ADAPT recipe for September

Squashes and Pumpkins

If you don't grow your own, there should be plenty in the shops from now to Halloween. The flavour improves with maturity and they can be kept in a dry place for some time.

The flesh can be roasted cut into cubes around a joint or alone with a knob of butter, added to meat in pies, served with cheese sauce, used in soups (creamed) or added to apple in a pie.

Here is a recipe for soup (adapted from the 'hairy dieters'):
About 850g of squash or pumpkin (peel, remove seeds and cut into chunks), 4 carrots, 2 parsnips, 1 onion (cut up roughly) and 2 cloves of garlic (crushed), 1 litre of veg or chicken stock.

Fry onion and garlic gently for 10 mins in a little oil then add the rest of the vegetables and the hot stock. Simmer until tender – about 30 minutes? Stir occasionally.

Blend the slightly cooled mixture then warm through again, serve with a swirl of yoghurt, black pepper and a few snipped chives.

For those with a sweet tooth how about pumpkin pie?

Line a pie dish with shortcrust pastry then stew your pumpkin flesh (seeds and peel removed) in a little water and sieve to give a puree.

To about ½ pint (300ml) of puree add 2 beaten eggs, ½ pint (300ml) of milk, 2oz (60g) sugar, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon and a grating of nutmeg. Mix well and pour into the pastry shell, bake in a very hot oven 230C for 15 mins then reduce heat to moderate 180C for about 20-25 minutes. Delicious hot or cold.

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