Saturday Supper - Squash Gratin

I really should have posted this recipe in time for Halloween:

Squash Gratin

Serves four - not on your Nellie, more like two!

1 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, halved lengthways and finely sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced
150ml double cream
150ml vegetable stock, made from a cube
2 tbsp hazelnuts, roughly chopped
4 tbsp breadcrumbs

Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/Gas 7. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the leeks, garlic and 4 of the thyme sprigs for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.

Place a layer of squash in the bottom of each of four individual ovenproof dishes, top with a few of the cooked leeks and season. Repeat the layers until you’ve used up all the mixture.

Mix together the cream and stock and divide this between the four dishes. Top with the hazelnuts, breadcrumbs and remaining thyme leaves.

Cover the dishes with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, until the squash is tender and the tops are golden brown.

Things I do: Or rather should have done :( The recipe implies that you pop whole thyme sprigs into the leeks and garlic at the start of the recipe. I did that and then realised that whole sprigs would be rather chewy so I removed them before layering the dish up - and I used one shallow dish rather than separate ones. To my mind removing the thyme made the end result a bit bland so in future I'll strip the leaves from the stalks for the whole of the recipe. I served this with seeded rolls but the two-legged mouse and I agree that it would go really well with bacon or a grilled pork chop.

Having said all that, it is one I'll try again!

Di

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