New England Public Radio

Squash is the ultimate Thanksgiving food, not turkey. So says Chris Kimball, host of the PBS show America’s Test Kitchen.

“Of all the things they served in that first Thanksgiving, there might not have been turkey,” Kimball says. Early revelers may have dined on small birds or venison. “The one thing we know they did have was squash. So, if you want to go back to the first Thanksgiving, this is the item to start with.”

Kimball joined NPR’s Renee Montagne in her kitchen to whip up some recipes featuring members of the squash family. On the menu: mashed butternut squash, barley risotto with squash, and a maple-pumpkin stack cake.

Some require tools like knives and wooden mallets. Others are more simple. All require squash. The results are un-beet-able.

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Barley Risotto With Roasted Butternut Squash

Pearl barley is widely available in supermarkets. Because the bran has been removed from the outside of the grain, the exposed starchy interior helps to create a supple, velvety sauce when simmered.

Makes 8 servings

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds) peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 3 1/2 cups)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

4 cups water

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups pearl barley, rinsed and drained

1 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon minced fresh sage

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the squash with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper and spread it out over the prepared baking sheet. Roast the squash until tender and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring the broth and water to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and cover to keep warm.

Combine the remaining teaspoon of olive oil and the onion in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in the barley, increase the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until lightly toasted and aromatic, about 4 minutes. Stir in the wine and continue to cook, stirring often, until the wine has been completely absorbed, about 2 minutes.

Stir in 3 cups of the warm broth and half of the roasted squash. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed and the bottom of the pan is dry, 22 to 25 minutes. Stir in 2 more cups of the warm broth and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed and the bottom of the pan is dry, 15 to 18 ­minutes longer.

Continue to cook the risotto, stirring often and adding 1/2 cup of the remaining broth at a time as needed to keep the pan bottom from becoming dry (about every 4 minutes), until the grains of barley are cooked through but still somewhat firm in the center, 15 to 20 minutes longer. Remove it from the heat and stir in the remaining roasted squash, Parmesan, butter, sage, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

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Mashed Butternut Squash

Soupy, fibrous, washed out. Winter squash gets called all sorts of names. In this recipe by Nick Iverson, cubing the raw squash cuts through the fibers, making them vanish into the finished dish. Roasting at high heat evaporates extra moisture and concentrates the squash’s flavor and sweetness.

Makes 8 servings

4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces (10 cups)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and shredded (2 cups)

1 onion, chopped fine

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons maple syrup

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine squash, oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in bowl. Spread squash in an even layer on prepared sheet. Roast until squash is tender and starting to brown, 40 to 50 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through roasting.

Meanwhile, melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add apples, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, covered, until apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until apples and onion are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes longer. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside while squash finishes roasting.

Add squash and maple syrup to pot. Mash with potato masher until mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Butternut Squash Soup With Fried Leeks

Forget cream and spices — the secret to squashier squash soup is concentration. Do not use pre-peeled squash in this recipe. If you use a blender to puree the soup, fill the jar no more than two-thirds full and process in batches. Or, use an immersion blender to puree the soup right in the pot. Serve with sour cream and fried leeks. The soup can be made up to two days in advance. Recipe by Adam Ried.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

2 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch chunks (about 7 cups)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 leek, white and light green parts only, quartered lengthwise, sliced thin, and washed thoroughly (about 1 1/2 cups)

Salt and pepper

4 cups vegetable broth, or low-sodium chicken broth

1 to 2 cups water

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

Pinch cayenne pepper

Sour cream

The Soup

Place squash in bowl. Cover and microwave until paring knife glides easily through the flesh, 14 to 18 minutes, stirring halfway through. Carefully transfer squash to colander set in bowl (squash will be very hot) and drain for 5 minutes; reserve the liquid.

Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add squash, leek, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until squash pieces begin to break down and brown fond forms in bottom of pot, 10 to 13 minutes.

Add 2 cups broth and scrape bottom of pot to loosen and dissolve fond. Add remaining 2 cups broth, reserved squash liquid, 1 cup water, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and cayenne. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until leeks are fully tender, 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove and discard bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Working in batches, process soup in blender until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Return soup to clean pot and bring to simmer, thinning with up to 1 cup water to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with dollop of sour cream.

The Leeks

Makes about 1/2 cup

1 leek, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced into very thin 2-inch-long strips, washed thoroughly, and dried

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Toss leeks, flour, and pinch each salt and pepper in medium bowl. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet until shimmering. Add half of leeks and fry, stirring often, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer leeks to plate lined with paper towel; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with remaining leeks.

