Sweet Chilli and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Ladies and gents, this has been a pretty crazy long weekend. I spent Thursday night and most of Friday baking up over 100 cupcakes to both fulfil a few orders and take to Groby Family Fun Day for my first stall with Nancy's Sweet Treat Boutique. Believe me when I say that pretty much everything in our kitchen was coated in a fine layer of icing sugar by the end of it!

The resulting evening cleaning session was really worth it though as I sold out within an hour and a half of the fair opening and got lots of interest for custom orders. It really boosted my cupcaking confidence as this was my first fair and had been pretty sure I'd be taking quite a few cakes home - I guess now I know for next time to make even more! Here are some that sold the quickest - vanilla cupcakes baked into wafer cones and frosted to look like cool tasty ice creams!

Needless to say I was bushed by the time we got home after the fair and cooking was the last thing on my mind, so what did I do? ...I made meatloaf for dinner. I guess you just can't keep me out of the kitchen! Minimal cooking was done on Sunday however but by Monday morning my mind was right back in the refrigerator.

A butternut squash had been purchased and so I was trying to think of something a little different to our usual squash risotto with cashew nuts and red wine that was also healthy and relatively low in fat - it is one of my best friends' weddings on the 17th and I have a gorgeous dress that I have to look fabulous in. So what is a healthy dinner? Why salas of course! No boring cucumber and iceberg and unripe tomato disasters here though - nice hot roasted butternut squash chunks over a lettuce, bean and onion base with some sesame seeds for crunch and a dose of heat with a sweet chilli dressing (which would be fabulous over pasta too I think).

Sweet Chilli and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
Serves 2 for a main course of 4 for a starter

Salad Ingredients
600-700g butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and diced into 1-2cm cubes
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp olive oil
2 little gem lettuces, sliced any way you like
half a red onion, sliced very thinly and doused with a little lemon juice
400g tin flageolet beans, drained and rinsed (265g drained weight)
1 stick of celery cut into half cm chunks
3 tbsp sesame seeds

Dressing Ingredients (this will make more than you need, you can just refridgerate the rest for up to a week)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin / rice wine (optional)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method
Spread the butternut squash onto a baking tray in an even layer and cover with the olive oil and crushed garlic, cook in a preheated oven on high for 25-30 minutes until softened and going slightly caramelised and crispy.

While the squash is cooking prepare all the other ingredients but the sesame seeds and divide between the two bowls. Next mix all the dressing ingredients well and pour about a quarter over each bowl of salad, then toss to coat everything.

When the squash is cooked divide it between the two salad bowls and then sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

Chorizo Risotto Stuffed Squid with Garlic and Cayenne Roasted Harlequin Squash

As we have had such amazing weather this weekend I only thought it right for todays recipe to include grilling. Unfortunately however we now live in a flat with no balcony or garden so barbecues are out but we have a Foreman grill so I've just used that.

Seafood is always something I associate with summer, especially squid as it's something you usually eat on holiday. I remember walking through Spetses when I was younger with my parents and seeing rows and rows of squid and octopus - ofcourse then I thought that was disgusting but now it conjurs up thoughts of calamari and octopus salad and lots of other delicious dishes!

The little tubes can be pretty fiddly to fill if they are too small - I ordered the squid with our online shopping order so didn't get to pick which tubes I wanted and consequently got the smallest ones I've ever seen! Stuffing them sure was a task, but worth it. Like I said they were the smallest I've ever seen, the size I usually get would be much easier to fill.

This was also the first time I have tried harlequin squash. I've always eyed them up in the supermarket, bright orange and speckled and striped with green, but seem to end up getting the butternut variety, mainly as it's one of Pete's favourites. This time though I picked up a few, they seem to be the same density as butternut but smell just like pumpkin with the ubiquitus seeds and string to remove before cooking. The skin was harder to peel also, I ended up hacking it off with a knife rather than a peeler!

Garlic and Cayenne Roasted Harlequin Squash
Serves 2

Ingredients
600g harlequin squash
2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 335 F.

Peel the squash, remove the seeds and stringy innards and then but into slices about 1cm wide. Spread over a deep sided baking tray, strew over the chopped garlic, then sprinkle over the oil, salt and cayenne pepper.

Roast for half an hour, tossing halfway through.

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Chorizo Risotto Stuffed Squid
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
50g chorizo sausage, diced very small
1 small red onion, diced very small
1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped
6 medium cleaned squid, tentacles diced small
50g arborio rice
2-3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
300ml boiling water - infused with a little saffron if you have it

Method
Fry off the onions, garlic and chorizo in the olive oil for about 3 minutes until the onions are soft and the chorizo has let go some of it's fat. Add the arborio rice, parsley and diced tentacles and fry for a further 3 minutes before adding a quarter of the boiling water. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the water has soaked into the rice. Repeat this step three more times with a quarter of the water each time.

After this taste the rice, it should now be softened. If not, repeat the above steps with 75ml water each time until the rice is cooked through. Remove from the hob and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Take a clean squid tube and using a teaspoon stuff them with the cooled risotto up to around 1cm from the top of the tube. Take a cocktail stick and push it through the top of the tube at the open end as shown in the pictures above and below to stop the risotto from spilling out.

Grill on a barbecue, indoor grill or grill pan for 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the size of your squid. Don't overcook or you will get very rubbery results!

Serve with the roasted squash and a lemony vinaigretted salad.

Is it just me or do they look like strange little slug/bull hybrids? Just me? Ok...

Pete said this was one of his favourite dinners yet, so I suggest you all try it soon!