Stuffed Buttercup Squash

Monday 21 December

The apple guy at Findlay Market sold Barbara a big squash, saying it was a Kabocha, which is the same thing as a Buttercup.  She looked it up on the internet, and found that they were two completely different squashes (though both Cucurbita maxima).  The Japanese Kabocha is the current vegan favorite, and what we had was a Buttercup.

We went with our favorite Craig Claiborne recipe for sausage-stuffed winter squash. We split the buttercup around the equator, so it would rest flat in the oven, and found that the top (right on the photo) held most of the seed cavity, so had the largest hollow when scooped out, while the bottom (on the left) had most of the orange flesh and only a small cavity.  So we removed the thin top as soon as the squash was tender, and left the thick bottom in for a little while longer.

The stuffing was 10 oz. of Charles Bare sausage, so needed no seasoning beyond lots of chopped fresh sage.  The starch was a couple of slices of stale duck bread.  Since the squash flesh seemed a bit bland and dry, we did what the original recipe suggested and scattered a little of the sweet streusel topping at the bottom of each hollow, before piling the sausage stuffing in.

We split the deep top and ate that first, then also ate the stuffing out of the other half.  But there was plenty of squash left over, and we'll use it in something else soon.