Charred Summer Squash with Fresh Herbs

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

This looks like a quick side dish, with no secondary recipes to make beforehand and no super fancy techniques. Did it live up to that impression?

I found this recipe here: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/06/18/charred-summer-squash

Captions

[00:01]: [Music]
[00:05]: today I'm cooking the books with Heather
[00:07]: were continuing to work out of the pools
[00:10]: diner cookbook and we're going to make
[00:11]: charred summer squash with fresh herbs
[00:15]: we love summer squash in our house and
[00:17]: I'm almost certain I've made this recipe
[00:20]: before but we're gonna make it again for
[00:23]: you guys because we haven't made it for
[00:24]: you guys before so we're gonna start
[00:27]: with our summer squash let's see we
[00:37]: really just need to trim the tops and
[00:38]: the bottoms off and then cut it down the
[00:40]: middle I've got some zucchini here and
[00:45]: also some yellow squash so a mixture is
[00:49]: nice for you know prettiness and
[00:52]: slightly different flavor so we're going
[00:54]: to cut all of them just like that and
[01:05]: you'll see I already have two Vidalia
[01:08]: onions that I've just cut both ends off
[01:10]: and taken off the papery skin and then
[01:12]: slice them in half along the equator so
[01:18]: short way long way I don't know what you
[01:22]: call that but so it makes two halves
[01:25]: like that now we're going to basically
[01:29]: char these on a cast-iron skillet you
[01:32]: could probably do it on the grill
[01:33]: outside you know if it's summer and
[01:35]: that's what you're into but because the
[01:38]: recipe says to do it on a cast-iron
[01:40]: skillet that's what we're gonna do we're
[01:43]: gonna char these on a cast-iron skillet
[01:44]: and we don't have to worry about keeping
[01:47]: these hot or anything because she
[01:49]: suggests that you serve it at room
[01:50]: temperature so we're gonna char them and
[01:52]: then we're gonna cut them up further and
[01:54]: add some stuff to them so first step is
[01:57]: to get them charred the first step here
[02:02]: we've had got our cast-iron skillet on
[02:04]: medium-high heat mine got pretty hot
[02:07]: while we were sitting up so I
[02:09]: a little bit lower but we're gonna put a
[02:11]: little bit of neutral vegetable oil in
[02:13]: here and rub it around with tongs and a
[02:20]: paper towel just so we get a thin layer
[02:30]: and before I put these in here I'm going
[02:36]: to season the cut size sides with salt
[02:40]: and pepper and we're gonna put them cut
[02:49]: side down and we're gonna go for a
[02:52]: pretty dark char on these
[03:41]: now we're supposed to leave these for
[03:43]: about five minutes until they get a
[03:45]: really dark char and then we're going to
[03:47]: turn them over and cook them for a
[03:48]: little time on the other side we want
[03:50]: needs to be kind of al dente and it'll
[03:54]: not totally cook through so not they're
[03:56]: not gonna be super soft but highly
[03:59]: charred so this has actually been
[04:01]: probably more like ten minutes but I did
[04:04]: have the heat turned down because of you
[04:06]: know the getting pretty hot before so
[04:09]: probably need to leave it up as high as
[04:11]: I had it to get in I did turn it back up
[04:13]: anyway we're gonna turn these over and I
[04:15]: think we only let him go for a little
[04:17]: while on the other side just to get it
[04:18]: kind of cooked from that that side a
[04:20]: little bit I did move things around in
[04:23]: the pan because the the ones in the
[04:25]: middle were charring up a lot better
[04:28]: than the ones besides so this char is
[04:38]: exactly what we're looking for so don't
[04:40]: don't be afraid of that we're gonna let
[04:42]: these go for just a couple minutes and
[04:44]: then we're gonna get our second batch in
[04:46]: there so I decided all those have been
[04:51]: done have been done now they're just
[04:53]: some of them took a little longer hot
[04:55]: spots on the cast iron and everything
[04:57]: but all you do now is wait for this to
[05:00]: cool a little bit before we cut it up
[05:02]: and combine it with all of the other
[05:03]: ingredients and then we're done
[05:06]: come back in just a few minutes all
[05:09]: right
[05:09]: these have been cooling for a while
[05:11]: while we made the meat for our for our
[05:13]: dinner tonight and all I have to do now
[05:15]: is cut these up into bite-sized pieces
[05:18]: and put them in this bowl so that's what
[05:21]: I'll be doing
[05:53]: okay I've given these all just a rough
[05:55]: chop bite-sized pieces and now we're
[05:58]: going to dress them with some lemon
[06:00]: juice olive oil and we're gonna put some
[06:02]: salt and pepper on there got my little
[06:06]: sieve to catch the seeds from the lemon
[06:11]: juice put some salt and pepper in there
[06:22]: cuz I'm sure it needs a little bit more
