Pan Seared Sword and Curry Roasted Butternut Squash

Even though I generally do something a little special for Sunday dinner, I was really tired this weekend so I was pretty lazy on Sunday. Sure I went to the market and prepped some food for the week, but I also watched like 6 episodes of Arrested Development and made Tim buy me conditioner. It was that kind of Sunday.

Nevertheless! It's almost fall here in Texas! And by almost fall I mean it's 87 degrees outside with a breeze. Actually, we had a really nice week last week and it got me excited for gourds.

I picked up a small butternut squash at the market, I really think it was just over a pound, it was pretty cute. They also had swordfish steaks on sale. Usually I don't favor sword; its a large game fish and can get bruised in the fight to land one, and because of their large size they tend to have higher levels of mercury. However, the steaks looked lovely and fresh and the seafood guys were quite impressed when I asked for 12oz and proceeded to hand-select a steak weighing in at 0.76lbs. You do the math.

Swordfish is a really steak-y fish; it's thick and meaty and holds up really well on the grill as well. I pan seared these steaks as we were having some technical difficulties with our Weber, but they tasted really good.

Curry Roasted Butternut Squash

serves two

1 small butternut squash

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1tbsp olive oil

2tsp curry powder

1tsp garam masala

salt, pepper

Note: You'll want to start this a good 25 minutes before you're ready to start cooking the sword.

Preheat oven to 400F. Peel, seed, and dice your squash into 2" cubes. This is a very rough estimate; mostly just make sure they are all about the same size. Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss to combine.

Spread on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes or until fork tender.

Note 2: This dish was effing delicious. To the point where not only was I super impressed with my skills at ignoring food in the oven, but was also really happy with the flavors that came through. I will make this again, and probably in several other iterations.

Pan Seared Swordfish

serves two

12oz Swordfish steak, rinsed and patted dry

1/2tsp Garam Masala

1/2tsp Paprika

Salt, Pepper

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat with a dash of olive oil. Season one side of the sword and place seasoned side down in the pan. Season the exposed side while the underside cooks. You should be able to see the fish change in color as it cooks-it will go from opaque to milky white. However, much like a steak, you don't want to overcook the sword. Depending on the thickness, it should take anywhere from 4-6 minutes per side.

Once the sword is cooked, divide between plates and serve with the roasted squash and a green salad. The one pictured is baby spinach, baby arugula, and snow pea sprouts with a drizzle of oilve oil and some white balsamic.