Thanksgiving With The Taste of Butternut Squash

A pumpkin never fails this season. It’s so common that I use it to decorate my kitchen and even the dinner table. Although the pumpkin has existed since the time of the Egyptians, the so-called butternut squash that we know in Spanish as calabacín, calabaza dulce o calabaza de invierno, is much more “modern.”

It’s said that butternut squash made its appearance in the 40s. It’s delicate, sweet and its brilliant orange color makes your dishes look as if they were from a magazine. It has a slight sweet touch and feels more creamy than normal pumpkin. That’s why it’s perfect to make bread, soups, salsas and desserts.

You distinguish it by its cream or pale orange tone and its elongated pear shape. Take it mashed, as a filling of ravioli or lasagna, with a soup, pasta, bread, cheesecake, pancakes or cupcakes or a tasty flan like this.

The ingredients you need for a butternut squash flan

1 can of condensed milk

1 can of evaporated milk

4 eggs

2 cups of sweet squash or butternut squash, peeled, fiber-free, boiled, mashed and liquid-free.

1 cup of sugar (for the caramel)

¼ teaspoon of vanilla (natural)

½ lemon, lime (optional)

The Secret to a Movie-Perfect Turkey for Thanksgiving Day

Instructions on cooking:

  1. Pre-heat the oven at 350ºF.
  2. In a deep container or blender, combine the eggs with the milk. Then add the cooked pumpkin, well mashed and without liquid, mix well and set aside.
  3. In a skillet at medium temperature, add the sugar and 4-5 drops of lemon and when it begins to melt around the edges, begin to move until it is completely melted with almost no lump of dark golden color -not brown or burnt, so that it does not alter the delicate flavor of flan. Carefully pour it into the mold of the flan making sure that it covers all the bottom and a little of the sides.
  4. After the sugar dries, add the mixture and take it to the oven in “Maria’s bath.” In other words, the flan mold you place inside another mold with enough water to cover at least 3/4 of the surface of the mold.
  5. Cook for 45 minutes or until you insert a toothpick into the flan and leave clean (no paste stuck).
  6. Take it immediately out of the oven and when it cools down, put it in the fridge for 3-4 hours. When serving, take it out of the mold by turning it round using a knife.
  7. Turn it to a flat dish that is larger than the baking dish, decorate and enjoy the taste.

I hope you have a tasty Thanksgiving with your loved ones and friends. Thank you for your kindness and for believing in what I love the most… my kitchen. Thank you!

Doreen Colondres is a celebrity chef. Author of the book La Cocina No Muerde. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram @DoreenColondres and visit www.LaCocinaNoMuerde.com, www.TheKitchenDoesntBite.com or purchase her book on Amazon or Itunes.