A Simple Asian Menu for Autumn

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Last night, I put together a simple dinner of three dishes cooked with different techniques but with similar flavors to create a coherent meal. I thought the flavors combined nicely to compose an autumnal, Asian-inspired menu. None of these dishes requires a full recipe, just knowledge of the appropriate technique. This is my favorite type of menu: simple, improvisational, complete and satisfying.

It started with a trip through the grocery store, picking out what looked delicious and fresh with no real destination recipe in mind: salmon fillets, butternut squash, bok choy. Once home and looking over my purchases, the bok choy inspired me to think Asian, and the menu evolved from there. This is when I really feel like I’m cooking — when I’m building on techniques for cooking and flavoring ingredients that I’ve already learned to construct a thematically complete meal. Each item complemented the others nicely, tied together by the Asian-style flavors.

Here is the menu:

• Pan-seared salmon with sesame drizzle
• Stir-fried bok choy
• Simmered butternut squash with Asian flavors

To make the Pan-Seared Salmon with Sesame Drizzle, season salmon steaks or thick fillets with salt and pepper, and pan-sear over medium-high heat in a little canola oil until cooked to your liking. In the meantime, heat ½ tbsp. peanut oil with 1 tbsp. sesame oil over low. Stir in 1 tbsp. soy sauce. Drizzle a little over each piece of salmon before serving.

The Stir-Fried Bok Choy is chopped and stir-fried with a little garlic and ginger in peanut oil. After it turns bright green, add ¼ cup chicken stock and 1-2 tbsp. soy sauce. Let the bok choy steam in the liquid until tender.

I have made the Simmered Butternut Squash with Asian Flavors before — click the link for the recipe.

Autumnal Butternut Squash Soup

This is a super-simple butternut squash soup based on my blueprint for creamy soups. I like the smooth, pure taste of squash in this soup, but it can be dressed up in many ways. For instance, I’ve added apples to it before; also chipotle chiles.

Butternut Squash Soup

Serves: 2
Time to make: ~45 minutes

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups butternut squash, cubed, peeled, and with seeds and stringy stuff removed
• 1 tsp. Northwoods Fire seasoning mix or other seasonings to taste
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• chives or scallion greens for garnish

1. Heat the oil over medium
2. Add the onion and saute until golden
3. Add the stock and squash
4. Season
5. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 20-25 minutes, until the squash is fork-tender
6. Remove from the heat and puree
7. Stir in the cream and reheat over low
8. Garnish with snipped chives or scallion greens

Notes:

I wanted a little heat, so I used 1 tsp. of Penzey’s Northwoods Fire seasoning mix, which contains a lot of things but primarily: salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and rosemary.

For a nifty presentation, you can swirl in the cream artfully with a spoon before serving (see photo).

What’s In Season? Butternut Squash

I try to eat seasonally as much as possible. I think seasonal eating is something we have lost touch with in our culture of “have it when you want it.” But when you eat a vegetable at the appropriate season, it’s more flavorful and more nutritious. Likely, it has traveled a shorter distance to get to you and required less elaborate storage, meaning less impact on the environment and less use of fossil fuels. So local, seasonal eating is good for you and good for the planet.

Of course, you don’t have to go overboard. Last time I checked, we didn’t grow avocados in North Carolina in any season, but that doesn’t mean I’m going without guacamole for the rest of my life.

To find out what’s in season, visit your local farmers market and buy whatever they’re selling. You also get to meet the people who grow your food, and unless they’re trying to pass off papayas as “local,” you know you’re getting produce that was grown and harvested nearby. Whenever I go to the local hippie-dippie grocery store (called Earth Fare around here, a wonderful place that is open 24 hours a day and is always empty), I buy whatever’s labeled “local.”

My goal is to someday have the space and time to grow a lot of my own food. This was our first summer in this house, so I started out small with a pretty comprehensive herb garden (see photo). Next year, we’re planning to put in a couple of raised vegetable beds. Before you know it, we’ll have chickens, goats and a full-scale orchard. I wonder how that will go over with the homeowners association.

But we were going to talk about butternut squash (the guy on the right). Butternut squash is what is known as a winter squash. Winter squashes are harvested now and then stored for eating throughout the winter. Unlike summer squashes (such as zucchini), winter squashes have a thick, inedible skin that you have to remove somehow.

What I do is hack the squash in two just where the “bulb” begins. Then I slice off the skin, trying to remove as little of the flesh as possible. I scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff in the middle, which is always a bit messy. Then I cube the squash meat for cooking. One serving is equivalent to 1 cup of cubed squash. Generally, a smallish 1-pound squash will yield 2 cups of flesh.

When you go to buy a butternut squash, choose one that feels firm and heavy when you heft it. Store the thing in a cool, dark place for up to 1 month. Once you’ve cut it, wrap the cut end in plastic and store the unused portion in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

What can you make with butternut squash? Well, the one pictured above is going to be turned into soup (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow, probably). But you can also roast it or simmer it in liquid and butter until soft. Once it’s cooked, you can mash it like potatoes. Butternut squash is a nice addition to a pasta or risotto. You can even use cooked squash to make squash bread (instead of pumpkin bread or zucchini bread, for instance).

Let me know what you did with your butternut squash.