The vegetable plant that keeps on giving

Big Zuke Pub #18

Hi all…I made serious promises in my last newsletter, then promptly closed my computer and took a much-needed summer sabbatical. Well, it was a sabbatical from my normal day-to-day living. I packed my bag and drove over 6 hours to one of my favorite places, Quillisascut Farm. It is becoming a summer tradition to spend 2 weeks on the farm sleeping, breathing, cooking, baking, and eating what the farm giveth. 

I wrote about Quilli just a couple of publications ago.  This is time I take for just myself. Time that rejuvenates and reconnects me to the land and where our food comes from, or should come from. It’s therapy for my soul. I was completely immersed in my surroundings only thinking about what we would have for our next meal (ok…I do that every day) and preparing it. The moment the dishes are complete and the kitchen is tidy I am right back in the walk-in getting the fixings for the next meal. 

I take something integral away from each time I spend at Quilli, and this summer was no different. This year I grasped onto the joy and pleasure I get from using what is at hand. Finding, not unusual, but surprising ingredients to replace the often reached-for items we have become reliant on to prepare meals. Ingredients that do not grow in our region, travel hundreds, thousands of miles to get to us. On the farm not only do we only use ingredients that grow on the farm or neighboring farms, but we were in the middle of a crazy heat wave, two weeks of being over 100, and we clocked in around 110 days in a row.

To keep everyone as cool and comfortable as possible required some serious creative cooking. So, I kicked in my long ago retired catering skills and we got to work cooking all of our meals using only the wood-fired oven, grill, and outside propane burners. We did not modify any menu items but found new ways to cook them. We made creme brulee in the wood-fired oven. The wood-fired oven was the power behind everything we did. It was so hot outside that the oven even after not having a fire lit in it for 2 days was still 275 degrees. We could slow roast, baked meringue and cookies, and roasted beets. Baked pies on the grill with a pizza stone. I get real joy out of that kind of resourcefulness, and ingenuity.

The other integral thing I took away from the farm this year is a deep appreciation for the squash plant. We’ve all heard jokes about running in the opposite direction from our friends and family who grow zucchini because they will hoist their abundance onto all within their reach. Giant, mounds of squash that tend to get thrown in the back of your refrigerator until they turn to a mushy puddle, and get tossed out with the trash. I suggest a different viewpoint on the abundance of squash in the summer. What an amazing plant that gives, and gives and keeps on giving with little trouble. Should every gardener be so lucky to have that kind of harvest from all the plants they try to grow? I sure have more failures than successes, so I say, “All hail the mighty zucchini!!!”

What do we do with these tons of squash you ask, make bread…yes, muffins…absolutely, fritters…of course, pasta sauce…as Italians do. But, now you might feel squashed out! It can feel like you’ve used squash in every way possible and would like to move on to other vegetables that look so inviting at the market, but can I tempt you with one more offering? 

I like to call it my Squash-A-Mole, it’s guacamole without the avocado…WAIT! keep reading, I promise you this is worth it. Squash in place of avocado is not a new invention. Mexicans have been doing it forever for one reason or another. Avocados are expensive, especially when farmers make more money exporting them internationally than selling them locally, they aren’t always available, and squash, as we just determined, is abundant. I first heard of this concept last summer at Quillisascut. My friend Renee introduced me to stretching the contraband avocados we had smuggled onto the farm with zucchini so our happy hour guac would last longer. I was floored at how delicious and so deceptive it was. Had I not known it wasn’t all avocado I would never have guessed. 

So this summer, deciding to forgo smuggling, I had no avocados, the late freeze had caused havoc on the plants and the only thing regularly coming out of the garden was summer squash. Wanting to offer something tasty for our happy hours that felt slightly different than the normal fair I turned to Squash-A-Mole.

I cut up the largest, least pretty zucchini, and threw it in a pan over medium-high heat with olive oil, garlic scapes, cumin, a pinch of chili powder, salt, and pepper. When it was tender, not mushy, and slightly caramelized I transferred it to the mortar and pestle and pounded it with a little verjus (acidic juice from unripened grapes), and a bit more olive oil. I served it up with blue corn tortilla chips, and was pleasantly surprised when everyone loved it! Rick, one half of the Quilli duo, said this is good what’s in it? He was surprised to find not a lick of avocado, just his mighty squash…

Recipe Linked Here