Savory Sides for the Holidays! Chef Gates shows how to make Caramelized Squash, Risotto and Stuffed Tomatoes with ease.
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Partners Mama G’s cooking
experience hello every everybody and
welcome to today’s episode of Mama G’s
cooking experience brought to you kindly
by Eastlink Community TV and supported
by Seasons Pharmacy and culinara here at
815 Lauren on today’s episode we’re
going to do some Savory sides things
that you can serve to your friends and
family when they’re coming over to your
place that are just one notot to little
bit above mashed potatoes so I want to
talk to you a little bit on what we’re
going to serve so so what we’re going to
serve first one is a roasted squash
plate so three of the squashes that I
love to use that are local are the
hubard squash the acorn SL pepper squash
and the mighty crooked squash they call
it the crooked neck squash which I
believe is just a uh family member of
the butternut squash but you get all of
this um beautiful thick uh squash which
you can use a lot of so the hubard
squash let’s talk about this Beauty
First this beauty is really hard to cut
into so one of the major suggestions
that I have is
to roast it first stick the whole thing
into your oven get roast it off for
about 2 hours at
350° and you’ll get it nice so that
you’re going to be able to manipulate it
but Mama G there’s seeds inside that’s
okay the seeds add to the flavor and
they add to the sweetness of the Flesh
of the of the squash so what I’m going
to do is since I’ve already roasted this
one off I’m just going to put it to the
side and I want to manipulate this
crooked neck squash now you can use all
of it at once or you can just cut a
chunk off that you need making sure to
put a paper towel here let’s just give
you an example I’m just going to use
this part of the neck nice and easy now
around here what’s going to happen is
it’s going to start to Bubble where the
liquid’s going to come out just like a
cucumber so all I’m going to do is just
take a piece of paper towel and put it
on the end and just let it
stick okay let it stick and then once
it’s stuck you can Saran wrap it and
you’ll be fine but it needs to be
covered so I’m just going to cut the top
off here nice and beautiful and
orange one of the reasons why we serve
squash is it’s so good for you not you
know and it’s very different than
potatoes but it you can make it the same
kind of texture as a mashed potato which
will be fine so you can just peel off
the
skin you can use a knife or this squash
is so nice that you can use a um it’s so
soft I should say not nice that you can
use a vegetable
peeler but as a chef you know I just get
really used to having the knife in my
hand and all I’m going to do with this
guys is just PE peel it and then I’m
going to cut it into some nice nice size
chunks and I’m just going to roast it
off the fibers that you’re getting from
squash
is not to say necessarily the same as a
potato but it has more nutrients than a
potato and it’s grown locally here
and anybody can grow it it can grow
anywhere
so knowing that the other thing too is
that it lasts
forever like you can grow one store it
properly in your in your cupboard or
under you know in your basement if it’s
nice and cool in your
garage and it’ll last a really long time
under the right conditions squashing
your fridge and stuff lot and your you
know a cold storage will last a long
time so guys all I’m doing is I’m just
chopping
up the
squash I’m going
to sorry I’m going to throw it into a
Pyrex
pan with just
nothing I’m going to get it so that it’s
soft but not mushy probably 25 minutes
at 350°
and then we’re going to finish it off in
the
pan so knowing this I’m just going to
make some nice large
sticks throw them
in try not to dice them if you Dice them
at this point they’ll become mushy so
nice big thick sticks you know nice and
thick throw that in your oven
350 and when it comes out we’re going to
season it
now that I have everything roasted and
steamed from the oven you can see that
my knife can go through the squashes
quite easily okay and you know what I
threw in some carrots just for fun so
what I do now so it’s about 5 minutes
before dinner all of my stuff is cut and
ready to go I bring out my cast iron pan
I put in about 2 tablespoon of butter
you know what I’m I’m going to turn my
heat
down there we go so put it to medium and
I’m because what I see I’m going to put
a little bit more uh butter in
there so I’m going to take my squat my
uh crooked
neck squash and I’m just going to
lightly drop it in okay so all you’re
going to do friends is you’re just going
to drop it in
and don’t move it don’t stir it don’t do
anything cuz you’re trying to get that
really awesome golden crispy kind of
side do you know so I’m going to put in
some carrots
now my hubard squash look I was able to
look at how beautiful that is you know I
was able to just cut it and it’s awesome
nice chunks
here soft but still keeps itself
together you know and that’s kind of
what you want okay now that my butter is
gone I’m going to put my heat up a bit
more like I said medium high this is an
induction of and so it just takes
induction stove top it just takes a
little bit
more take my um my acorn squash off of
the
peel
put that
on now while that is doing its nice
little Browning Salt and
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Pepper little bit of salt a little bit
of pepper
and maple syrup everything Canadian in a
jar Maples
love sweet sugar
locco highend iron and
antioxidants telling
you perfect so all you’re going to do is
