What to do with small unripe hubbard squashes besides pickling?

Question

My hubbard squash plant went into a frenzy this month and produced at least a dozen new squashes that will never survive the first frost (which should be soon). I plucked them all to give the few bigger squashes a fighting chance. They are darling little unripe golf balls, quite tender to cut into but not that squashy orange color, i.e., not ripe. I'm thinking of slicing thin and pickling. Any other suggestions?

LisaD · Answer

Thanks to you all! I did the fried slices, and I considered the Little Prairie "apple" pie, but I had just had a humiliating experience with pie dough (a topic for another hotline), so I decided to let that go. Through the alchemy that happens when good ideas are being tossed around, today I came up with the idea to make a chutney, which is bubbling on the stove now. Tandoori chicken and Madhur Jaffrey's genius cabbage are on the menu tonight. (And all of the trimmings will of course go to compost.) This community is awesome!

mainecook61 · Answer

Return them to the earth from whence they came so that they will make more squashes next year.

Valhalla · Answer

I picked similar size squash off a Thai pumpkin plant and lightly sauteed them. I was surprised how tasty they were. Try them raw as well as pickled.

dinner A. · Answer

I have NO idea if this is good in real life, but remember that Ma in one of the Little House on the Prairie novels made a pie with unripe pumpkins after an early frost. I googled it, and apparently there is a "Little House Cookbook" based on the series, and it includes a recipe for this pie! http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/recipe-the-long-winter-green-pumpkin-apple-pie/

What to do with small unripe hubbard squashes besides pickling?

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