Butternut Squash

Maple-Roasted Winter Squash

December 24, 2009 by Charles 3 Comments

Cooking offers the chance to learn something new.

Sometimes, it’s a new cooking style – broiling or deep frying, perhaps. Other times, cooking offers the opportunity to try a new spice or a new vegetable. When I learned the difference between sweet potatoes and yams, I went out and bought two different types of yams.

Not surprisingly, when I learned the difference between the different types of winter squash, I went out and bought three different types of squash. Among them were two varieties I had never tried: acorn and ambercup.

Roasting different varieties together has its advantages. It offers the chance …

Roasted Winter Vegetables

April 12, 2009 by Charles Leave a Comment

Spring officially arrived a few weeks back, but from the look of it here in St. Louis, you would never know it. Between a light snowstorm to start the week, and freezing rain at week’s end, the thaw of Spring remains in hiding. Given the wintry conditions, I decided a few winter vegetables would make a suitable side.

Roasting over high heat gives the vegetables a crisp outer skin while keeping the inner flesh moist. The high heat also serves to caramelize the natural sugars in the sweet potatoes and carrots, for a sweet, yet healthy, cold-weather treat.

If you like, …

Moroccan Couscous

January 1, 2009 by Charles Leave a Comment

Couscous is not a grain, as you might think, but a semolina paste. In fact, couscous is made from the same wheat semolina flour used to make commercial spaghetti.

Couscous originated in the Maghreb, today’s North Africa, and owes its origins to the Berbers, an indigenous people of the region. The Saracen conquest of Europe in the 7th and 8th Centuries is believed to have introduced the dish to the Western world.

Owing to its origins, couscous is often served …