Too much of a good thing? Ideas for preserving butternut squash!

We are entering a time of year when most of what you see in your box keeps very well.  Indeed, with the exception of salad crops from the high tunnels, everything in your winter boxes was harvested in October at FF, then stored here until box packing.

But there can still be the problem of too much of a good thing, even if it will theoretically keep for a long, long time in your cool garage or crisper drawer of your refrigerator.

So I’ve been thinking of ways to preserve butternut (or other) squash, in such a way that it is useful for the sorts of dishes we like to make in our household.  This would help with, say, recipes that contain both winter squash and asparagus(!!)… how else is a person to source ingredients?!?

Plus, with broccoli, field greens and even tomatoes in next week’s boxes, it would be nice to have an option to defer winter squash prep (final dish cooking, anyway) for a different day… how about April!   So here’s the experiment I just tried this morning.   Note the times on stove clock, indicating how truly quick-and-easy this is.

This is a good technique anytime you see small “bad spots” on winter squash of any sort:  cut out the crater with a small paring knife.  I like to peel butternuts before cooking… other varieties too, but some can be more difficult (ribbed acorns, for example)

I like to divide the squash into two separate chunks, for ease of cubing.  Scoop out seeds with a spoon (they too can be preserved and eaten… see future posts!).  Be very careful with the last stages of peeling:  butternuts get slippery at this point!

The whole idea of cubing the squash, is to get pieces that are of roughly similar size and shape, so that they heat / cook evenly.  This is not easy with the bulb end (round, with crater) vs the neck/ stem end (can be big and dense).  Just do the best you can.  A very sharp knife really helps!

I tried tossing the cubed squash with a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper (remember, this is an experiment!).  This is not about seasoning the squash, but rather making it easier to handle on the baking tray and freezer.

I spread the squash evenly on an oiled cookie sheet, and put in the oven for 30 minutes first run.  If the squash had been any larger- or if I were attempting to preserve multiple squashes simultaneously- I would have used 2 trays.  The idea is to have a shallow, even coverage of the tray, NOT a piled up heap of cubes that take too long to heat up.

My thought was to get the cubes cooked, say, 80-85% of the way through.  Like blanching sweet corn or green beans before freezing, this helps slow down or kill bacteria that would degrade the cubes even in the deep freeze.  In this case, it took a few extra minutes to get them to that perfect al dente level… I think this load was in the oven nearly 40 minutes.

I like the idea of freezing right on the cookie sheet, then scraping frozen cubes into freezer bags (or better yet, home scale vacuum seal bags to prevent freezer burn over time).  One big advantage of this method is that you can open a bag months later and shake out precisely whatever volume you need for a recipe, and return the rest to the freezer.  The cubes are not frozen up in a big pile that’s tough to pry apart.

OK, IF this experiment works, I should be able to have frozen, nearly-ready-to-eat cubes suitable for salads, pies, soups, curries- whatever you would use butternut for- any month of the year!   And, as a bonus, our household should be under less pressure to cook and eat squash every single week from now till Valentine’s Day!!

Happy Halloween, CSA Members!  

Gratefully- Jack