What You Can Do With A Kaboucha Squash

At the farmer's market, when I bought those chanterelles, I also spied a Kaboucha squash. It's a pretty squash, as you can see from the picture; the kind of thing that you might use to decorate your kitchen in the fall. (And here in Los Angeles, where things aren't so autumnal, I can use all the help I can get.) Only; if you just used the Kaboucha to decorate, you'd be missing out on its great flavor.

I remembered Kaboucha squash as one of the ingredients featured in "Sunday Suppers at Lucques," which is why I initially bought it. But I didn't have any of the other ingredients to make any of Suzanne Goin's Kaboucha squash recipes, so instead I just improvised a recipe of my own.

Using this technique from Anita Lo, I cut the squash into 1-inch thick wedges and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, then laid them on a cookie sheet:

Looks kind of like cantaloupe, right? Only it doesn't have listeria and it's much harder to cut then a cantaloupe; use a super sharp knife and watch your fingers.

Pop that into a 450 degree oven and roast for 20 to 25 minutes until a knife goes in easily and it's nice and caramelized underneath (this is a piece I flipped over):

Doesn't that look lovely?

Here's where I show my chops as a recipe inventor. While that was roasting, I took a bunch of Marcona almonds (they were a gift) and chopped them up and tossed them with chopped parsley, a drizzle of honey, a smaller drizzle of white wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper:

Sort of like a sweet and sour nutty gastrique.

To serve, I simply scooped the squash onto a plate and topped with the nut mixture:

The cool part is you can eat the skin of the squash and everything. The taste is reminiscent of a butternut squash or an acorn squash, but sweeter and slightly more intense. The only thing I'll say here, though, is that this squash was kind of mealy. Craig wasn't a fan (though he loved my topping). I noticed in "Sunday Suppers" it says "if you see an orange Kaboucha, buy that" so maybe buying a green one means it'll be mealier? Not sure. But I, for one, enjoyed it regardless of its mealiness.

And that, my friends, is what you can do with a Kaboucha squash.