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Butternut Squash Galette With Gruyère

To increase the flavor of the crust and keep it tender, this recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated swaps out part of the white flour for nutty whole wheat, and uses butter instead of shortening. A series of folds create interlocking layers, punching up the crust’s flaky texture. An equal amount of rye flour can be substituted for the whole-wheat flour. Cutting a few small holes in the dough, using a plastic drinking straw or a paring knife, helps to prevent the dough from rising off the pan as it bakes.

Makes 6 servings.

1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) whole-wheat flour

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled

7 tablespoons ice water

1 teaspoon white vinegar

6 ounces baby spinach

1 1/4 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

5 teaspoons olive oil

1 red onion, sliced thin

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh oregano

3 ounces gruyère cheese, shredded (3/4 cup)

2 tablespoons crème fraîche

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

Salt and pepper

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Kosher salt

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

The Dough

Pulse flours, sugar and salt in food processor until combined, 2 to 3 pulses. Add butter and pulse until butter is cut into pea-sized pieces, about 10 pulses. Transfer mixture to medium bowl.

Sprinkle water and vinegar over mixture. With rubber spatula, fold mixture until a loose, shaggy mass forms with some dry flour remaining. Do not overwork. Transfer mixture to center of large sheet of plastic wrap, press gently into rough 4-inch square and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface. Roll into 11-inch by 8-inch rectangle with short side of rectangle parallel to work surface. Using bench scraper, bring bottom third of dough up, then fold upper third over it, folding like a business letter into 8-inch by 4-inch rectangle. Turn dough counterclockwise 90 degrees.

Roll out dough again, perpendicular to edge of work surface, into 11-inch by 8-inch rectangle, and fold into thirds. Turn dough 90 degrees counterclockwise and repeat rolling and folding into thirds again. After last fold, fold dough in half to create 4-inch square. Press top of dough gently to seal. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or up to two days.

The Filling

Place spinach and 1/4 cup water in large microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with large dinner plate (plate should completely cover bowl and not rest on spinach). Microwave on high power until spinach is wilted and decreased in volume by half, 3 to 4 minutes. Using potholders, remove bowl from microwave and keep covered for 1 minute.

Carefully remove plate and transfer spinach to colander set in sink. Using back of rubber spatula, gently press spinach against colander to release excess liquid. Transfer spinach to cutting board and roughly chop. Return spinach to colander and press again with rubber spatula; set aside. Add squash to now-empty bowl, cover with plate, and microwave until just tender, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and oregano, cover, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are tender and beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat, and add onion mixture to squash along with spinach, cheese, crème fraîche, and vinegar, and stir gently to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position, place pizza stone on oven rack, and heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes. Roll out on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to 14-inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Trim edges as needed to form a rough circle. Transfer dough to parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. With plastic drinking straw or tip of paring knife, cut five 1/4-inch circles in dough (one at center, and four evenly-spaced midway from center to edge of dough). Brush top of dough with 1 teaspoon olive oil.

Spread filling evenly over dough, leaving two-inch border around edge. Drizzle remaining teaspoon olive oil over filling. Carefully grasp one edge of dough and fold up outer 2 inches over filling. Repeat around circumference of tart, overlapping dough every 2 to 3 inches; gently pinch pleated dough to secure, but do not press dough into filling. Brush dough with egg and sprinkle evenly with kosher salt.

Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until crust is deep golden brown and filling is beginning to brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool tart on baking sheet on wire rack for 10 minutes. Using offset or wide metal spatula, loosen tart from parchment and carefully slide tart off parchment onto cutting board. Sprinkle with parsley, cut into wedges and serve.

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Pumpkin Bread

To rescue the usual pumpkin bread recipe from mediocrity, this recipe by Lan Lam starts by kicking the canned flavor. The best pumpkin bread needs to begin with the best pumpkin puree, which must be made from scratch. Sprinkled on just before baking, a simple streusel — or candied ginger — gives sweet crunch to each slice and prevents the surface of the loaf from getting soggy when stored overnight.

Makes 2 loaves

Topping

5 tablespoons packed (2 1/4 ounces) light brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

Bread

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

1 cup packed (7 ounces) light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 12 pieces

4 large eggs

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

The Topping

Using fingers, mix all ingredients together in bowl until well combined and topping resembles wet sand; set aside.

The Bread

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 1/2-inch by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda together in bowl.

Combine pumpkin puree, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in large saucepan over medium heat. Cook mixture, stirring constantly, until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove pot from heat; stir in granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, and cream cheese until combined. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until no visible pieces of cream cheese remain and mixture is homogeneous.

Whisk together eggs and buttermilk. Add egg mixture to pumpkin mixture and whisk to combine. Fold flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until combined (some small lumps of flour are OK). Fold walnuts into batter. Scrape batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle topping evenly over top of each loaf.

