A cookery challenge! They're always fun.
I've mentioned that my girlfriend's doing WeightWatchers at the moment, so by default I am as well. Occasionally I get frustrated when I can't make something nicer by adding bacon, butter and/or cream, but the WeightWatchers website is actually full of really good, tasty recipes. There is the occasional blunder (like the quantities listed in their burgers, for example) but on the whole they're pretty good - and as a cook it's good to stretch your abilities by learning to make things taste nice without reaching for those easy standbys.
There are other ways to tittivate meals without those delicious helpers, of course. Sliced cup mushrooms will give any dish a gentle little lift and a bit more body without overwhelming the existing flavours, and a mild chilli pepper will add some bite to a dish that might otherwise be bland.
By happy chance I wandered along to a local farm shop today, so there's no shortage of mushrooms and peppers here at the moment.
Anyway, back to WeightWatchers: last week my girlfriend was challenged to try something new before her next meeting, and that thing turned out to be butternut squash. I've cooked it before in risotto, but rather than following the easy route of repeating something I know I asked her to give me a challenge and find me something new to cook. She hit me with this one from the WeightWatchers website.
When I mentioned this recipe in a previous post I called it "showboating." It's more than that - it's downright showing off, to the point where it wants serving in a fish-shaped terrine on a heated hostess trolley. Or am I just having thoughts like that because of the brown kitchen in my current flat? Anyway, here goes...
Step one: pre-heat your oven to 180C.
Take your ripe, turgid butternut squash and stand it erect on a chopping board. Take a large chef's knife, steel yourself, and chop it in two down the middle.
Use a dessert spoon to take out the seeds and the pulp that surrounds them and discard. This part's easy.
Now make the squash halves into lovely 70's style serving boats. I used a sharp knife to draw the edges of the part I wanted to dig out, then did the dirty work with a dessert spoon. This part requires strong, well-practised wrists.
Keep hold of the bits you've dug out, we'll be using them in a minute.
Drizzle the two squash halves with some olive oil, season with a twist each of salt and pepper and put them in the oven for 30 minutes.
I'm a bit cack-handed and I kept pausing to take photos, but I was easily able to do the rest during that 30 minutes. Feel free to get everything chopped up beforehand if you're the organised type, though.
Otherwise, now's the time to chop an onion, a clove of garlic, a couple of mushrooms, a mild chilli pepper and the reserved squash that you spooned out with your big manly wrists just now.
Cook the whole lot gently in oil in a splash of oil in a non-stick pan until the onion is soft and translucent, then add 250g of beef mince and stir it all around until the beef mince is browned all over.
The original recipe insists that you brown the meat in batches. This is only necessary if you're using so much meat that it won't fit in your pan - there's no need if you're just cooking for two.
Add a tin of tomatoes and some herbs (the original recipe says Mixed Herbs - I've got no idea what that means so I added a teaspoonful each of basil, sage and oregano), stir it all about and leave it to simmer for a bit.
If all's gone well, the mix will have reduced down to a sensible consistency when the 30 minutes butternut squash roasting time is up.
Spoon the mixture into the squash boats.
As usual, the WeightWatchers quantities gave far too much so I boiled up a single portion of pasta and created a frozen ready meal for future use.
The boats now just need another ten minutes in the oven. I've done them in my cast-iron pan for the sole reason that my baking tray wasn't big enough - the cooking vessel really doesn't matter here.
I added a non-WeightWatchers approved touch by whizzing up some breadcrumbs, mixing with a little bit of grated cheese, sprinkling them over the top and grilling for two minutes, just to make a nice crispy topping.
Taste verdict
The dish worked out well, but I have my doubts about butternut squash as a savoury ingredient. I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I found it too sweet, a jarring presence against the savoury flavours of the meaty filling. I do realise that that's a peculiarity of mine though, so maybe most people would like it. My girlfriend loved it - as I mentioned at the start, she'd never had butternut squash before but she's asked me to add it to the regular repertoire. I'm very glad I added the crispy cheese and breadcrumb topping - the cheese is probably optional if you're serious about losing weight, but the texture of the grilled breadcrumbs gave the dish a massive lift: it would have been a homogeneous mush without them.
Financial verdict
One butternut squash - they vary in size, but approx 80p
250g beef mince - £2.50
An onion - 20p
A mild pepper - 20p
A couple of mushrooms - 20p
A tin of tomatoes - 35p
Some pasta, to make up a ready-meal because the original recipe made too much - pennies
Dried basil, sage, oregano - pennies
A total of £4.35, which breaks down into £1.42 per meal if, like me, you decide that there's actually enough for three and save some for tomorrow.
The skinny
Pre-heat the oven, 180C.
Chop a squash in half lengthways, spoon out and discard the seeds.
Turn the squash halves into boats by spooning out some of the flesh.
Lay the boats into a roasting tray, season, splash some olive oil, cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel and chop an onion, a clove of garlic and one mild chilli pepper. You'll probably want to cut up the squash that you spooned out earlier into smaller pieces, too.
Gently cook all the above over a low heat in a non-stick frying pan with a splash of oil.
When the onion is soft and translucent, add the minced beef.
Mix and turn until the meat is browned on all sides, then add a tin of tomatoes and mix and stir some more.
If all's gone well, the meat/tomato/squash mixture in the pan will have reduced to a dry-ish ragu at the same time that the squash has been roasting for 30 minutes. It worked for me, anyway.
Spoon the meat mixture into the squash boats, and if there's any left over tupperware it up with some pasta or rice to make a nice little ready meal at work later in the week.
Pop the squash boats back in the oven for another ten minutes.
Meanwhile, whizz up some breadcrumbs and grate some cheese, if you want to.
Sprinkle the cheese and breadcrumb mixture on top of the squash boats and grill until golden brown.
WeightWatchers ProPoints
5 and a bit.
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