Borrowing from Justin: crostini of squash, trout and creme fraiche

The "Justin" in the title is one of my favorite cooks. I should, properly call him a chef, but one of the reasons I adore Jonathan is that if you asked him, he'd tell you "never call me a chef. I'm a cook." Justin "gets it." There isn't ego there, there's just a whole lot of talent.

Justin did the cooking for our recent commitment ceremony. There has been nothing but a contented sigh from the assembled masses about that meal. It truly was wonderful.

I steal from Justin all the time. I eat something that he cooks, I go home and I copy it. Or I make a change in it and claim it's my recipe, and I don't give him credit. And when he reads this, he's gonna laugh (cause I suspect Justin is as much a thief as I am, but show me a cook who isn't).

Anyway, there was a whole lot of good eating going on at the cocktail hour at that ceremony. Yours truly had his share of cocktails, so I don't remember precisely what some of those pass around goodies were, but I remember certain ingredients. I remember butternut squash. I remember smoked trout. And I remember crostini. I don't remember creme fraiche, but maybe it was there. But in any case, I didn't ask Justin for his recipe, and you know what? With his food, you don't need to. Once you eat it, it seems so "self evident," that you can do it. Here's how I did mine.

You start, of course, with toasts. I used a baguette that I had sliced into pieces about a quarter to a third of an inch thick and baked them for ten minutes at 350. This crisped them, without giving them any color.

While they were baking, I took the NECK of a small butternut squash (the long part), peeled it, and then cut it into half moons. I tossed this with some olive oil and salt and then layed out the half moons on a baking sheet, and put them into the oven, which I had increased to 425. I checked after ten minutes, and the squash had softened, and begun to color. I let them cool, while I got to work on the smoked trout.

Now, a word of warning with trout. There are bones. There are LOTS of small bones. It's almost impossible to work the fish and get all those bones out, if you're working yourself, as I was. But it's very easy to get the meat off of the carcass of a smoked fish. Just bend back the head and tail and they'll break off. The meat separates from the skin very easily and just do the best you can at pulling out bones. Again, you won't get them all, and just make sure people know that they should look for those little "pin bones." You'll have a nice pile of smoked fish.

Put a slice of butternut squash on top of each crostino, and then add a bit of the smoked fish. Finally, a little dollop of creme fraiche to finish it off, and you're there.

If you really want to gild t his lilly, and you have it, a few trout eggs on top adds some additional color, but this is really unnecessary. The combination of the white, the orange, and the pale pink of the fish makes a really pretty color combination that is very appealing during a time of the year when you think everything is getting dark and gloomy. And it tastes good too.

Give it a try.