David Ross

I'm saving the layered squash terrine for later. Right now I've got yellow squash and zucchini and smoked pork hocks in the slow-cooker. Tommorrow I'm going to attempt some sort of French-style zucchini tart. I think with a smoked tomato sauce.

Has anyone ever tried a zucchini Tarte Tatin? I'm wondering about the process of cooking down the zucchini to get a caramelized top.

And another idea from an employee-cut slabs off a huge zucchini. Brush with olive oil and grill on the bbq. Use the grilled slices of zucchini in place of pizza dough. Top with mozzarella and other toppings, return to the grill to let the cheese melt. You get the sweet, tender flesh of the squash along with salty cheese. She said it's quite the novelty at outdoor parties.

One of my employees gave me a recipe today for zucchini-parmesan crisps. It's basically a zucchini tuile. She serves it with a puree of cooked squash and greek yogurt. A sort of chips and dips using squash.

I've never worked with agar-agar, but I assume it acts like a gel to help mold all the ingredients? I wonder if an aspic would work in the same manner?

I like the concept of cardamom with squash. Very intriguing.

I'd eat duck and zucchini any day. Looks delicious.

Here's an assortment of some of my contraptions and hand-held vegetable cutters. As you can see, a few make wonderful strands of squash "spaghetti." And my personal favorite, the curly fry monster made in Taiwan-

If you're looking for unique squash cutters, head to a local Asian grocery store. I've acquired probably around 50 different vegetable and fruit cutters during travels to San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver and Seattle and points in between. Most are incredibly cheap compared to vegetable peelers/cutters you'd find at a National chain store and they offer a variety of unusual cutting blades. lf you can find a tiny melon baller, they are wonderful for cutting balls of zucchini. You get both the green skin and lighter color of the inside of the zucchini in a little ball. Wonderful sauteed in butter or olive oil and a great plate presentation. I just came back from the store with some yellow squash and zucchini so I'll get to cutting and provide some photos.

Now I need some ideas for my next dish. I'm thinking of a grilled zucchini and vegetable terrine with herbed ricotta. I'm sort of toying with the idea of a take on ratatouille but grilling the vegetables then compressing the layers and serving the dish cold. I'm thinking provencal flavors and lavendar. What about a sauce? My first thought was a tomato base, but I'm not sure I want something thin like a tomato water or a chunky smoked tomato vinaigrette. Help.

For my first dish I decided to stuff a patty pan squash with merguez and accompany it with a chorizo oil and zucchini dressed with vinaigrette. I've been making lamb merguez for years and I thought the bright, fragrant, spicy flavors would go well with sweet squash. The chorizo oil added a dash of color and enhanced the flavor of the smoked paprika in the merguez. But I couldn't leave out zucchini so I decided to grill it to soften it and bring out some sugar, then dress it in a tangy preserved lemon vinaigrette. Trust me, that was only the theory, I didn't really know how this would turn out. It took a lot of steps and time, but the effort paid off. Harissa- 10 dried chiles, (I used ancho, California and cascabel) 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground coriander 1 tsp. caraway seeds 1 tsp. smoked paprika 1 tsp. ground cumin 2 tbsp. olive oil Rehydrate the dried chiles in hot water for about 30 minutes until soft. Remove the stems and seeds and place in a food processor with the other ingredients, adding enough olive oil to make a thick paste. You can refrigerate the harissa at this point, but I heat it in a pan over low temp to bring the ingredients together before storing in the refrigerator overnight. Merguez- 1 1/2lbs. ground lamb 1 1/4 tsp. fennel seed 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp. harissa 1 1/4 tsp. ground cumin 1 1/4 tsp. ground coriander 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 2 chipotle chilis and sauce 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro Olive oil Mix all the ingredients and then cover and store in the refrigerator overnight to let the flavors come together. On the day of service, heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add the merguez mixture and cook until done, about 15 minutes. Drain. Chorizo Oil- I typically make chorizo oil with a dried, aged Spanish chorizo. Unfortunately the store doesn't carry that brand anymore but they did have this chorizo from Missouri. It's good, just not as good as the Spanish chorizo. Cut the chorizo into small dice and saute in a hot pan. You can add a little olive oil to quick-start the cooking process. As the chorizo heats it seeps out a reddish oil. The fattier the chorizo the more fragrant and flavorful the oil. Grilled Zucchini- Grilling zucchini softens the flesh and brings out some of the natural sugar. I cut the zucchini lengthwise in about 3/8 thick slices and simply grill it in a hot pan on top of the stove. This cast iron grill pan has been with me for years and it's to the point I don't even add any oil. I always have a jar of preserved lemons lying in wait. The flavor can be a bit overpowering--salty, acidic and tart--so you only use a small amount. I wanted something sweet, sour and fragrant to counter the richness of the sausage in the patty pan. Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette- 1 tbsp. diced preserved lemon Dash fresh lemon juice 1 tbsp. chopped fresh chives 1 tsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt Black pepper 1/3 cup vinegar, (I used apple cider vinegar) 2/3 cup olive oil Cut the soft pith off the preserved lemon, then cut the peel into tiny dice. Add the preserved lemon to a bowl and add the lemon juice, chives, sugar, salt pepper, vinegar and olive oil. Like any vinaigrette, I always adjust the ratio of oil and vinegar depending on my tastes that day. And by the way, the addition of sugar to zucchini really evokes flavor. It works! Add the diced zucchini to the vinaigrette. Cooking and Plating- Here are the little patty pan's on top of a steamer basket. Now this was a rookie's attempt mind you as I've never cooked stuffed summer squash. I put about 1/2" of water in the pot, added the steamer basket, the squash, then covered the pot and roasted/steamed the squash in a 350 oven for about 35 minutes until the flesh of the squash was just tender. Patty Pan Squash Stuffed with Lamb Merguez, Chorizo Oil and Grilled Zucchini/Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette- We all have those aha moments when we craft a delicious dish. In this case, I was lucky to have an aha moment on my first attempt. And while the stuffed squash was sweet, meaty and rich, the star of the dish was the grilled zucchini vinaigrette. It would be delicious with grilled fish. But the one little detail that made the full dish a success was a little garnish I found in my garden--oregano blossoms. That fresh, clean, perfume of oregano really made a difference. Enjoy.