Bake until skewer inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let breads cool in pans on wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove breads from pans and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours. Serve warm or at room temperature. For candied ginger topping, substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger for cinnamon in topping. Fold 1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger into batter after flour mixture has been added.

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Maple-Pumpkin Stack Cake

Why stop at two layers? Spice up your holiday table this year with four layers of moist, tender pumpkin cake, sandwiched with maple cream.

Makes 1 cake

1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 large eggs

1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans, line with parchment paper. Grease parchment and flour pans.

Whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat sugar, butter, and eggs on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add pumpkin, and mix until incorporated. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until only few small flour streaks remain, about 30 seconds.

Spread one-fourth of batter (about 1 cup) in even layer in each prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert each cake onto large plate, peel off parchment, and invert again onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely. Reprep pans and repeat with remaining batter.

Using dry, clean bowl and whisk attachment, whip cream and maple syrup together on medium speed until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Place 1 cake layer on cake plate or pedestal, then spread one-fourth of whipped cream (scant cup) evenly over top. Repeat with remaining cake layers and whipped cream. Sprinkle pecans on top and serve.

Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky is just about everywhere. You can find the distinctive square bottle in bars, liquor stores and supermarkets from Milwaukee to Mumbai.

According to the trade magazine Drinks International, Johnnie Walker is the ninth best-selling brand of distilled spirit in the world. And it’s getting bigger.

Afshin Molavi, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, says it’s all part of one of the biggest recent trends in global economics: the rapid growth of the middle class.

In Foreign Policy, Molavi writes about how a small general store founded by “a young John Walker” in 1819 transformed into “part of a massive conglomerate” with concerns around the globe. Now, five of Johnnie Walker’s top seven global markets are in emerging markets.

Molavi tells NPR’s Arun Rath that Johnnie Walker’s success has followed the economic rise of countries like Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and India.

“We’re looking at another 3 billion people entering the global middle class by the year 2030,” says Molavi. “So what are companies like Johnnie Walker’s parent company, Diageo, doing? They’re chasing that global middle class — as is McDonald’s, as is Starbucks.”

In particular, Molavi says, companies like Johnnie Walker are targeting the “global aspirational middle classes,” groups that are rising economically.

Molavi says a key element of Johnnie Walker’s success is its advertising pitch in these countries.

One recent Johnnie Walker commercial in Mexico, for example, doesn’t even feature a single shot of whisky. Instead, Molavi says, the “keep walking” tagline is more of a metaphor for Mexico’s economic growth.

With this ad and others, he says, Johnnie Walker is “really kind of playing on nationalism, national aspiration, national achievement.”

For Johnnie Walker’s global ambitions, Molavi says, the iconic “striding man” logo makes for an effective symbol.

“When you look at today’s striding man, he’s just a silhouette,” Molavi says. “So in a sense, he could be anyone. He could be you, he could be someone in Africa, someone in India, someone in China. And so they’ve done a pretty good job of kind of making the striding man an everyman.”

Every year, the State Fair of Texas awards the most original food that is battered and plunged into a vat of boiling oil.

And it gets weirder every year. The obvious choices came and went in previous competitions — concoctions such as fried ice cream, fried cookie dough and chicken-fried bacon. Now, every year, the same cooks have to top themselves, which is not easy.

Last year, Butch Benavides — a Mexican food restaurateur turned fry-master — won a trophy for his fried bacon cinnamon roll on a stick.

“And we had fried cactus last year, which most people never even tasted a cactus but we came up with fried cactus, after we took all the thorns off, of course,” he says.

Standing in his kitchen, Benavides reaches into a stainless steel bowl and scoops out a ball of some sort of edible matter, flecked with red and green.

“Today we’re gonna do the Texas fried fireball,” he explains. “That’s pimento cheese, bacon, pickles, got some cayenne pepper in it to give it a little bite at the end.”

He rolls the orbs in egg wash and spicy bread crumbs, then drops them in the hot grease; they bob on the surface.

“They be fryin’ away,” he says.

Drive from Butch’s home kitchen south of Dallas to a commercial kitchen near downtown that is home to the deep-fried Nutella. The hazelnut-chocolate spread is mixed with cream cheese, then smeared inside of phyllo dough, which is sealed like a burrito. Its creator, Abel Gonzalez, has gotten so successful at this, he basically sells his fried creations for the three weeks of the State Fair, then takes off the next 11 months to think about his next offering.

Gonzalez is also a perennial deep-fried champion.

