In our last post regarding the Culinary Journeys – Tokyo, we mentioned the okonomiyaki sauce and the desire to recreate the flavors in the tradition of Great Lakes Cuisine. The key to the sauce is the use of fruits combined with the more savory components. Here is a shot of the ingredients from a more widely available mass-produced option.

The soy, molasses, vinegar, tomato paste are all similar to a standard barbeque sauce, but note the addition of apple, peach, date, and raisin. These fruit additions change the flavor, but are balanced with savory ingredients, and they are the inspiration to add a favorite local ingredient – apple butter.

Adding the ingredients in levels relative to the appearance on the label, we ended with a close approximation. We then added a bit of ramp soy which we had on hand from our experiments inspired by Forager Chef. The resulting sauce was a dead ringer for the okonomiyaki sauce enjoyed in Tokyo.

That experiment led to the inspiration for this recipe, adding the apple butter into a gravy to top our stuffed acorn squash. The same fruity/savory interplay works here with the sweet roasted squash and the nutty wild rice. Adapted from a stuffed squash suggestion from my daughter, we made this as a center of plate for the vegans at our latest Christmas dinner. She pre-cooks the squash and separately prepares the stuffing, but her key addition is adding a gravy to bring all the flavors together.

For this dish, pre-cook the acorn squash with maple sugar and garlic salt. While that cooks prepare wild rice, then add sautéed shallots, celery, carrots along with dried cranberries and toasted pumpkin seeds. After assembled and baked together, it all gets topped with a roast vegetable / apple butter gravy.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice and Apple Butter Gravy

• Two medium acorn squash, halved and de-seeded
• 1 Tbs. maple sugar (or 1/4 cup maple syrup)
• 1/2 Tbs. garlic salt

• 1 cup uncooked wild rice
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 Tbs. dried sage (or 2 Tbs. fresh sage)
• 1 Tbs. dried thyme (or 2 Tbs. fresh thyme)

• 4 chicken breakfast sausages
• 1 Tbs. cooking oil (olive oil, canola oil, or butter)
• 2 medium shallots, peeled and diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 cup craisins (sweetened dried cranberries)
• 1/2 cup toasted green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• Salt
• 1 Tbs. Cornstarch
• 2 Tbs. apple butter

Heat oven to 375 F, sprinkle squash with garlic salt and maple sugar. If maple sugar is not readily available, cook down maple syrup until reduced by half in a saucepan and brush squash with syrup. Place cut side down and allow to roast for 45 minutes to an hour until soft.

While the squash roasts, prepare the wild rice according to package directions, using 3 cups of vegetable broth (reserve 1 cup for gravy). We use Better than Bouillon Roast Vegetable. Add in 1/2 Tbs. each of sage and thyme, reserving 1/2 Tbs. each for the stuffing. Our preference here is for hand-parched wild rice if you can find it, but any packaged wild rice will work in a pinch. Set aside to cool.

If using frozen chicken sausages, such as Applegate, cook to package directions in a skillet with 1 Tbs. cooking oil. Remove sausages to cutting board when cooked through. In the same skillet over medium heat, add shallots, carrots, celery with a dash of salt and sauté until soft and slightly caramelized, scraping up any chicken sausage bits as they cook. Add back diced chicken sausages and remaining 1/2 Tbs. of sage and thyme, cook for just 2 minutes more.

Transfer to large mixing bowl, add craisins, pumpkin seeds and wild rice and mix to combine. Taste for appropriate level of salt, add more if needed.

For the gravy, bring remaining cup of vegetable broth to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Combine 1 Tbs. cornstarch with 1 Tbs. water in a bowl and mix, then add to the simmering vegetable stock. It will thicken noticeably as soon as it return to a boil. Mix in 2 Tbs. apple butter.

Fill each acorn squash loosely with wild rice mix, and add the rest to a oven-safe ceramic or glass pan, large enough to accommodate all the squash. Place the squash on the wild rice mixture. The entire recipe can be made up to this point and place in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Once refrigerated, bring out 30 minutes before baking to allow to warm to room temperature.

Yes, the apple butter gravy does make the dish. Just my daughter’s suggestion of serving stuffed squash with a gravy is a great upgrade, as it unifies the flavors that can be disjointed in a stuffed squash. By cooking the squash and stuffing components separately, we can control for flavors and doneness, but the gravy ensures a uniform flavor. The addition of the toasted pumpkin seeds and craisins adds texture to the nutty wild rice.

Adding the apple butter to the gravy is unique, but apples and roasted squash are natural partners, and the addition of sage and thyme bring a lovely, savory backbone. So here our inspiration from Tokyo, okonomiyaki sauce, brings us full circle, back to Great Lakes Cuisine.