[06:29]: and then going to just drizzle some
[06:34]: olive oil on there there are no
[06:36]: measurements this is basically to taste
[06:39]: just to coat and now the herbs are just
[06:53]: torn in so I have some basil that I'm
[06:56]: going to just sort of roughly tear up
[07:02]: and some mint I have a Valen Valen tear
[07:11]: mints
[07:12]: I might have planted it a long time ago
[07:13]: but it keeps coming back it's kind of
[07:15]: invasive so if you plant it you might
[07:19]: keep getting it back and the basil we've
[07:23]: planted recently and I've got some
[07:28]: Italian parsley here also just torn up
[07:35]: this I had to buy parsley does not last
[07:40]: long parsley and cilantro both go to go
[07:43]: to bolt and go to seed very quickly here
[07:46]: in North Carolina when the weather gets
[07:48]: hot so and they don't come back the next
[07:52]: year in my experience anyway that's it
[07:58]: for the herbs that's quite a lot of
[08:00]: parsley but everything just had to be
[08:03]: torn so you know we're just folding
[08:05]: these in and that will be it for this
[08:09]: recipe I think this has plenty of oil
[08:14]: and probably enough salt and pepper
[08:18]: taste a bit maybe a touch more salt this
[08:29]: is a diamond crystal kosher salt should
[08:33]: call for sea salt but this is what I
[08:34]: always keep on hand and always used so
[08:36]: you get used to when you're pinching
[08:39]: salt like this you get used to the
[08:41]: saltiness of your salt and and and how
[08:44]: to season foods appropriately just by
[08:47]: feel so figure it's probably best for me
[08:52]: just to use what I'm used to at this
[08:55]: point so alright that's it for this
[08:58]: recipe we'll be back in just a just a
[09:01]: second to tell you what we thought of it
[09:03]: and how it went
[09:06]: thanks
[09:08]: [Music]
[09:16]: this time on cooking the books with
[09:18]: Heather we made charge summer squash
[09:20]: with fresh herbs and we did it as
[09:22]: prescribed in the book on a cast-iron
[09:25]: pan on the stove as I said you could do
[09:28]: this on the grill and I'm fairly certain
[09:30]: we made it before and we did it on the
[09:32]: grill that time but you do need to have
[09:35]: your grill really really hot because you
[09:37]: want it charred but not fully cooked
[09:39]: through so that's the hard part there we
[09:44]: really enjoyed it but my family does
[09:47]: like grilled or charred summer squashes
[09:51]: in general it's something we like and we
[09:53]: we grill them all the time during the
[09:55]: summer the Vidalia onions were kind of
[09:59]: hit hit and miss with the kids and my
[10:01]: husband and I both liked it and the kids
[10:03]: did spend some time picking the herbs
[10:05]: out but I really enjoyed the herbs with
[10:08]: the summer squash and if you have herbs
[10:10]: growing outside which I do and they're
[10:13]: really easy particularly the the mint is
[10:16]: very easy to grow and it comes back
[10:19]: every year whether you want it to or not
[10:22]: sometimes and I hardly ever use it so
[10:26]: it's it's a good reminder that I can
[10:29]: just throw it into into dishes like this
[10:30]: and make it a little bit tastier than
[10:33]: what it would have been before it took a
[10:37]: while to char the squash and some of
[10:42]: them because I had to play with had
[10:46]: played with the the heat on the on the
[10:49]: cast-iron pan because of other filming
[10:52]: issues we were taking a while to set it
[10:53]: up and and cast-iron really hook heats
[10:56]: up pretty quickly on my stove I didn't
[10:60]: have it hot enough in the beginning so
[11:01]: that's a thing that I would be wary of
[11:04]: making sure it really is hot enough
[11:07]: because it took ten minutes for the
[11:11]: first batch but but the next batch was
[11:12]: done in about five minutes like it was
[11:14]: supposed to be could have done it
[11:16]: probably in one batch on our grill
[11:18]: because it's got a larger surface area
[11:20]: than my cast-iron pan but yeah it was it
[11:24]: was still it was pretty easy the
[11:25]: techniques were not difficult just
[11:27]: watching that heat
[11:28]: sure you have it hot enough so you don't
[11:30]: cook it through while you're while
[11:32]: you're trying to to char it and you
[11:36]: don't even have to chop the herbs you
[11:38]: just tear them up with your fingers so
[11:40]: that was good
[11:42]: it was all really easy and pretty good
[11:45]: and everybody liked it so I'd say that's
[11:47]: a win
[11:48]: so if you enjoyed this video please hit
[11:50]: subscribe
[11:52]: either down below or the little round
[11:54]: thing that comes up here with my face on
[11:56]: it
[11:56]: and it hit the thumbs up button and if
[12:02]: you know of any cookbooks or any chefs
[12:04]: or any recipes that you'd like me to
[12:06]: check out and try and maybe feature on
[12:08]: this channel just let me know below in
[12:11]: the comments thanks for watching cooking
[12:13]: the books with Heather
[12:16]: [Music]