The very simple stuffing for this butternut squash is made primarily of the flesh of the squash itself. Garlic, a bit of ginger, and chopped scallions are added for flavor. If you are not fond of ginger, which gives this combination its unusual taste, you may want to use less of it, or eliminate it altogether. Bread crumbs, tossed with a little oil and sprinkled on top of the filling, become brown and crisp in the oven, and their crunchy texture contrasts nicely with the creaminess of the filling.
Foodtalk contributor Miss Capri's Chef adapted this recipe from a dish his mother used to make. He says this version was invented "the day Tricky Dick went to the big Jell-O buffet in the sky."
My daughter, who has examined many religions, said the broccoli with chili oil was a sensation at a Buddhist breakfast. I suppose you could say this got rave reviews from vegetable experts.
All cooks have a few basic recipes that they turn to again and again over the course of a year. Potato and green bean salad is one of mine. I make it different ways depending on the season and my mood. It's very good dressed with just olive oil and lemon juice, but it becomes absolutely superb when bound with homemade Green Goddess. If you're familiar only with the bottled version of this dressing, you must try my recipe, which is based on the original, invented in the 1920s by the great San Francisco chef Victor Hirtzler.
Don't buy peas without tasting them. They should be sweet and juicy.
Ingredients
Each summer, Johannes Sailer—chef at Les Abeilles in the Provencal village of Sablet—creates an all-tomato menu. One year he opened the meal with this stunning soup: all red, all fresh, all full of honest tomato flavor. This liquid blend of tomatoes, seasoning, top-quality olive oil, and vinegar makes you fee as though you are drinking your salad!
The simplicity of this Calabrian dish is stunning, and for that reason there is no point in even thinking about it until that time in late summer when utterly ripe, red, and flavorful garden tomatoes are in season—preferably from your own or a neighbor's garden. That's where the flavor lies—there and in the use of fine extra-virgin olive oil, good crunchy sea salt, a zesty dash of hot red chili, and, of course, the charcoal fire on which the tomatoes are set to roast. Toast the bread over the charcoal embers after you finish the tomatoes, so it will be crisp but not tough and hard.
Often improvisations are fueled by memories of dishes past; they're attempts to recreate a singular set of flavors or a dish's particular pleasure. When I found myself yearning for two classic fish dishes I used to eat in France years ago, I made an amalgam of the two, to capture the crispiness of goujonettes—fillets of sole cut into strips, dusted with flour, and deep-fried, and the comforting delicate butteriness of sole meuniére—whole or fillets, flour-dusted and panfried in butter.
Making fromage fort is the ultimate way of using your leftover cheese.