“The past winners have been fried butter, fried Coke, fried cookie dough, fried peanut butter sandwich. Last year we won for fried jambalaya,” he says.

At this point in the story, it’s probably a good time for a reality check.

“As a dietician, I can’t think of any worse, or less healthy food choices than the finalists for the Big Texas fried food awards,” says Stephanie Dean, of the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, who estimates the fried finalists are 500 to 1,000 calories each.

“So if you’re a 200-lb. adult and you plan on going to the State Fair to have the deep-fried Nutella, you would need to walk for two to five hours to burn off the calories from that deep-fried Nutella,” Dean says.

Back to the frying.

The last fry chef we’ll visit should get points for originality. He is Justin Martinez, who runs the Lone Star Roadhouse inside the fairgrounds.

“OK, what we have here is a fried Thanksgiving dinner. What I’m getting into now is the stuffing and diced turkey into a ball, mush that together there. Then we’ll be dipping it into Southern-style cream corn. We’re gonna roll it into a seasoned cornmeal, this gives us the texture we’re lookin for when we fry it,”

The verdicts:

The fried Texas fireball? You have to like a fried cheeseball.

Deep fried nutella? Mmmmmmmmmm. Just be sure and let the Nutella cool or it burns like napalm.

And the fried Thanksgiving dinner? The stuffing is a bit mushy, but it has a pleasing, familiar flavor.

And as long as we were in Texas, where they’ll fry nearly anything, we conducted an experiment: A southern-fried microphone.

Almost any kind of comeback gets New Orleans excited, since the city lost so much in the flood after Hurricane Katrina. That goes especially for food.

One year ago Saturday, New Orleans lost a beloved brand when Hubig’s pie bakery burned to the ground. The hand-held, fruit-filled crescents, fried golden-brown, had been delivered fresh to more than 1,000 local stores each morning.

Pie fans have come out in droves to support the company. But it takes more than T-shirts and fond memories to restart a business from scratch.

As news spread that a pie cooker in the nearly century-old bakery had caught fire, locals flocked to the scene. Many others flocked to the pies.

“Some trucks were actually on the road delivering to convenience stores and grocery stores,” says Drew Ramsey, the third generation of his family to run Hubig’s Pies. “They did not make the whole route. People stopped ’em, and they never even made it in the front door. They were out of pies by the time the sun came up.”

Even a year later, the rumor mill churns on Twitter: Who has the last stockpiled Hubig’s pie? Today, fans still mourn their favorite flavor. Dale Stainbrook and Ann Martin ate a Hubig’s almost every morning with coffee. Stainbrook’s favorite flavor was cherry. He jokes that he’s lost weight and sleep since the fire.

It’s been like a yearlong jazz funeral to cope with pie withdrawal, complete with musical tributes. Dave Jordan wrote a tune mourning the loss for his album, Bring Back Red Raspberry (named for his favorite flavor). Even the New Orleans City Council roots for pies. A meeting on permits for the new Hubig’s factory prompted calls for two lemon pies and one coconut before taking a vote.

Fans have done more than cheer. They’ve bought merchandise. Hubig’s T-shirts, ties, Christmas ornaments — even full-body pie costumes. Without actual pies, the company logo is the only product. It shows a triple-chinned baker in a fluffy white cap named Savory Simon.

“That’s all we have left, you know, the little fat man holding the pie,” Ramsey says.

Trinket sales make up a fraction of lost pie revenue. But community image is key to the comeback, says geographer Richard Campanella, who’s written multiple books about New Orleans.

“Hubig’s is one of those things that had not yet been co-opted by the tourism industry like beignets have,” he says. “And it had that deep-rooted localism that endeared it.”

Even Hubig’s factory was endearing. On a block of carefully restored pink and green Creole cottages, it was the lone industrial holdout. “You know, it produced something. It kept the neighborhood real,” says Campanella, a professor at the Tulane School of Architecture.

Authenticity gets expensive. The historic neighborhood means a long list of regulations. And 1920s factory gear is hard to replicate. Owner Ramsey has custom machinists and a metallurgist crafting a special wheel to cut the pie dough. How will he know the new product stacks up?

“We got a stash in the freezer that are gonna be the prototypes. It’ll have the same little ridges that crimped the dough. It’ll be the same size. It’ll be the same,” he says.

To get that first pie off the line — hopefully next year — Hubig’s will have to do something it’s never done: take on debt. Probably more than $1 million of it. But fans like Stainbrook and Martin pledge they’ll buy plenty of pies. Stainbrook says he’ll be waiting in line as soon as the doors open.

“We’ll be camping out,” Martin says.

And in a city as die-hard about local food as New Orleans, Hubig’s Pies might just be able to take those testimonials to the bank.