It Is A Butternut Squash Fiesta!

I got home from work early (you have got to love a work meeting held at 5pm 200 yards from where you live). Infact I was very early, walking through my own front door at 5.30pm, a full hour and a half before the usual time.

How to make use of an unexpected 90minutes?

Ah hah! the Butternut Squash I bought over the weekend!

They takes blooming ages to chop up! It is rather like a pumpkin with very tough flesh and stringy type seeds inside. A very sharp knife cut through and after skinning the vegetable I chopped it into bite sized pieces and flung, haphazardly placed them in my largest roasting dish with a sliced courgette and 3 sticks of  chopped celery.

I then covered them with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and a sprinkling of dried mixed herbs.

Shoved Carefully placed them in the oven on 150 for an hour and a half.

Oh My God, slow roasted Butternut squash done this way is delicious! Dinner was just a plate full of the veg.

But there was so much of it for little old me.

So I had another go at making pastry this time 4oz of plain flour, 1oz of lard and 1oz of Flora and a pinch of salt and some cold water to bind.

I then blind baked the case and covered the bottom with the courgettes, squash and celery. 3 eggs beaten and a finely chopped rasher of bacon made a rather nice quiche sprinkled with cheese.

The rest of the courgettes, squash and celery was then covered with some water and a stock cube, bought to the boil and simmered for 10 minutes, before puréeing with a handheld blender (affectionately known as a “Zuzzer” by my family, 10 yrs old & bought for £9.99!) a glug of milk and it was done.

Ok the quiche pastry I made was not the prettiest, (the edges fell off as I pulled it out of the oven) but not bad for my second attempt!

I am actually rather pleased with this and fancy having another try at cooking with an unusual (for me) veg. Am thinking turnip or artichoke. Unless you have an idea? What is in season now?

Frugally yours

Abigail

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