THS CWT SPAGHETTI SQUASH 2017 12 14

Hey everyone, Chef Trevor here, Chef de Partie of Benchmark Restaurant at the Canadian Food

and Wine Institute. And today, we're going to make chow mein, and it all starts with roasted spaghetti squash

So let's get started cooking with Trevor. Alright, so, unconventional chow mein today

Instead of noodles, instead of all that gluten, we are going to use roasted spaghetti squash

And all I've done to roast the spaghetti squash is I've rubbed it with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper

and I've let it roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes. And what you want is your spaghetti squash to come out of the oven and just be tender

and you should see all those little spaghetti strands start to peel away. Okay

We're going to let that continue to cool for a couple minutes while we work with our other vegetables

And for our stir fry today, we are using savoy cabbage, celery, green onions, a regular white onion, carrot, ginger, garlic

an interesting sugar product made from coconuts called coconut sugar, olive oil, and tamari soy sauce

When we make a stir fry, what we characteristically want to think about is the crunch of the vegetables maintained throughout the dish

So, when we're cutting, we want to make beautiful, big cuts that stay crunchy when we finish that off

So to start with our celery, I just want to cut them into really long, diagonal pieces

And that's going to give us a really fun shape, but at the same time, it's also going to maintain its crunch when we fry it quickly in the pan

Next, we're going to take our cabbage and transfer our celery back off of our cutting board

because we only want to be working with one vegetable at once. So, I've taken the cabbage and I've cut it in half, because I'm only going to use half today

There's something else we have to remember. We always want to make sure our outer leaves are still really tense around the cabbage

Those are our protector leaves, so they're going to be really dry and leathery, and they're not going to taste very well

What we want are the tender middle leaves. So when we're at the grocery store and we see one that's got lots of green leaves on the outside

we want to make sure to pick all those away to reveal the clean middle of the cabbage

Next thing we've got to do is take that really big core out of the cabbage

So all we're going to do is take our knife and insert it at the very top and cut down beside it

Do the same thing on the other side to remove that core

And if there's a little piece left because you can't really see where it goes, just trim it out

Now what you want to do is make a flat surface again, and you want to cut it into another quarter

And then all you're going to do is make straight down cuts to shred that cabbage

You want to try and get really thin shreds like this. If you're making a lot of this and you want to use lots of cabbage, because remember, cabbage does cook down

so what looks like a lot at the beginning will actually be less at the end

It will be about half of what you start with. Once our coleslaw is done, we're just going to transfer it to a bowl

and we're just going to set it aside while we finish working with our other vegetables

Again, we've got that beautifully squared off peeled carrot ready to be julienned

And just to review, our julienne is thin slices, all uniform

And all the same size. All we're going to do is just fan those out

And using our knife, we're just going to make straight down cuts now

Now the trick to stir fry is you want to have everything ready to go before you even turn on the frying pan

because once you start, it's going to happen hard, and it's going to happen fast

so that we maintain the integrity of those vegetables. So our next cut to make is our green onion

And just to clean our green onion, all we want to do is take that little top piece off there

where the roots are still intact. And the fun part about this is you literally have to buy one bunch of green onions at the beginning of the summer

and every time you use one, you cut this little root off, and you go outside and you plant it in your garden

and within three to five days, a new green onion will start to grow out of this

and you'll have green onions for free all summer long. Because it's winter time now, I'm going to throw it away

You just want to make sure with your green onion that you're peeling off this really dry outside protector layer

And we're just going to make some long, hard cuts here. Then, following our lesson from previous episodes, I have one onion diced perfectly

So with all the other ingredients ready, we're now able to work with our squash

All you want to do with spaghetti squash is you delicately want to kind of peel away the inside

to reveal all those awesome spaghetti strands. And you want to be delicate here because you don't want to ruin their integrity

You don't want to break them all apart. So all we're doing is taking that spaghetti out

And if you've done your job right, it should just kind of peel nicely away from the squash

And then taking a fork, you just kind of want to separate apart all of those strands

You can use your fingers too. The idea here is you've only cooked the squash enough to separate those strands

You haven't cooked the spaghetti squash into mush. If you've done that, this dish won't work out properly

And we'll start working with our other half. You just want to take your fork and take your fingers

and you just want to kind of work it around, making sure to separate all those spaghetti squash strands as best as possible

And because we're working with stir-fry today, I want to keep our garlic and ginger pieces very big before we go into the pan

So all we're going to do is our same technique that we used with the carrot

we are going to use with the ginger. And the reason we're doing it this way is we really want the oils and natural flavors

from the ginger and the garlic to actually fry themselves out into our oil that we add to the pan

so that they add an extra level of flavor of that cooking really fast

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

And we're going to do that with our garlic. And we're going to do that with our ginger

At this point, it may look like a lot, but remember, it is going to cook down

Making sure to just get the rawness off of those vegetables, but keeping their integrity

Once you kind of hear that hard searing going away, Once you kind of hear that hard searing going away

you know that you're about done. So see how everything's kind of shrunk down just a little bit

So see how everything's kind of shrunk down just a little bit, but we've still maintained some awesome crunch

but we've still maintained some awesome crunch. And if we want, we can enhance the moisture coming out of that

And if we want, we can enhance the moisture coming out of that with just a little bit more salt

And now that you've got some space in the pan again, And now that you've got some space in the pan again

and your vegetables are still beautiful and vibrant and crunchy, and your vegetables are still beautiful and vibrant and crunchy

you're ready to add in your spaghetti squash. you're ready to add in your spaghetti squash

And at this point, all we're trying to do is just warm up that spaghetti squash And at this point, all we're trying to do is just warm up that spaghetti squash

from being roasted so that it can mimic those chow mein-style noodles. from being roasted so that it can mimic those chow mein-style noodles

from being roasted so that it can mimic those chow mein-style noodles. Being careful here, you just want to kind of fold everything together

Being careful here, you just want to kind of fold everything together. And as you add a little bit of moisture to that spaghetti squash

And as you add a little bit of moisture to that spaghetti squash, the strands will start to fall apart

and everything will mix together, coming together like a classic chow mein dish

coming together like a classic chow mein dish. Once your spaghetti squash is warmed through

Once your spaghetti squash is warmed through, you are ready to go to the plate

We're just going to start by plopping down We're just going to start by plopping down

some of our spaghetti squash noodles in the middle, some of our spaghetti squash noodles in the middle

and getting some of our beautiful garnish right there on top. and getting some of our beautiful garnish right there on top

Finish it with some fresh scallion, Finish it with some fresh scallion

just to garnish the top, and just a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

and just a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. And there you have it

Crispy cabbage, crunchy vegetables, all with unconventional noodles, and chow mein, absolutely delicious. Enjoy