Butternut Squash Two Ways and Pan Fried Salmon

A week or so ago we made the drive back to Tennessee to visit family.  We carried a couple of boxes of goodies for family members.  We took stuff from our garden that the good wife had canned, pickles, pinkeye purple hull peas, black berry preserves, etc.  I took some samples of my bacon and sausage.  This is a variation on my childhood memories.  It seems like every time we visited my maternal grandparents we ended up with jars of preserves or containers of frozen corn or peas.  Then, my grandparents had the most productive garden and now I seem to have the most productive garden.


We did bring some stuff back courtesy of the good wife's sister.  From her garden we had some butternut squash and some purple peppers.  The peppers were sweet with a nice fresh flavor.  I much prefer their flavor over green bell peppers.  They are excellent sliced thinly and added to a salad.  I need to try to find them for my garden next year.  We also brought home a loaf of homemade sour dough bread.  I must say, that is some most excellent bread and she has been making it as long as I can remember.

A nice purple bell pepper

For the butternut squash I was wanting to do something different.  I know, there is nothing wrong with roasted butternut squash but there has to be more variety.  An idea came to me while I was watching SEC football on Saturday afternoon.  A quick Google search didn't turn up anything like it so I had my dish.  What I came up with was butternut squash waffle fries.  That accounted for the solid neck portion of the squash and the rest was cubed up and saved for another meal.

Butternut squash waffle fries and Pan fried salmon

The two meals with the butternut squash also featured pan fried salmon.  I first came across this method 8 or 9 years ago while we were living in Texas.  I don't remember if I found it online or saw it on TV.  What I like about this method is it's quick, gives nice crispy salmon skin, and it's easy to get the salmon to your desired level of doneness.  As a bonus, if desired you can use the butter and salmon juices left in the skillet as the base for a pan sauce to pour over the salmon.


Pan Fried Salmon


1 skin on fillet per person
1 stick butter, softened
kosher salt
pepper

Make sure the scales are off the salmon skin.  Pat dry both the flesh side and the skin side of the fillets.  Leave skin side up.  Coat the skin with a layer of the softened butter. Sprinkle some kosher salt all over the butter coating then add a little pepper.  Lay the fillets in a hot skillet skin side down and sprinkle additional salt and pepper on the flesh side.  When the cooked line is about halfway up the fillet, gently flip it over.  The skin should me nicely browned and crisp.  When the cooked lines meet in the middle the salmon is done.  The salmon will be completely done and flaky but will still be moist.

To make a pan sauce to pour over, add 2 - 3 more tablespoons of butter to the skillet.  Once it has melted and is sizzling, add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of bourbon to the skillet.  If you want to be dramatic and can safely do so, you can burn off the alcohol.  If you don't think you can safely do it then just let the mixture simmer for a couple of minutes.  Once the alcohol has burned off, add 1 Tbs of mustard and 1 1/2 tsp honey to the skillet.  Stir to combine and let simmer until reduced to the consistency you want.  Spoon over each fillet.

Fried butternut squash, pan fried salmon with pan sauce, fresh salad

Butternut Squash Waffle Fries


1 Butternut Squash neck, peeled
oil
salt


Using the waffle blade on a mandolin, cut the squash using the smallest thickness possible.  Once the squash is sliced, let is sit until the oil gets hot.  I used my outdoor fryer with peanut oil and got the oil to 375F.  Immerse the waffle cut squash in the oil and fry until browned.  Drain well and lightly sprinkle with salt.  Serve and enjoy.

Fried Butternut Squash


1 Butternut squash, cubed.  In this case I used just the seed end of the squash.
bacon grease
salt
pepper
roasted cumin


Season the cubed butternut squash with salt, pepper, and roasted cumin.  Heat bacon grease in a skillet, use 2 - 3 Tbs.  Once hot, add the squash and give it a good shake.  Let the squash cook until it starts to brown then toss the skillet to get the squash flipped.  Continue cooking until the desired level of brown is reached.  Serve and enjoy.


Both these ways of cooking butternut squash are tasty departures from the norm.  The waffle fries weren't even thickness due to the difficulty of getting it to cut smoothly.  As a result, many of them were crispy on one part and crispy with a soft inside at the other.  The little bit of salt was just enough to emphasize the sweetness of the squash.  The cubed squash had a similar texture all the way through but the addition of the cumin and the flavor imparted from the bacon grease made the flavor something else.  Both of these methods will be put to use again.  I don't usually grow winter squash but I may need to next year.


The salmon and butternut squash, either way, would be good accompanied by a salad.  The salmon and cubed squash was accompanied by a simple salad.  The salad was Romaine, Red Leaf lettuce, sliced onion, sliced purple sweet peppers, sliced carrots, tossed with apple cider vinegar salad dressing and topped with freshly fried bacon pieces.  Given the time of year, only the pepper was home grown.


Give this salmon and these butternut squash recipes a try in your kitchen.  I think you'll be pleased with the results.  If you do try them, let me know what you think.


Uncle T