Tonight I had some fun with dinner and made a hasselback butternut squash topped with a sweetcorn, cilantro & feta salsa on a bed of fresh arugula. This learning to cook gig is a lot of creative fun. As you may be able to tell, I am working on my plating now 🙂
Hasselbacking, for those of you who may never have heard the term, is where a vegetable, in this case, a butternut squash, is sliced like an accordion across its top side, then lavished with additional seasonings between each layer before roasting, and then presented whole and looking quite pretty on a plate.
This recipe is quite easy and was fun to put together.
After peeling the butternut squash, I placed it in an oven proof glass dish and added an inch of boiling water, then placed it the oven for 20 minutes at 400.
At that point, I removed it, patted down the two sections until dry, placed it on a cutting board between 2 chopsticks and sliced each section from one end to the other then coated it liberally with some olive oil, salt and pepper. When I make the dish again, I will add more peppercorns on the squash before placing it in the oven. I think that would add more flavour.
Bake it in the oven at 400 for another 40 minutes then place it on a bed of arugula and add the salsa.
The salsa is simple; 1 cup of sweet corn, 12 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup of feta, 1 finely chopped red chili, 4 tablespoons of lime juice, a small bunch of cilantro, finely chopped, a tablespoon of olive oil, some pumpkin seeds and salt and pepper. Toss in a container and allow it to sit for an hour before.
It is as delicious as it looks.
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