When it comes to cooking rice, I consider myself something of a less muscular version of John Henry, the steel-driving man who could out pound a steam driver. I may be nothing special with a sledgehammer, but I can cook rice better than any rice cooker. I don’t even measure the amounts of rice or water I add to the pot. I just pour the rice from from a 25 pound sack until it looks like enough. And then I stick my finger in it.
squash
English Ravioli
Illustration: Chloe Buising Butternut Squash Ravioli a la Todd English If a famous chef hands you a caviar’d cracker, it doesn’t prove anything. Like, of course it tastes good. It’s freakin’ caviar. True culinary brilliance is revealed by the creation of extraordinary food from the most humble of building…
Thanksgiving Magma
To create magma, you simply roast sweet red peppers, along with a starchy squash like kabocha, and blend with olive oil, garlic and salt. The resulting puree is thick, and after some time will set up downright stiff thanks to the pectin in both squash a peppers. Pectin is a carbohydrate that jam makers use to thicken their product, and makes the magma as stiff as pudding.
Squash and Pepper Magma
Like its namesake, Magma sauce comes from the earth, but the surface rather than the depths like true molten lava. Forged from roasted red peppers and baked squash, Magma imparts the sweetness of both, with a near-piquant undertone that makes you cringe like you’re about to get slapped, but it doesn’t deliver. Instead you get kissed, with possibly a lipstick red mark left on your face.
Kabocha Pie
Kabocha, also known as Japanese pumpkin, is a versatile and delicious winter squash. The flavor is starchy and sweet, with a firm body that can handle being cooked many ways, from tempura-fried to roasted to steamed to sweet purees. The seeds are plump. The hard skin is edible. The squash experience is complete.
Squash Spaghetti
This grumpy farmer who lives in the foothills south of town brings the most amazing produce to market. I call him Mr. Sunshine. His blustery attitude practically dares marketgoers to buy his vegetables each Saturday.