Fusion Entree
ROASTED KABOCHA WITH TAHINI SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
1 small kabocha squash (about 1 pound)
1 garlic clove
2½ tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon pepper or Aleppo pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2½ tablespoons tahini paste
SPECIAL UTENSILS
non-stick baking pan
Serves 2, Takes 50 minutes.
PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash squash as the skin is edible. Remove top and bottom of kabocha. Cut kabocha into 1″-thick wedges. Remove seeds and stringy bits..Mince garlic clove.
Add kabocha wedges to large mixing bowl. Drizzle olive oil over wedges. Add cumin seeds, pepper, and salt. Toss kabocha wedges until well coated. Add coated wedges to baking pan. Roast for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Flip wedges and roast for another 12 minutes or until kabocha wedges become tender and turn golden brown.
While wedges roast, add minced garlic, lemon juice and tahini paste to small mixing bowl. Mix with fork until well blended. Spread lemon juice/tahini paste mixture over the kabocha wedges.
TIDBITS
1) In 2013, wealthy heiress Carla Sanderson put everything she had into Kabocha food trucks. At first, 20,000 Carla’s Kabocha trucks roamed our nation’s streets Indeed, by 2020, only 3,000 trucks remained. Was it possible not enough people knew about roasted kaboch?
2) By last month, the nearly bankrupt Carla had only one working truck. In extreme desperation my social-media friend turned to me for advice. “Why not,” I said, “staff your kabocha trucks with kabuki players? Kabuki players draw in crowds. Then sell your squash. Entertained people love the smell of Roasted Kabocha with Tahini Sauce. Let’s hold the trial run in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.”
3) The people of Pea Ridge loved it. As of yesterday, 1,000 Carla’s Roasted Kabocha and Kabuki Theater now crisscross Arkansas . Expansion looms. Carla and I are now billionaires. Yay!
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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