Winter Squash
{Earthy, sweet and velvety}
The only thing harder than choosing a good winter squash at the market that delivers flavor equal to its external beauty is resisting the temptation to load it down with butter and brown sugar when serving it after finding that its taste is unsatisfying. From round to elongated to scalloped in shape, and in skin colors ranging from mottled orangy-green and buttery yellow to vivid pumpkin, winter squash begs to be roasted at high heat until the edges of its flesh are caramelized and the whole thing becomes tender, yielding easily when the tip of a knife is inserted into its thickest part.
Hubbard, acorn, kabocha, butternut, turban, kuri, delicata and sweet dumpling are just some of the names to look for in your market. For sweet applications such as the rich dense pudding featured here, my first choice would be kabocha, a/k/a Japanese pumpkin, recognizable for its speckled greenish-gray skin, round pumpkin shape and deep orange, velvety-textured, almost fiberless flesh. Look for kabocha that feel heavy for their size, usually indicating a nice ratio of dense flesh to seeds. Lacking those, butternut, with its long neck, pale beige skin and deep orange-colored flesh, would be the next best option.
Enhancing the natural sweetness of the squash, here, a bit of maple syrup also adds its own intense perfume and flavor to the pudding. Once cooked, seeded and peeled, the squash is then pureed with a small amount of syrup, blended with eggs, milk and cream, spiced and vanilla-scented, and then baked in individual ramekins which first have been coated with caramel. Covered with foil and baked in a water bath, the pudding is at its best served lukewarm and inverted onto a dessert plate, with the caramel now liquefied in a pool around it. Leftovers served cold run a close second. A buttery dried-cranberry studded cookie or three would punctuate the experience.
