Cooking With Buttermilk

I had half a cartoon of buttermilk with the expiry date quickly approaching so I decided to look up recipes that use buttermilk in one of my mum’s favorite and most well-used cookbook, the original New Moosewood Cookbook. Published in 1977 author, Mollie Katzen, wrote every recipe out by hand. This book has been used so much in our house that the cover has fallen off and most of the book’s pages have bits of spice, sugar and other marks on them. The index is handy because it has a wide range of ingredients (including buttermilk) as heading titles, not just the basics like ‘beans’ or ‘squash’.

The two recipes I chose were “Delicious Corn Bread” and “Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole”. The corn bread was good, but I prefer the recipe my mum makes, which I make all the time now as well. The casserole on the other hand, I would definitely make again. Please see the recipe below.

Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole

4 Servings

375 degree oven

1 ¾- 2 hours preparation time

Ingredients:

2 medium-large butternut or acorn squash

1 heaping cup chopped onion

3-4 cloves crushed garlic

1 heaping cup mixed green and red peppers, chopped

3 Tbs butter for sauté

2 beaten eggs

1 cup buttermilk or yogurt

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tsp salt

black and red pepper to taste

¼ cup sunflower seeds or chopped nuts for the top

Cut the squash down the middle, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, and place it face down on an oiled tray. Bake it at 375 degrees about 40 minutes or until soft. Cool until handle-able; scoop out and mash.

Saute the onion and garlic, lightly salted, in butter. When onion is translucent add chopped peppers. Saute until peppers are just under-done.

Beat eggs with buttermilk or yogurt. Crumble in the feta cheese. Combine everything and mix well. Add salt, black and red pepper or hot sauce to taste.

Spread into buttered casserole or baking pan. Top with seeds or nuts. Bake at 375 degrees………covered, 25 minutes, uncovered, 10 minutes.

**I added breadcrumbs, which I made last week because I had stale bread I didn’t want to throw out. If you haven’t made breadcrumbs before it’s really easy. Just toast the bread, let it cool and put in the food processor or blender. Then put a bit of olive oil and mix through with your fingers. They freeze well and I think breadcrumbs are often a nice addition to casserole. I also sprinkled some small pieces of butter on top before putting the casserole in the oven for a bit of added richness.

The other slight change I made was to bake the squash right side up with a bit of olive oil and brown sugar. This is a trick my nana taught me. Probably not necessary for this recipe but is a good way to bake squash when you will be eating it as is.