Tasty kabocha squash is DRY. How do I use this?

December 13, 2015 7:03 PM

Hokkaido variety kabocha squash. I cut it in chunks and steamed it -- with the intention of eating it plain. It has lovely sweet chestnut flavor. But so dry and crumbley, like stale cake. Any suggestions on how I can repurpose this steamed squash? If I make soup, will the dry crumbles melt into the broth and make a smooth soup? Or I could mix it with mashed sweet potatoes. But again, I hope for a smooth texture without dry crumbles. Tools: I have only a standard blender. And a manual potato masher.
posted by valannc to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Just puree it into the liquid. It won't melt.
posted by JPD at 7:07 PM on December 13, 2015

Are you sure it's as cooked as you want it to be? What I'd do is wrap the chunks you've got in foil and pop them in the oven (toaster oven is fine) at 300 for a good long time, then puree into soup with broth; a bit of cream never hurts. A regular blender should be enough but if you are worried you can also push it through a strainer at the end.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:08 PM on December 13, 2015

Response by poster: The squash is definitely cooked, perhaps overcooked. I ate some.
posted by valannc at 7:42 PM on December 13, 2015

It also might be underripe, I think that can lead to dry-textured flesh. I would make soup out of it.
posted by quaking fajita at 8:00 PM on December 13, 2015

Best answer: I made squash soup recently with Castilla Pumpkin. I blended it in a regular blender until I arrived at the desired consistency. I added water left over from cooking, but the squash had a lot of water to release. That said if you want a creamy base you can use pecans, blended first with enough water to make a cream. You have to decide how thin you want the pecan cream. It will blend to perfect smoothness. Then throw in hunks of squash and help it along to smoothness with a silicon spatula. I sauteed garlic, onion, dill in sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil. I put in a little curry powder for color and back sweetness. If you want to go vegetarian you can add roasted pumpkin seed and call it a soup once you have salted it to taste, a little chardonnay is good in there too.

One variety of this soup had Italian Sausage and Salvadoran Yellow sour cream. I made a pie with the pecan cream because I had no condensed milk. In the case of that I added sugar to the recipe.

By your description that squash is interestingly dry. It might just be drought, I noticed the cabbages were stringy this year, and the celery was skinny, coming out of California.
posted by Oyéah at 8:03 PM on December 13, 2015

Response by poster: Yes, interestingly dry. Not under-ripe. I know the farmer. They are near Yakima WA. They had drought, and their squash yield was greatly reduced.

I know I'm thread-sitting. No more comments from me. I will make soup, report my results, and mark best answers.

Thanks to all for your replies.
posted by valannc at 8:35 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you are looking for a way to add moisture and creaminess back in, adding coconut milk to make a soup is the most delicious way to go in my opinion.
posted by mossicle at 8:57 PM on December 13, 2015

This is how they are, it's a weirdly dry squash. This is a feature but only for certain things. You might want to try cooking it with a sage cream sauce (or on preview coconut milk) and mashing it up that way. I find that it works well with liquids and can be pureed decently, it's just not great on its own and is weirdly flakey.
posted by jessamyn at 8:58 PM on December 13, 2015

When using dry squashes, I don't just cook them in soup for a while, but a full 8 hours in my slow cooker.
posted by Aranquis at 10:51 PM on December 13, 2015

I would totally make gnocchi. Squash gnocchi is often challenging because it's hard to get the moisture out of the squash so if i make it, I usually let it dry some. So I'd make squash gnocchi with a sauce made from garlic, sage, balsamic vinegar, and butter and shave parmesan on top of it.

Otherwise, I'd go with a soup which is always easy peasy with squash -- vegetable or chicken stock, onions, garlic, paprika, chipotle pepper or hot pepper sauce or both, puree, and done. Standard blender is fine for this. The combination of the sweet squash and spices is excellent.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:50 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Here's a good gnocchi recipe I've actually used, though I pan fried the gnocchi in butter after boiling it.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:52 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

GNOCCHI! I just made squash gnocchi last week, and my biggest regret was that the squash wasn't drier. You have gold on your hands here, time for glorious carbs.
posted by Freyja at 2:29 PM on December 14, 2015

Best answer: I make pies out of those. In fact, that's all I ever done with kabocha squashes. They require more cream than you'd guess because they're starchy as hell otherwise but they make a great "pumpkin" pie.
posted by small_ruminant at 9:21 PM on December 14, 2015

Response by poster: RESULTS: Made soup. Didn't have any stock, so I used water. Started with finely diced shallot and celery cooked slowly in lots of butter. Added squash chunks, water, dried sage, salt, white pepper. It all cooked down nicely. Didn't bother with the blender. Served it next day, with cream mixed in. Simple and good.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I love gnocchi, but we're not eating much flour these days. @small_ruminant: In future, I might make a crustless pie (a.k.a. custard). I bought another of these Hokaiddo kabochas. It has a wonderful sweet chestnut flavor. Perfect for a dessert.
posted by valannc at 2:45 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]