by Graham Kerr
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high. Spray with olive oil cooking spray. Drop the batter into the hot pan with a large kitchen spoon (about ¼ cup). Fry on one side about 3 minutes, turn and cook about 3 minutes more or until the vegetables are tender.
Per serving (2 3-inch cakes) with egg substitute: 66 calories, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (14% calories from saturated fat), 7 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 0 g dietary fiber, 271 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Starch, 1 Lean Meat
Squash (Winter)
Cucurbita maxima and C. moschata
I have two favorite winter squash: the butternut, for which I hunt down the ones with long, narrow (2- to 3-inch-diameter) necks, and the delicata, with its plump cucumber-like shape, yellow and green skin, and sweet pale orange flesh.
Germinating squash plants don’t take kindly to frosts, so I kept my starters indoors until after Memorial Day and even then protected them with a glass cloche overnight until they got too big for their britches. You can also use the plastic milk jugs with the bottom cut off as an alternative but decidedly unattractive cloche!
Winter squash attract beetles and borers, so you should invest in row covers to protect them until the flowers bloom. (By the way, if you get a profusion of flowers, they can be dipped in a fine tempura batter and deep- fried, but frankly that’s more for folks who love anything deep-fried, as I used to in times now long passed!)
My squash would have done much better if I’d slipped a plank under the just-forming fruit to lift it from the earth. (This coming year I shall try a robust trellis.)
For many people, the cutting up of winter squash can be daunting, especially the harder acorn or hubbard. One way to ease this is to use a microwave. Now here I hesitate to give specific times because ovens vary (and so do squash), so begin at high power for just 2 minutes. Using a large (12-inch) chef ’s knife, make an experimental cut. Another 2 minutes in the microwave may be needed to soften it up just enough to cut safely.
The Numbers
For each 100 g baked (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 37 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 9 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 1 mg sodium
Squash (Winter)
Annual
Water: Heavy, drip irrigation
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Celery, corn, onions, beans, peas
CON: Cabbage family, potatoes
Pest: Aphids, cucumber beetles, borers
Diseases: Mildews (downy and powdery)
Soil : Sandy loam, good drainage
Fertilizer: Compost well; high in nitrogen, moderate in phosphorus and potassium; nitrogen only up until flowers appear
pH: 6.5-7.0
Varieties:
ACORN: Heart of Gold, Tuffy
BUTTERNUT: Long Island Cheese
KURL: Uchiki Kuri
HUBBARD: Blue Ballet Delicata (small and sweet)
SPAGHETTI SQUASH
Zones: 3-10
Planting: Indoors, 3-4 weeks before last frost; seed ½-1 inch deep; transplant when soil is 65ºF minimum to 2-3 inches; thin to 2-3 feet
Germinates: 4-10 days
Harvest: From seed, 60-100 days; from transplant, 60-80 days
Rotation: Don’t follow summer squash, melon
Edible: Fruit
SQUASH (WINTER)
Basic Preparation
I like to use roasted rounds of butternut squash as a booster to modest portions of meat. Peel and cut the squash into even 1-inch disks and roast at 350ºF for 45 minutes. Serve as a croûte (base) with smaller portions (about 4 ounces) of meat. The squash gives the traditional centerpiece of the dish greater prominence while reducing the actual amount of meat served.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH BAKED WITH TAMARI
This is an excellent excuse to use the great flavor of tamari, a smoother, more balanced, and more complex variation of soy sauce. It is available in the Asian section of most supermarkets.
SERVES 6
1 butternut or acorn squash, about 3 pounds
1 tablespoon low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out and discard the seeds and pulp. Cut each half, again lengthwise, into 3 wedges. If you are using acorn squash, cut each half into 2 wedges.
Set the squash wedges in a 12-inch greased baking dish. Brush with the tamari and season with black pepper. Coat lightly with olive oil cooking spray. Bake 45 minutes or until the squash is soft. You can brush it with tamari once again before serving.
Per serving: 79 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 20 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 5 g dietary fiber, 108 mg sodium. Exchanges: 1 Starch
BUTTERNUT SQUASH GINGER CHEESECAKE
Here is an unusual use for a vegetable and a kind of pumpkin pie alternative. Butternut squash is used for a molded cheesecake, which does a great job on Thanksgiving for a creative change.
SERVES 12
FOR THE FILLING
1 small butternut squash, cut in half and seeded
2 packets unflavored gelatin
½ cup water
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
1½ cups 2% cottage cheese
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cup yogurt cheese (see page 290)
FOR THE CRUST
18 dried figs, stalk ends removed
1 cup broken ginger snap cookies
FOR THE GARNISH
1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Place the squash halves face down on a baking sheet and bake 40 minutes. Remove and let cool. Scoop out 2 cups of the flesh for this recipe and freeze the rest for future use.
