This green zucchini and yellow squash came from the Farmers Market in Wilkes-Barre, and it looks as if there’s a set of conjoined twins among the yellow ones. Don’t worry, I cut them apart right after chopping the onion.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
… and keeps test kitchen’s yin-yang dynamic in balance
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The finished product was soft but not too soggy, our team of taste testers assured me.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Mary Therese Biebel
Times Leader Test Kitchen
Gentle readers, I’m sure you’ve heard about the concept of yin and yang — a harmonious balance between day and night, warm and cool, summer and winter, masculine and feminine.
In the spirit of keeping our Times Leader test kitchen offerings on an even keel, I figured it’s time to counter-balance Mark’s recent pastitsio dish — you remember, the one that calls for four eggs beaten in three separate bowls — with something oh-so-simple.
Inspired by the veggies on display at the Farmers Market in Wilkes-Barre, I recently bought some lovely green zucchini and yellow summer squash and took them home to make a medley.
Armed with a small knife, I sliced an onion and sauteed it in a pan with one tablespoon of butter for a few minutes. While the onion was turning translucent, I cut off the tips of the zucchini and squash and then sliced each veggie into circles, which I added to the onions with a dash of water.
A few minutes later, after the squash and zucchini had softened, I bundled the medley into a casserole dish and took it to the newsroom to serve it alongside last week’s garlic chicken.
The chicken and the many whole cloves of garlic that surrounded it garnered most of the attention last week, but I managed to collect a few quotes from the taste testers about the squash dish, with reporter Patrick Kernan deeming it “very good” and editor Roger DuPuis praising it for not being overcooked. “You don’t want squash to be too mushy,” he said.
As I made my way around the room, page designer Lyndsay Bartos said, “For me, this is a safe vegetable,” meaning it was one she was confident she’d like. Since she hasn’t been a fan of every single vegetable I‘ve brought to the newsroom, I considered this heartening news.
Also heartening are the potential health benefits of zucchini. According to webmd, the vitamin B6 in zucchini may help prevent diabetes and the antioxidents lutein and zeaxanthin may reduce the risk of cataracts or other eye problems.
My online research also revealed that various websites offer zucchini recipes similar to mine. Some call for olive oil instead of butter. Some suggest garlic, Parmesan, oregano, basil, thyme or just about any herb instead of or in addition to onions. The authors of one website even called for onion powder, suggesting nobody wants to take the time to cut up an onion.
Hmm. They really don’t want to spend 30 seconds cutting an onion? That’s about all it takes, and I really didn’t mind cutting one up. Just as I didn’t mind peeling 40 cloves of garlic for last week’s chicken. And my fellow test cook didn’t mind beating eggs in three separate bowls — one to bind the meat mixture, one for the pasta and one for the bechamel sauce — when he made that pastitsio.
I guess, in our own way, each of us is trying to keep things in balance. And if you want to round out your balanced diet with a simple squash dish, you’re welcome to use my very basic recipe. Feel free to add salt and pepper, or anything else you like.
Sauteed Summer Squash
about 1.5 pounds of squash, sliced into circles
1 tablepoon butter
1 large onion
Melt butter in pan over low to medium heat. Chop onion and add to butter. Cook until onion is translucent. Then add zucchini slices and saute until you can insert a fork and see that the veggies are soft. If at any point there does not seem to be enough liquid in the pan to prevent scorching, add an ounce or two of water.