Butternut Squash: Sliced and Waiting
Some of my favorite pictures came from making this pickle. I was originally inspired by the day I spent helping out at Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, CA almost a year ago. While there, among many beautiful pickles, I had the pleasure of helping to prep a batch of Pumpkin Kimchi. I didn’t see much of the process, beyond chopping these enormous pumpkins Alex Hovzen carefully sliced, sampled, and deemed worthy. It was she who mixed the spices and sealed the pickles in brine, in the fermentation chamber, slowly bubbling away.
I was enchanted by the idea of a squash pickle, but I really had no basis for how to make one. The basic principles were a bit more difficult to grasp here: would I salt and sweat the squash or brine it? Would I add my spices whole as I do for my parsnip kimchi, or blend/mince them. Luckily, after buying 20 lbs of butternut squash from Royal Oak Community Farm, I found myself at Earthworks Urban Farm, discussing kimchi with Pa. I’ve never made traditional kimchi, only having been schooled in the ADAMAH (spring?) style. Among other things, Pa and Ma are fermentation enthusiast of the highest degree, and I knew that asking Pa’s advice on my kimchi conundrum wouldn’t lead me too far afield.
Together, we hatched a plan for me to brine the sliced squash for a few hours, drain it, then toss the brined squash with my mixture of spices. I decided to include Earthwork’s braising mix (a selection of hot asian greens) in the mix, and Pa suggested I blend it right in with the other spices.
Here are some pictures to help articulate this process:
Brined and Ready
Hot Peppers for the Mix
Scallions Sliced and Garlic, Ginger, and Hot Peppers Minced
Squash Tossed with Spices & Brining Mix
Butternut Squash Kimchi
20 Lbs Butternut Squash
2 Lbs Braising Mix
Bunches of Scallions
Hot Peppers
Garlic
Ginger
2.5 gallons of brine
Slice butternut squash as pictured (I used a food processor). Place it in a crock and pour brine over the squash. Let it soak for 6 hours. Pour off the brine (reserve it), rinse the squash in cold water if it tastes really strongly of salt.
Prep spice mix by pureeing ginger, garlic, and hot peppers, and slicing scallions.
Puree braising mix, raw, in a food processor.
Mix braising greens, spices, and scallions together. Toss with brined and drained squash.
Pack into a crock and press down until brine is covering squash. Add as little of the reserved brine as necessary to submerge squash (remember, it’ll continue to wilt in the first 24 hours). Add weight and cover.
I let mine ferment for only 4 days and it was almost too soft when I took it out. That said, the flavor was divine!
My adventures in butternut squashing were a marked success, and a few things I’ll experiment with next year will be adding less brine in the final stage and slicing the squash a bit thicker so it can ferment a little longer without going soggy. Otherwise, the flavors were right on the mark!
I’ve been enjoying my squash atop a slice of toast slathered with cashew butter. You may turn up your nose at that… but it just means you haven’t tried it yet:)