While the squash is cooking, prepare the crust. Process the figs in a food processor for a few seconds, add the ginger snaps, and continue processing until the mixture clumps together in a sticky ball. Don’t process too long or the cookies will lose their texture. Press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a lightly greased, high-sided, 7-inch springform pan. Dip your fingers into a bowl of cold water to alleviate any stickiness.
To finish the filling, sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small saucepan and allow to soften for 1 minute. Warm over low heat, stirring, about 3 minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Place the squash, gelatin mixture, and remaining filling ingredients in the food processor and whiz about 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour the filling into the prepared crust, pop it into the refrigerator, and chill about 3 hours or until set.
To serve, unmold the cake onto a platter and slice with a warm knife. Garnish each piece with some crystallized ginger.
Per serving: 181 calories, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (5% calories from saturated fat), 36 g carbohydrate, 7 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 192 mg sodium. Exchanges: 1 Carbohydrate, 1 Lean Meat
Strawberry
Fragaria vesca and F. virginiana
Okay, so not every plant survived and bore fruit in my first year. My strawberries arrived as crowns (mother plants) obtained by a friend from a farmers market. I planted them in our EarthBoxes alongside some basil plants, the latter doing exceptionally well. The strawberries were not identified as a particular variety, although I suspect they were an alpine or wild strawberry that produces masses of pink flowers and rapidly growing runners. But after so much showing off, they delivered an extremely small collection of tiny fraise des bois that would have been a special treat if they’d had any flavor!
This coming year I’m setting them out with more space—12 inches in every direction—in a bed that had winter squash in year one. And I’ve chosen a variety that I hope will bear just enough to eat from spring through autumn, provided that I pinch off flowers and runners on a fairly consistent basis.
To get more fruit in less space, you can arrange the bed in a series of mounds 10 inches across and
12 inches apart and about 4 inches high. By doing this, you should get less vigorous runners, and the longer-lasting (day neutral) varieties should keep on producing berries all summer long.
Be sure to mulch with straw under the fruit and close to the roots to keep down root rot. (Could this be the derivation of the word straw-berry?) Pinch off early blooms and runners to increase the size of the fruit.
What appeals to me most—other than the flavor that I should get by growing my own—is that mine will be chemical free. Strawberries are one of the worst offenders in sucking up and retaining added inorganic materials.
The actual fruit of the strawberry are the tiny seeds. The cone-shaped berry is described as a false fruit—something like our economy when we get a bubble?!
So what if I got used to buying strawberries every time I shop, I just like them on my cereal along with blueberries. I don’t really notice the cost, or even if they come from South America. I just like berries, even if they don’t taste like our local varieties. However, have I lost the taste for what is fresh and best in season?
Answer: I could grow my own and eagerly anticipate the coming of each season and its special treats.
The Numbers
For each 100 g raw (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 32 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 7 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 2 g dietary fiber, 1 mg sodium
Strawberry
Perennial
Water: Moderate, drip irrigation
Sun: Full to partial shade
Companion Planting:
PRO: Melons
CON: Broccoli, cabbage family
Pests: Birds and mice
Diseases: Botrytis fruit rot, leaf scorch
Soil : Well drained, acidic
Fertilizer: Light nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; don’t overfeed—tends to produce excessive growth that can lead to fruit rot
pH : 5.5-7.0
Varieties:
EVERBEARING (DAY NEUTRAL): Alexandria, Fort Laramie, Quinault (early summer through autumn)
SINGLE CROP: Allstar, Benton, Earliglow (late spring, early summer)
CULTIVATED WILD: Yellow Alpine, Pineapple Cross, Rugen
Zones: 3-10
Planting: Indoors, 8 weeks before setting out in spring; outdoors, after last frost; seed ⅛-¼ inch deep; crowns, just above soil level; 12-14 inches apart
Germination: 7-14 days
Harvest: June through September on West Coast; June to July on East Coast
Rotation: Don’t follow beet, corn, tomato, pepper, pea
Edible: Fruit
STRAWBERRY SUNSHINE
The best way to enjoy the full riches of a home-grown, freshly harvested berry is to eat it by hand with a simple dip made of 1 cup of low-fat vanilla yogurt sweetened with 4 teaspoons of soft dark brown sugar.
Per ¼ cup serving of dip: 50 calories, 1 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (18% calories from saturated fat), 8 g carbohydrate, 3 g protein, 0 g dietary fiber, 40 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Carbohydrate
STRAWBERRY JALAPEÑO SALSA
SERVES 4
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 apple, cored and chopped
1 jalapeño chile, chopped (leave the seeds in if
you like it hot)
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
Combine the strawberries, apples, jalapeño, and brown sugar. Serve immediately with cold meats.
Per serving: 73 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 18 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 4 g dietary fiber, 1 mg sodium. Exchanges: 1 Fruit
TRIFLE-STYLE SUMMER PUDDING
Welcome to one of my childhood memories—a combination of two great English desserts.
