Bandages and Butternut Squash
Butternut squash, cutting board and knife, check .... bandages, peroxide and cell phone for call to 911 if necessary, check.
What am I doing? ... well isn't it obvious? I'm getting ready to roast butternut squash for a pesto, squash, caramelized onion pizza. Doesn't everyone get out the first aid kit when peeling Butternut?
Most of the time, I just make mashed Butternut squash, cut it down the middle, remove seeds, put cut side down in shallow glass dish with just a splash of water, cover with foil and bake. Once done, I remove the flesh from skin and mash it like potatoes... but sometimes I need to peel it before it cooks, for times when I want it diced into cubes and roasted. If I weren't trying to be frugal, I would just go to the grocery and buy it peeled and cubed, and pay a premium price, and chastise myself for spending the extra money (when I could have applied the upcharge to a better bottle of wine).
Recently, I was boiling potatoes for potato salad, and it dawned on me, boiling makes it easier to peel a potato, why not try it with on squash?
I cut the squash into big chunks and removed seeds.
Then I boiled a pot of water, once boiling rapidly, put the chunks in and boiled for a few minutes, frequently checking to see how "fork tender" the skin was. Once I was able to pierce the skin easily, I removed it from the water. The squash was still hard, I was just interested in the skin ( ... this disturbs my husband, but every time I say "skin", it makes me think of that part in Silence of the Lambs "the lamb puts the lotion on it's skin"...except in my head, I substitute lotion for whatever I'm doing at the moment. In this instance, I'm sure I thought something like "the Lamb pierces the skin with it's fork"...it's odd I know, but it just makes me giggle).
Once cooled enough to handle, I peeled the skin (see, I just did the whole "the lamb.... " thing in my head as I typed this) just like I knew what I was doing ! Worked great, no cuts, no missing appendages. Check out that sexy knife my BFF gave me !
 |
| Wala! Diced squash, no injuries !!!! |
I will say, this whole precautionary peeling process added about 1/2 hour to the ordeal of peeling the Butternut, but for me, it was worth it, as it usually takes that long for the bleeding to stop when I used to cut myself. In the future, I'll probably try to do a "pre peel" a day or two before I actually need to roast the squash.
Hope someone else finds this useful! .... and if there's a better way, for the love of fingers, please share !!!!
