squash

i just harvested my friends garden and she had this type squash. does anyone know the name of this one and how i should cook it. thanks fg21

Farmgirl,

Looks like a scallop squash. Use it like any other summer squash, cooked or raw.

I have a great recipe for summer squash timbales that scallops work great in. Let me know if you want it.

The flat ones would be "Patty Pan". http://davesgarden.com/showthread/81064.html

brook yes i would love the recipe thank you. dave would you believe all that squash came from the same plants she had no time this season to harvest with going to school and working. so everything is just rotting away. it really is a shame i wish i could have taken more but a lot of what she is growing i am too. some of it was so far gone i could not do anything with.

Dave,

Aren't patty pan and scallop the same thing?

Whatever. The scallops I grew last year were a variety called "Patty Pan Bush Scallop". I wouldn't think a seed company would name their variety redundantly, but I suppose anything's possible.

Summer Squash Timbale

4 cups summer squash, shredded
salt
2 tbls. Olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped fine
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbls fresh herbs, minced
5 eggs, beaten
2 cups heavy cream
Black pepper to taste
Butter, softened
1 cup dry bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350.

Sprinkle squash generously with salt. Set in colander and let drain, 30 minutes. Gather squash in a cloth and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.

Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and sauté until soft. Add garlic and sauté one minute longer. Remove from heat and toss with squash. Stir in minced herbs. Add beaten eggs and cream and season to taste.

Butt the bottom and sides of a 5-cup mold, or six pudding cups. Dust molds with bread crumbs. Fill with squash mixture.

Transfer molds to a deep baking pan and add hot water to reach 2/3 up the sides of the timbales. Bake, uncovered, about 1 hour for large mold, 45 minutes for small cups. Let cool 5 minutes. Loosen with a sharp knife and unmold onto platter. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

This freezes well, btw. I usually make a large batch of them, using the small molds, and keep the extras in the freezer for a quick side dish or first course.

A nice first course for a sit-down dinner is to serve one of these unmolded on a bed of sweet & sour red cabbage. A small dollop of Aioli Verde on top of each timbale completes the presentation.

BTW, when you are overwhelmed with summer squashes, consider grating them and freezing in zipper bags. There are so many recipes calling for grated squash this give you an easy way to preserve that summer goodness for use through the winter and spring.

brook this sounds wonderful i printed it up. thank you. when you grate squash you don't have to blanch before freezing? i blanched squash slices last yr and they did not taste good coming out of the freezer.

I never have, Farmgirl. But I usually leave the skins on when I grate them, unless they're overly large and the skin is toughening up.

Hasn't seemed to make a difference in taste. But, by the same token, for the things you'd use grated squash for, it usually absorbs flavors from the other ingredients. That could make a difference.

When freezing sliced summer squash, I usually don't put it up raw. For instance, I might saute it in butter or olive oil with some garlic, chopped red onion, and mushrooms, then freeze that in meal sized quantities.

When I have an overabundance (and who doesn't with summer squash?), I also slice it and dry the slices in the dehydrator. These then get used in soups, stews, and similar dishes.

i did use a dehydrator last yr also and all my summer squash tasted and the texture was rubber. don't ask me what i did wrong lol. i have no clue. but i sure will cook up dishes and grate some and then freeze.

It's possible, farmgirl, that your temperature setting was too high.

I try and never go much past 90 degrees. And certainly never more than 115. Anything more than that and you actually cook the food as it dries. It then either won't rehydrate at all, or does it poorly, because the cell structure has undergone permanent changes.

If you're using a commercial dehydrator (for instance, the American Harvester), the recommended temperatures that came with it are _way_ to high. Keep in mind they're more concerned with liability questions than with food quality. Ignore them, and work at around 100 degrees, and your food should turn out better.

oh very good, thank you for the tip. i will see if i can turn it down a few degrees.

Interesting thread! Yes, squash just doesn't freeze well. Canning it isn't all that much better, IMHO. Doing like Brook suggested, cooking it as a casserole or other pre-made dish works MUCH better. A girlfriend gave me a recipe for a cheese-squash-chili-pepper casserole that I think I'll try making and freezing this year to use up all my extra squash. That and your recipe, Brook. It does sound yummy! I'll try the grating it way as well.

dehydrating the grated squash works well also. You end up with a flat crumbly plate of squash that breaks easily into a ziploc bag for storage. Over winter throwing a handful into soup or stew or dip or dressing or......is easy to do. Plus squash haters don't realize it's in there :)

To dehydrate, grate and spread on your dehydrator tray. You may need to spray or brush with a little oil to prevent sticking. Dry as you would sliced tomatos.

Chris

Hmmmmmmm. My unit came with a thin, non-perforated tray designed for making fruit leathers. I bet it would work great with grated squash.

On the subject of drying squashes, btw, try drying thin slices of pumpkin in your dehydrator. Then suck on them as a snack. They're great!

Mine came with one of those too. But I think you will find (unless you have significantly bigger perforations in your trays than I do) the "mat" of grated squash doesn't fall thru. You don't have to have a single layer when it's grated. The air flows thru the nooks and crannies of the grated veggie. You know the mound you get when you lift the grater out of the way. Just spread it out a little. You see what I mean?