you’re just going to let it fry up get
crispy and you’re going to serve it off
I like to finish it off with a little
bit of
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parsley Mama she’s cooking
experience kitchen and recipe
ingredients PR provided by Seasons
Pharmacy and culinaria 8:15 Lauren
Street
Sudbury and we’re back so this time what
we’re going to try and complete is to do
a
dehydrated oyster mushroom and sausage
risoto
now I used to hate risoto honestly
people would ask me to make it and I’d
be like it’s so dumb like why would you
want to eat it and then I learned how to
perfect it and now I kind of make it all
the time so don’t be uh afraid to try
new things uh as I ate a slice of humble
pie with this one so what I got now is
my cast iron pan I have it heating up
I’m going to dice up this onion to start
off and uh to get things started but let
me talk to you about my Heartwood
mushrooms uh Heartwood mushrooms dried
oyster
mushrooms Mama G why are you using a dry
mushroom well listen one it’s readily
available and and you can have any kind
of mushroom you want at this point just
do what you want so we buy them we get
have them here at Seasons they’re a nice
dehydrated pack you get lots of
mushrooms in there you know it takes up
less space when it’s dry then what we
did what I did is
is I took out about a good solid cup of
mushrooms out put them in a bowl and I
rehydrated them ready with some
Elderberry lure which I got at Crosscut
now I like to put a little bit of lure
into my
rehydration that way I don’t have to use
it when I’m
cooking it burns off nicer it it
evaporates the alcohol and it’s a lot
lot easier to deal with than trying to
rehydrate a mushroom while you’re trying
to cook like it just doesn’t yeah you
can do it but the resistance when you
eat it if you don’t get the stems right
it becomes chewy it’s not that good it’s
not that good and at the end of the day
you want to impress your friends and
family and yourself at the end of the
day forget trying to impress everybody
else impress yourself if you can impress
yourself then you know you’ve done a
good job that’s how I know if I did a
good job so I got a about uh I don’t
know here 1/4 cup get that in there some
nice butter I’m using farquar’s butter
cuz you know their milk comes from
verer try to keep things as as local as
possible going to give a nice little
dice now listen you can do whatever you
want to put into your risoto but just
remember this will it fit on a fork
yep I know so simple but that’s how I
train my people who are making risoto
all the time like the goal is will it
fit on a fork and the same thing and
rule applies to when it comes to making
soup will it fit on a spoon you know
will this be too much of one bite within
everything else so a nice small dice
into the
onions
right then we’re going to add our
mushrooms our rehydrated mushrooms with
the
onions oh my God guys it smells so good
smells so good mix that around oh I do
look forward to the day where technology
brings me to smello Vision guys no
lie oh my God just want to eat that okay
so I’m going to take my sausage so I
decided to go with a dried Portuguese
shizo oh wait yep dried Portuguese shizo
sausage and turn my heat down cuz I
don’t want it to Brown too much and give
it some nice Quarter Moon
Slices throw that in
there so delicious now you can do this
with chicken you don’t need to put in
meat but I like to put in meat because I
like a little bit of resistance and the
spiciness of the shizo goes really nice
with the
mushrooms I’m pretty excited for the
holidays to come you know the Gathering
of friends and family the sharing of
different Multicultural Foods at
potlucks you know it’s a good time to
sit and reflect and be grateful for the
things that we do have in our
life the holidays are a very great time
now they’re also not such a great time
so for those who are you know at home be
a good neighbor invite them over you
know it’s the time where we put all of
our stuff aside and we get back together
with our family and friends now I have
here some
grated toppo Portuguese cheese now when
you smell it it’s beautiful and and and
aged and almost whiny like an emtl we’ll
keep that on the side the other thing
that I have brought is I made a
homemade um turkey broth that I have
here that we’re going to use for our
risoto so with this much um in My Pan
here I’m and I’m only going to be
serving about four
people I’m going to use one cup of
dry AR Boro rice now I like to use our
boreo rice for risoto as it’s
creamier one cup perfect it’s creamier
and it has a nice resistance
uh to
the to the
bites okay so you’re just going to give
it a little make sure you rinse and wash
your rice it’s very
important cuz there’s a lot of starch on
rice
make sure to use nice cold
water because if you use hot water
you’re going to get a lot of uh you’ll
get
stickage okay
perfect throw in the
rice
now all you’re going to do my friends is
you’re going to put this on medium high
and you’re going to stir and you’re
going to stir and you’re going to stir
and you’re going to
stir and every time your liquid seems to
be running out you’re going to add a
little bit more liquid and you’re going
to keep doing that
until the liquid is all absorbed
absorbed by the
rice nice simple should take you 10
minutes you know but honestly your
friends and family will enjoy this see
nice and
beautiful just keep it up stir it in and
at the end all you’re going to do is
throw in some rice so when we come back
we’ll have a beautiful spelt Berry
stuffed
Tomato
Mama’s cooking
experience kitchen and recipe
ingredients provided by season Pharmacy
