to roast for an hour.

Post-roast, we make a squash smoothie that looks here suspiciously like a mango smoothie of some kind.

I couldn’t get a good shot of both brands of soup, but I promise, they look the same and the butternut was way better. It didn’t even need the maple syrup I thought might give a nice layer of flavour.

In addition to being a bit time-consuming, this recipe will also leave your kitchen a total mess. But Dano ate it until he couldn’t any more and ranted and raved and, I assure you, has no problems being harsh when he doesn’t like something. So maybe it’s just not for everyone? It is super healthy and flavourful and I don’t think there’s any fat in this. So there are certainly redeeming qualities here!

Here’s the recipe I ended up with after all my experimentation. Thanks, Epicurious!

When I was a kid we visited my Uncle Doug with some frequency, and he only owned two movies from what I can remember. The first was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which didn’t appeal to me for more than five minutes at a time, and the second was Fried Green Tomatoes. Yes, it is a chick flick, but it’s also a dark period film, and at the time that shit was directly up my alley. Oh, who are we kidding, it’s still up my alley.

In college, I took a food lit class and this was also on the required reading. Turns out in the book there’s a little bit more of a lesbian bent. Who knew? Whatever the case, I digress. It all comes down to I saw green tomatoes at work, and decided to try something new. In addition to the food itself, check out the results of my fancy little light box!

Look at these babies. Just beautiful, the color.

Green being my favourite colour, this was practically a religious experience visually.

This isn’t sandart, it’s just the underwhelming breading for these things.

And here they are, fried green tomatoes!

These were really just okay, which surprises me in a way, considering how much oil went into them, but not in other ways, like it’s a southern dish. I could see these being excellent with seasoned breadcrumbs, but I’m not a big fan of cornmeal without something punching it up a bit, and needless to say, the tsp of paprika really didn’t cut it. That said, I made an attempt to salvage this experiment.

Yep, you can make anything into a pretty good sammich. This one features arugula, cheddar, red onion, and mayo. My research tells me that green tomatoes are indeed just red tomatoes that haven’t had a chance to ripen yet. I thought maybe they were some kind of varietal. Maybe I’ll try fried heirloom tomatoes one of these days.

If you are interested in making your own, here’s a recipe from Epicurious.

Hokay, lookit what I found!

Organic Purple Green Beans! Cool! Perfect! Let’s make my awesome No-Can Green Bean Casserole.

First, we rinse ’em.

Gather our other ingredients.

Oh check this out, they’re green on the inside!

Now we chop the mushrooms.

Oux! A roux to get this party started.

Aww . . . I guess they turn green when you cook them. A good way of telling when they’re cooked, though!

My my, what a sexy casserole!

Fancy casserole shot.

Recipe
The thought of mushroom soup in a green bean casserole is enough to make me want to gag. Couple that with canned green beans and I am a nauseous cook. However, there is hope! Nook and Pantry found this recipe and it is fantastic (and low calorie–a serving has 129 calories, 5.2g fiber and 5g of fat). I’ll eat half a batch as a dinner rather than a side. YUM!

The Foodie’s Green Bean Casserole
Adapted from Nook and Pantry
Serves 4

1 lb green beans, ends trimmed and broken in half
8 oz button mushrooms, chopped
3 tbsp Land O’Lakes Light Butter
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp flour
salt and pepper
1/2 c chicken stock (chicken broth and Better Than Bouillon also work)
1/4 c Land O’Lakes Fat Free Half and Half
1 sauteed chopped onion

Preheat the oven to 400o F.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushroom, garlic, some salt and pepper, and cook until the mushrooms are starting to release their liquid. When the liquid is starting to reduce, add the beans and cook until they are bright green and still a bit crunchy, about 5 minutes. You will only bake the casserole for a few minutes in the oven so cook the beans a little less than your desired tenderness.

While the beans are cooking, melt the remaining 2 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the flour, whisk and cook until the roux is slightly golden. Slowly pour in the chicken stock, while continually whisking. Simmer the mixture for about a minute. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk in the half and half, and add the green bean and mushroom pieces; toss to coat.

Pour the mixture into an 8 x 8 Pyrex or a 9″ diameter pie dish. Sprinkle with sauteed onions. Bake about 10 minutes.