Last night we had a bit of 'pretend', making a Lost Kitchen dish like we knew what we were doing. I googled copy-cat Delicata Squash 'Donuts' because the recipe was not in her cookbook (What?). I came up with a segment on the Today Show which did not follow the TV show recipe, but then Erin is an ad lib cook, going with ingredients she has on hand or are available from local farmers. She goes with her gut and a keen sense of presentation.
Donna and I invited Ceci to join us, some girl fun in the pretend mode. To us that meant we were going to make it up as we went along, but Erin and her team would give us some pointers because we would watch the squash segments before we began.
A big shift is I don't have a frialator and rarely fry food. There is a Chick-Fil-A about an hour+ from Durango and young people have raved to me about it, even wiling to take that drive just to have some for supper. A bit over the top as far as I'm concerned, but I looked up a copy-cat recipe, found one, made it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't want to fry in the house, so I used cast iron pans on my gas grill.... perfecto! That's what we did with these 'donuts'.
The first of my Crocus were up and of course you can't serve a Lost Kitchen meal without flowers, so Crocus it was.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 delicata squash (about 1½ pounds)
- olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- fresh nutmeg, for grating (In case you don't know this, whole nutmeg comes in a bottle in the spice aisle at the grocery store)
- 1 tablespoon some finely diced shallot
- 2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 2 firm but ripe pears
- 1/3 cup crumbled feta
- 1/4 cup dried cherries
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dredging
- 3/4 cup club soda
- 1 handful baby arugula
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Cut the squash crosswise into six rings, about 1-inch thick. Remove the seeds with a spoon. Place the rings on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and grate fresh nutmeg. Wrap the squash in the foil and roast in the oven until tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let come to room temperature.
In a small bowl, add the shallot and rice wine vinegar. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to let the shallot soften and the flavors meld. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Slice the pears into matchsticks (a mandoline works well for this).
In a medium bowl, combine the pears, feta crumbles and dried cherries. Add the dressing and toss to combine.
Preheat a deep fryer to 375 F.
In a medium bowl, add the flour. Slowly whisk in the club soda, whisking until smooth. Dredge the squash rings in a bit of flour, then in the batter, one at a time. Fry in batches until golden. Do not overfill the fryer. Remove the squash from the fryer and place on a paper towel lined tray, sprinkle with salt to taste.
Arrange the squash rings on a platter, place a few arugula leaves in the center of each ring then divide the pear salad between each ring. Grate fresh nutmeg over each and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Serve immediately.
OUR CHANGES:
- We used a whole small shallot diced small
- We cut squash in 1/2" circles
- We used more feta
- We used currents instead of cherries
- We used a cup of flour and mixed in Club Soda to a pancake consistency
- We fired up the gas grill outside, heat pan first and added a good amount of canola oil.
- When the squash came out of the oven we let them cool.
- Dipped in the tempura, gently placed in hot oil, frying until lightly brown
- We put finished ones on a cookie sheet lined with paper towel and put in the warming oven until all were done.
- We used Maple Walnuts.
This was our main meal, with garlic, butter (a favorite ingredient of Erin), parmesan baguette, followed by an apple tart with puff pastry for dessert. Tell me how people can possibly eat all the courses Lost Kitchen includes in a meal! Seriously!