and cinara 88115 Lauren Street
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subury welcome back and in this segment
I’m going to teach you how to make a
stuffed uh tomato that you can serve to
your guests now what am I stuffing my
tomato with today today I’m stuffing my
tomato with the local Northern Ontario
spelt Berry Mama G what’s a spelt Berry
what do I do with it where do I get it
well you get it here at Seasons and what
do you do with it you soak it overnight
okay you take whatever amount you want
and it’s going to double itself in size
I don’t know if I would say double I at
least 1.5 times its size and you just
soak it overnight okay just like you
would when you’re doing beans so what I
I have here is I have the heat
started and I’m just going to start uh
sautéing up some onions of course we use
butter now you can use olive oil you can
use pork lard you can use beef Tallow
but I like butter I like salted butter
as it gives a nice creamy texture creamy
finish to my my dish and it smells
really nice and I don’t have to add so
much salt to my finished product it’s a
winwin all
around so in here I have about two
tablespoons 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of
butter in my cast iron pan got that nice
and melted down I’m going to add one
chopped onion now what’s the rule to
chopping onion will it fit on a fork
right so we got that happening
here mama G how do you uh how do you
stuff a tomato and why would you stuff a
tomato listen we all stuff cabbage we
stuff Peppers we stuff zucchinis we
stuff pumpkin flowers today we’re
stuffing a tomato so the best way to
stuff a tomato is one wash it two take
your pairing knife and make a circle or
a square whatever you
want pull it
up and you have yourself a little core I
take my
core and I cut it down and I put it in
my Bowl here then I take my
spoon and I just just go outside the
edges where the seeds are don’t go crazy
don’t go hard cuz you don’t want to rip
the sides of the Tomato you want to get
the seeds and the the fiber out of here
I know this has a technical term but I’m
not sure what the technical term is
listen at the end of the day I’m here to
teach you how to cook and just do
something different and have a
sustainable Northern Ontario life you
know try to keep everything within the
100 mile diet guys and I know spices
they don’t happen and I get that I
understand me too me too you know I’m
not saying that I’m perfect close to it
though so here we go all I’m doing is
taking my Fork I’m mashing up my tomato
I’ve got my
onion um sautéing in
there okay
now
I’ve I’ve uh drained out my spelt
berries they smell nice they smell kind
of uh
sweet I don’t know it’s hard to describe
it’s a nice smell now when they soak
they have like a really nice soft like
you could eat them just soaked you know
I’m sure you could do that they’re high
in fiber
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you can substitute your rice you can
substitute your barley whatever you want
to do with
it when using a cast iron uh just try to
have an oven mid around cuz the heat
transfers all the way to the end I’m
just giving it a nice little
quick quick fry
here with
my
onions I’m going to add a little bit of
my tomato con
here which is just a nice French word
for saying uh mushed
Tomatoes just to put a little bit back
in
there there we
go some fresh cracked black
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pepper and I’m going to put just a scoop
like look like maybe I don’t know just a
pinch
just a little bit just a smidge not too
much
okay now you can put nuts in here you
can put beans in here you can put cheese
in here honestly you can do anything you
want at this point all I’m doing is
taking my tomato
cavity once this stuff is all nice and
warm and
hot you just stuff it inside your tomato
don’t pre-cook your tomato okay nice and
raw cold look at that oh my God that
looks so nice
yeah okay look at that beautiful took
what five minutes nice easy and your
friends will be like wow that’s so fancy
it took so much time and you be like
yeah yeah I learned it from this great
chef just
kidding but honestly look nice and easy
turn your heat Source off you’re going
to put this in the oven you’re going to
put it in at
350° with the lids on
top so with our beautiful finished
products here I’ve added a little bit of
the capus casing cheese to the top of my
tomatoes before I bake them and then I
finish them off with some fresh cup
parsley I took our risoto out of the pan
and let it sit a little bit and again I
added some fresh cut parsley then over
here in our beautiful dish our
caramelized squash with the maple syrup
glaze just let it go a little bit so it
becomes foamy in the pan and then pour
it on top the butter and the maple syrup
go hand in hand
together you know these are the kinds of
dishes that you want to bring to a
potluck or you want to bring to a party
or even just serve your family it’s nice
to have something different than just
regular white rice or mashed potatoes
bring something that’s more nutritious
that’s local and that you can get here
at Seasons I would like to take the
opportunity now to thank Eastlink
Community TV for this awesome show of
cooking with Mama G and I really want to
thank our supporters of Seasons Pharmacy
and culinaria all of our foragers
farmers and local people that are just
really putting in all the effort so that
we can have what we need here in
Northern Ontario thanks again and I look
forward to having you join me for
another
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episode
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