Well, first, you don't cook it until it reaches that consistency. I monitor it pretty closely and when it's tender, but still has texture, it's ready. However, there's a wonderful and very old and time-honored southern dish called "Creamed Squash," where the idea is to cook it, along with a Vidalia onion, to a "mushy, water squash puree." But then you put it into a skillet with some butter and you continue cooking and stirring until the water has evaporated and you continue cooking and mashing and stirring until it's quite dry, whereupon you add some heavy cream and sugar. You wind up with a delicious dish that is about the consistency of loose mashed potatoes. In the olden days, this was a very popular dish and showed up at every potluck and holiday table. It was also one of the first solid-food dishes that got fed to baby. I'll have to try that once I get finished with my first two dishes. I have to admit the texture thing has me a bit skeptical, but I'm willing to give it a go.

I'm curious about some of the cooked squash dishes. I have this vision of a mushy, watery squash puree. How does a long cooking process alter the texture of the squash?

Looking forward to seeing what you find at the market. The Cook-Offs always benefit from a free-flow of ideas and information, along with photos that chronicle our adventures. I for one have already learned a lot about how people cook summer squash.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to try that. I've got a meatball class that I'm teaching in October and I think my students would love any technique that would make a good meatball.

Oh my! Now we're completing a summer squash tasting menu--including dessert. Fabulous.

I must say bravo to all of you and your unique treatments of squash. We should call ourselves lucky for having so many new ideas to try in our home kitchens. As I was studying the launch of this cook-off a few weeks back, a friend of mine unknowingly gave me an idea for a zucchini dish--a zucchini "boat" stuffed with chorizo. That got me started on how I could make my own unique version of a stuffed zucchini. I started forming my ideas and then another thought came back from memory--a dish I was served at a private lunch with Alain Ducasse. Back in May 2010 while attending Vegas Uncork'd, (http://forums.egullet.org/topic/133118-vegas-uncorkd-2010/) I had the once-in-a-lifetime pleasure to have lunch with Chef Ducasse and eleven other lucky diners. Rather than prepare an 18-course tasting menu of haute French cuisine and the service of restaurant Louis XV in Monte Carlo, Ducasse and staff served a menu reflecting his childhood roots growing up on a farm in Castel-Sarrazin in the Landes region of Aquitaine in Southwest France. The dishes were full of seasonal vegetables cooked in a manner evoking the flavors of the French-Mediterranean. I seemed to remember some little stuffed vegetables that Ducasse served with the lamb course. I just had this lingering memory of someting he did with a little summer squash. And then I re-discovered this photo- Rack of Colorado Lamb, Tomato, Zucchini, Onion and Baby Red Pepper "Petits Farcis"- My notes reminded me that the baby onion had been stuffed with lamb sausage. Then I remembered my beloved lamb sausage recipe and so the table was set, I'd attempt to do a summer squash stuffed with lamb sausage and served with a flavored oil and simple vinaigrette, maybe a few sprigs of the budding oregano blossoms from my garden.

Now that is a photo of squash beauty.

We packaged zucchini in both bags and small cardboard boxes. In addition to the vegetable medley, we also packed zucchini with yellow squash and some packages of just zucchini. I remember it was cut in both chunks and slices. We were soley a frozen food packaging plant, but Stayton Canning Company also canned zucchini. Today the company is now known as Norpac Foods and is the largest fruit and vegetable processor in the state of Oregon. It's a cooperative made up of over 27 different farmer-owned crops. They label a number of brands, but one of the most recognizable is the Santiam brand of vegetables. I found Santiam brand canned green beans in Walmart just two days ago.

That is a wonderful photo. You've got my head buzzing with all sorts of squash ideas.

