Butternut Squash Tart

A great new recipe I discovered around Thanksgiving offers another use for butternut squash besides the typical soup route.  A crowd favorite, this is a nice hearty appetizers that toes the line between sweet and savory.

Ingredients: frozen puff pastry sheet, butternut squash (preferably whole/fresh and sliced to your desired thinness), 1 egg + water, salt, olive oil, fresh sage leaves, honey or maple syrup, parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven 375 and begin by placing the puff pastry sheet on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Beat the egg and a tsp of water to make an egg wash and brush it over the puff pastry.  Arranged your butternut squash slices evenly over the pastry, overlapping as you see fit.

Cover the squash covered pastry with more parchment paper and another cookie sheet of something with a little weight to press down on the squash before putting it into the oven.  As it bakes, the moisture in the squash won't evaporate leaving it dry, but allow for steam cooking.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes.  When you notice some puffing of the pastry, but not browning on top, you're good.

Remove the top layer of parchment paper and cookie sheet, brush or drizzle with olive oil and return the squash pastry to the oven.  Bake for an addition half an hour or so, uncovered, until the squash looks cooked to your doneness (you can poke it with a toothpick or fork to make sure it is soft enough), and the pastry is a light golden brown, but not a burnt mess.

The suggested toppings for the tart are a chili-infused honey, fried sage leaves, and freshly shaved parmesan cheese.  When I made this, we did not have honey and one of our diners was not a fan of spicy things, so for the drizzle, we went with maple syrup instead.  I wanted the syrup to be thicker though, so in a saute pan I heated a few tablespoons of syrup with about half as much water, cooked to a boil, then simmered while it reduced and thickened.  For the fried sage, heat the olive oil in a shallow skillet over medium-high heat and add the fresh sage, one leaf at a time.  It will bubble/pop because of the moisture in the leaves, and it will fry quickly so remove the leaves with tongs after about 5-10 seconds on each side in the oil.

Top the tart with the honey or syrup drizzle, the fried sage, and the cheese (preferably freshly shaved parmesan, but we only had pre-grated).  Slice into individual squares and serve!

Roasted Green Beans

I have recently become a big fan of roasting vegetables as a nice rustic side dish for heartier meals.  Today's recipe comes from my Thanksgiving dinner (a bit delayed in the posting, yes).  Rather than the "traditional" green bean casserole doused in soup, I wanted something with more of a bite and less heavy, since Thanksgiving meals are already so good at weighing us down without an added casserole masquerading as a healthy veggie side dish.

The setup is simple.  Veggies, olive oil, garlic, spices.  I roasted some root veggies for Christmas (sorry no pics) and followed the same system (carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, garlic, olive oil, sage).

For this preparation I took fresh green beans with both ends chopped off, fresh scallions cut to the same length as the green beans, a couple tablespoons of minced garlic, fresh sage (~30 whole leaves), dried thyme (~2 tsp), and dried rosemary (~2 tsp).  I drizzled with olive oil (probably about 2 - 3 tbsp) and mixed until everything was lightly covered.

Lay the beans out on an oven rack and bake in a 400 degree oven for an hour.  Every 10-20 minutes or so I went through and tossed the beans with tongs to move them around on the tray so there was even cooking.

And that's it!  Once done you have some nice caramelization on parts of the beans, a good balance between crisp and "soggy" bites, and a good foundation for any of the gravies or sauces you'll be serving with your entree rather than coming to the party with its own sauce.

Seared Scallops in a Walnut Leek Sauce with Fried Sage and Bacon

I haven't had much of an occasion to cook myself scallops lately, so I had a friend over for dinner last night who also loves bivalves as much as I do, which allowed me to try a new recipe I found in Food and Wine Magazine.  The only glitch was that the recipe called for chestnuts and wouldn't you know, but no grocer sells chestnuts in June.  This was incredibly frustrating, as I had purchased all the necessary ingredients sans chestnuts, so I opted to substitute walnuts in the sauce.  Had I planned more than an hour before dinner time, perhaps chestnuts could have been found in the city.  Suffice it to say, next time I'll plan ahead.

Sauce Ingredients bacon, 1 leek, 2 tbsp cognac, 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1/2 cup walnuts, salt/pepper
Other Ingredients Scallops, sage leaves, butter, olive oil


The recipe called for one slice of bacon, but that's like filling a fishbowl with only 1 drop of water, so I bumped it up to five slices.  Slice and cook in a saucepan over medium heat until properly rendered.

I removed 1/2 the bacon for garnish later, and to the pan added the sliced leek, white and green portions.  After cooking for about 5 minutes to soften, it was time to add the cognac.  I purchased cheap brandy since I'm not much of a cognac drinker, but in the future I may use white wine, or a fruit cider.  The fun part is adding the cognac and igniting it.  Please don't attempt this at home if you've never tried it before.

Typically when you ignite liquor on the stove you are using a shallow sauce pan which you can tilt into the gas flame of the stove to pick it up.  I don't have a shallow sauce pan.  I used a blow torch.  After about a minute the flame subsides, but if you want to make sure you can blow it out completely.  Next you add the chicken broth and the walnuts, or chestnuts if you are so lucky.

Let simmer for five to ten minutes, remove from heat to cool a bit, then transfer to a blender and puree.  Return to saucepan, season with salt and pepper and let sit over low heat while you prepare the scallops.

In a shallow pan heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add single sage leaves and fry for about a minute, turning over once.

If you've never had fried herbs/greens before they assume a really interesting texture.  They practically melt on your mouth after an initial feeling like a thin paper.  Sage leaves, since they are naturally so thick, did not have quite the same effect of disintegration, but it was close.


Finally it's time to cook the scallops in the sage infused oil.  Make sure the oil level is low, and add the scallops to sear on the outside.  Turn over after a minute or two.  Then melt some butter in the pan and spoon it over the scallops to continue cooking for another 2 to 5 minutes.  The butter acts as a poaching liquid at this point, but keeps the scallops moist.

Finally you're ready to plate.  Serve immediately so the scallops don't get tough.  I plated the sauce first, then piled on the mashed potatoes and displayed the scallops around.  Garnish with the sage leaves and bacon.  We served with salad on the side.

All in all I would prepare this again, hopefully using chestnuts instead of walnuts.  The scallops were perfect, but we both agreed the brandy flavor in the sauce was a little more noticeable than we would have liked.  I had no problem mixing the sauce with the mashed potatoes and avoiding the strength of the brandy.  The leeks and bacon really came through too.  In the future I may skip the brandy, use less, or use a different spirit.  But if you like your sauces tasting like something from behind the bar, then you'll love this dish.