Squash Attack

This is a cushaw squash.  A.k.a. cushaw, a.k.a. cushaw pumpkin.  I had never seen, nor even heard of one of these things before we got one from our CSA share a couple weeks ago.  They're HUGE.  This was one of the smaller ones in the pile.  That wine bottle is for scale.

It is apparently very similar to pumpkin, and in fact commonly substituted in canned pumpkin, and used throughout the south to as if it were pumpkin to make pies and such.  The edible part is in fact quite like pumpkin, however the skin is MUCH tougher, and much more difficult to cut.

So I completely dropped the ball and didn't take pictures of the next couple steps.

• I removed the squash's guts and cut it into several big pieces (several inches by several inches) for roasting.  
• We lined a couple cookie sheets with tinfoil, loaded them up with squash pieces and roasted them at 375 degrees (400 would probably work too, but we had other stuff to do at 375 and 350), for probably a good hour.  You don't want to burn them, but the more cooked it is the easier it is to puree.  
• Once the roasted squash has cooled enough to handle, cut the actual fruit away from the outer rind.  The rind on the cushaw is much harder and more distinct from the inside than on a pumpkin - so this part was actually way easier than with pumpkin.
• Puree the squash a few pieces at a time until it's nice and smooth.  Cushaw is a little stringier than pumpkin (think spaghetti squash-esque, but not that bad), but it will puree down to a smooth consistency.  Eventually you wind up with a bowl full of orange stuff like this.

The puree can be frozen for many months (we've used frozen pumpkin puree almost a year later) and used whenever you want it for all sorts of yummy things.  We usually freeze it in 1 cup aliquots in sandwich sized ziplocks, which we then put into a gallon sized freezer ziplock.

 You can clean off the seeds to roast.  Toss them in a bit of olive oil and whatever seasoning you want (salt & pepper, cumin & cayenne, cinnamon & sugar, etc) before spreading on a cookie sheet to roast (400 degrees, just a few minutes, probably less than 10).  Cushaw squash have pretty seeds.  Much prettier than pumpkin. :)