After three long days of Cuisine I finals, we are ready to embark on Cuisine II. Week one- vegetables! After spending a good chunk of my adolescence as a vegetarian I have a profound love of veggies. Unfortunately, day one and two of Cuisine II-Vegetables was spent playing hide the vegetable. From drowning cauliflower in mornay sauce and blanketing it in gruyere, to breading and frying eggplant, we managed mask any and all vegetable flavor and obliterate all nutrients from the dish. So sad. Fortunately, day three and four highlighted techniques that emphasized how wonderful vegetables can really be. My favorite dish was created somewhat on the fly. It was Thursday night and we were roasting squash, yippee! We spiced up some butternut squash with cinnamon, cardamom, and brown sugar (how good does that sound), and roasted it along side some kabocha squash. While the butternut squash came out beautifully, when I was scooping out the kabocha it became a crumbly mess. What to do? Puree that sucker! And what goes better with pureed squash than some coconut milk and Thai red curry paste? Ahhh....nothing! There is something about the earthiness of the squash that pairs beautifully with the sweetness of the coconut milk and the spiciness of the curry paste. Pull it all together with a hint of fish sauce, top it with our spiced butternut squash and some cilantro, and you have the best squash dish in the WORLD. It was bangin'!
