Buttercup Squash: decorative gourd or dinner?

It's decorative gourd season! "Buttercup squash?" you may be thinking..."you mean butternut squash? I mean what kind of food blogger are you??" No...butterCUP squash...

Pretty much a green weird pumpkin

Now I encountered buttercup squash on the blog of a college classmate, Tales of the Basil Queen, which sadly doesn't update anymore (which is a damn shame the recipes are GREAT).  

I love winter squash in general. Acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash: all awesome.  But this one seems a bit more obscure.  I found one at the North Union Farmer's Market on Shaker Square a few weeks ago and couldn't NOT buy it.  So I decided to roast it up and I'd figure out what to do with it later.  

So I figured I'd halve it, scoop it out, then throw it on a roasting pan.  

Now...what I learned pretty quick is don't use this knife. 

You know why?

It gets stuck. Whomp whomp. 

But this one....

I remember hearing that the little indentation are to keep food from sticking to the blade.
Also maybe the blade from sticking in the food. 

This one worked alright. It was still really difficult to slice in half so use a lot of care.  

After some struggling with the cuts I finally got it sliced open.  

It's the same lovely orange as an acorn squash. Maybe a touch yellower.

Time to scoop the guts!  

I had the thought that the seeds looked tasty...So I decided to try to clean them up and roast like you do with pumpkin seeds. I'm pretty sure I'd done it with butternut squash seeds too with good results so...

The seeds were harder than pumpkin seeds to clean and were a little fatter.  They had to be individually de-goopified and water didn't really help. 

I'll tell you right now---don't repeat my mistake. They didn't turn out super well. I think the skins were too sticky and hard to clean so it never crisped up like pumpkin seeds do, plus they are much harder. Certainly edible, but not really worth the effort. 

OK back to the squash! 

Next step is to cover a cookie sheet in tin foil, throw it on there (I did facedown plain, but you could add oil, salt, maple syrup and do it faceup. It'd be great to stuff and roast too but you'd just need to take a slice off the bottom the make it stable).  

I roasted it for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees and took it out once a knife could easily pass through it.

It stayed a little firmer than a pumpkin, sweet potato, or acorn squash would have, but scoops easily.  The skin is slightly softer than that of an acorn squash too so it's easier to accidentally tear it when scooping.  

Now---the taste. I find the flavor of acorn squash, pumpkin and sweet potato to be very very similar. But this...buttercup squash has a delicate lovely chestnutty flavor that's distinctive.  It would be lovely in a pureed soup, or lightly seasoned up as a side mash. 

I used them as a tortilla filling with some rotel tomatoes, black beans and a bit of cheese and sour cream.  They needed a decent bit of salt and chili powder in that preparation. I'd done it with sweet potatoes before, and I think sweet potatoes are better for that particular use, with the stronger flavor they have, it plays with some sweet and saltiness.  The flavor of the buttercup squash it just so delicate...I'm hoping I can find another one at the market and make a soup!