That sounds delicious, almost like a zucchini lasagne.

I personally have a long history with zucchini, and I don't mean just in the kitchen. I harvested the buggars by hand when I was a teenager growing up in Salem, Oregon, back in the '70's. For nine months of the year I had to endure Mr. Carol Farmer's math class. When he wasn't teaching junior high school math, Mr. Farmer was literally a farmer, cultivating a large field of zucchini on his Willamette Valley farm. My Mother wouldn't leave well enough alone and felt it would build my character if I worked for farmer Farmer during the summer. I'm not familiar with how zucchini is harvested in 2013, but back in the 70's it was literally back-breaking work. Back then there wasn't much focus on child labor laws, nor was there much oversight by the State Department of Labor and Industries. I'm pretty sure we weren't paid a minimum wage, probably more like 90 cents an hour. Mr. Farmer led the charge from his seat on top of the tractor, slowly pulling a contraption straddled along the back that held four huge wooden crates. Bent over at the waist and with dull knife in hand, we trailed behind the "boxes" cutting the zucchini at the stem of the vine then tossing them up into the crates. As long as your arm and feeling like they weighed 10 pounds, (but probably in the 3-5 pound range), I remember we called them "grade 3" or "commercial grade" zucchini. These huge specimens weren't meant to be displayed in a basket at the farmer's market, they were specifically grown to be gargantuan, resulting in a greater yield when they were cut and processed. The zucchini was trucked to Stayton Canning Company, (another summer employer when I reached my elder teen years). Because the zucchini had been cut and harvested by hand, we didn't let the odd rock, mouse or pheasant get into the crate and onto the sorting belt. (The creatures we found on the broccoli belt were another story). After a thorough washing the zucchini was cut into chunks then mixed with cauliflower, carrots and broccoli into a vegetable "medley" and packed into plastic-lined bins and wheeled off to the deep-freeze. Days or weeks later the vegetable medley would be re-packed into small bags and shipped to grocery stores to be stocked in the frozen food section. For years I hated zucchini, all summer squash for that matter. It took me years to get over the memories of the painful, dirty work of cutting zuchinni. But over time I realized that my time in farmer Farmer's fields helped paved my way to an education at Oregon State University. It would take a famous French Chef to open my tastebuds to the flavors of summer squash. I'll be sharing a few photos of how Alain Ducasse inspired me to treat summer squash in ways I never would have imagined.

I found some interesting patty pan squash at the farmer's market yesterday. I'm thinking I'll be doing a stuffed squash dish with some sort of sauce.

Hello friends and welcome back to a time-honored tradition--the popular eG Cook-Off Series. We're in the heat of summer right now and our gardens are literally blooming with all manner of peak of the season ripe fruits and succulent vegetables. And there's no better time of year to honor a vegetable that is often maligned as not being as colorful or trendy as the chi-chi breakfast radish or the multi-hued rainbow chard. In addition to not always being recognized for it's looks, every August and September it becomes the butt of jokes at State Fair competitions across the country. If you can get past the embarassment of seeing the poor devils dressed up and carved into silly, cartoon-like farm figures or pumped-up with organic steroids, you'll find a delicious, low-calorie vegetable packed with potassium and vitamin A. Yes friends, your dreams have come true for today we kick-off eG Cook-Off #62, "Summer Squash." (Click here http://forums.egulle...cook-off-index/ for the complete eG Cook-Off Index). According to the University of Illinois Extension Office, summer squash, (also known in some circles as Italian marrow), are tender, warm-season vegetables that can be grown anytime during the warm, frost-free season. Summer squash differs from fall and winter squash, (like pumpkins, acorn and butternut squash), because it is harvested before the outer rind hardens. Some of the most popular summer squash are the Green and Yellow Zucchini, Scallop, Patty Pan, Globe, Butter Blossom and Yellow Crookneck. My personal favorite summer squash is the versatile zucchini. Slow-cooked with sliced onion and ham hock, zucchini is perfectly comfortable nestled on a plate next to juicy, fried pork chops and creamy macaroni and cheese. But the chi-chi haute crowd isn't forgotten when it comes to zucchini, or, as the sniffy French call it, the "courgette." Tiny, spring courgette blossoms stuffed with herbs and ricotta cheese then dipped in tempura batter and gently fried are a delicacy found on Michelin-Star menus across the globe. Won't you please join me in crafting some delicious masterpieces that showcase the culinary possibilities of delicious summer squash.

The national press and James Beard nominations garnered by Lotus of Siam aren't an accident--it's incredibly good Thai food. Sounds like you'll be staying with family and have the use of a car, so I'd take a trip over to Spring Mountain Road and taste some of the great Asian offerings. Ping Pang Pong in the downtrodden Gold Coast Hotel is the best dim sum in town--the hotel just looks like it hasn't been updated since 1972. For pizza, my local friends recommend Due Forni and Settebello. If you don't mind braving the casino and parking, I hear that Shawn McClains (Sage), new pizzeria at The Cosmopolitan is quite good.