SERVES 10
1½ cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries
1½ cups fresh or frozen sliced rhubarb
1½ cups fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries, sliced
1½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries
½ cup sugar
2 packets unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons boiling water
20 Italian ladyfingers (savoiardi)
FOR THE CUSTARD
3 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cups 2% milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup egg substitute (or 4 egg yolks)
Combine the fruit in a large saucepan. Add the ½ cup sugar and bring just to a boil, to break out the juice and dissolve the sugar. Set aside to cool. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a small bowl to soften for a few minutes. Add the boiling water to completely dissolve the gelatin. Stir into the berries.
Arrange 2 ladyfingers in each of 10 individual stemmed dessert glasses. Divide the berry mixture among the glasses, with the cookies sticking upright. Leave about 1 inch space at the top of each dish for the custard.
To make the custard, combine the cornstarch and sugar in a small bowl. Stir in ½ cup of the milk to make a slurry. Heat the remaining milk in a heavy saucepan over medium-high until small bubbles form around the edge or a skin starts forming on the top. Add the slurry and vanilla, stirring constantly while it comes to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool slightly, and gently stir in the egg substitute. Pour the custard evenly over the berry mixture in each dish and chill 2 hours or more until set. Garnish with a mint sprig or an edible flower, such as a pansy or violet, if you wish.
Per serving: 204 calories, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (4% calories from saturated fat), 41 g carbohydrate, 9 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 98 mg sodium. Exchanges: 2 ½ Carbohydrate, ½ Lean Meat
STRAWBERRY BANANA FRUIT LEATHER
Here’s a way to create a healthy snack for the entire family that avoids the sometimes huge sugar content of commercial leathers.
SERVES 8
3 cups strawberries
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Line a 12×17×1-inch baking pan with plastic wrap.
Whiz the strawberries, banana, orange juice concentrate, honey, and lemon juice in a blender until very smooth. You can do this in batches if need be. You should have 2 cups of puree.
Preheat the oven to 140ºF.
Pour the puree into the prepared pan and spread with a spatula, making the edges thicker than the middle. Bake with the oven door slightly open for about 6 hours or until just barely sticky. Cool, roll the long way, and cut into 8 2-inch pieces. Store in the fridge for up to a week—but your kids will probably eat it before the week is through.
Per serving: 71 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 18 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 2 g dietary fiber, 2 mg sodium. Exchanges: 1 Fruit
Sweet Potato
Ipomoea batatas
We have lived in southern Texas (Kerrville—where else?) and in Arizona, and while we’ve enjoyed our days in the South, we wouldn’t swap the Pacific Northwest summers with anyone, anywhere, except to have enough consistent warmth to grow sweet potatoes!
Notwithstanding this moderate temperature drawback, I’m going to risk growing these beauties next year because the process—described by my new pal Stephen Albert in his Kitchen Garden Grower’s Guide—sounds like such fun (providing one has a small greenhouse). The big secret for cooler weather growth is to use what are called dry varieties.
Stephen recommends beginning with what he calls slips or draws or seed roots. You get these by putting a small sweet potato in a glass jar half filled with water, so that one third of the tuber remains under water. Put it in a sunny spot until it sprouts, keeping water at the same level. When the sprouts reach 6 inches, pull them off the bulb and set them in water (or a potting solution) or damp soil, to root and grow into a starter plant suited to transplanting at about 5 inches tall.
Harvest the tubers when the leaves go yellow. Dry them in the sun before storing at 55ºF-60ºF for 4-6 months.
Oh yes, and then the
re’s the issue of what is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?
A yam is, in fact, a different plant genus (Dioscorea ) with a somewhat similar appearance. To add to the confusion, the batatas species from Peru via the Caribbean is often called a yam. The sweet potato is one of the Americas’ greatest gifts to the world. Nutritious, delicious—surely it is the king, or perhaps queen, of all root vegetables.
The Numbers
For each 100 g baked (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 90 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 21 g carbohydrate, 2 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 36 mg sodium
Sweet Potato
Perennial/Annual/Warm Season
Water: Low
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Marigolds (this is a personal observation—seem to help ward off common pests)
CON: Beets, parsnips
Pests: Aphids, flea beetles, wire worms
Diseases: Fungus (black rot, root rot)
Soil : Well-drained sandy loam
Fertilizer: Good compost; low nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (avoid high nitrogen—it pays the leaf and robs the root)
pH: 5.0-6.5
Varieties:
MOIST VARIETIES (WARM WEATHER): Allgold, Jewel, Vineless Puerto Rico (soft, sugary, yellow orange flesh)
DRY VARIETIES (COOLER WEATHER): Onokeo, Waimanalo Red, Yellow Jersey
Zones: 6-12
Planting: 2 weeks after last frost, when soil is at least 70ºF-85ºF; slips, 2-3 inches deep, 10-12 inches apart in raised ridges
Harvest: From slip, 150-175 days; from transplant, 100-125 days
Rotation: Don’t follow other root crops; don’t plant in same bed for 4 years
