Category: Savoury

Squashelottes

Ingredients:

céci/chick peas/garbanzos
Buttercup or Butternut squash
red onion
sesame seed
mustard seed
salt
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Sort through, wash and soak a cup* of céci/chick peas/garbanzos overnight. The next morning, bring them to a boil very slowly, and cook until tender, skimming the foam once or twice.

Drain them, reserving the liquor for another use. Grind or process the chana/garbanzos to a medium texture and put the resultant mass into a mixing bowl.

Toast a quarter cup of sesame seeds in a medium oven. After ten minutes, add a teaspoon of brown mustard seeds for a further two minutes. Remove and allow the seeds to partially cool, then grind them very fine. Add to the bowl.

Take five hundred grammes or so of Buttercup or Butternut squash, pared, seeded and cut into eighths, and a fine red salad onion, cut in half.* Brush with a mixture of oil and vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Bake on an oiled pan, with the onion cut face down, in a moderate oven for half an hour or so, or until soft. Grind them and add to the bowl as well.

Add two tablespoons of olive oil and the same of balsamic vinegar. Half a teaspoon of salt as well if that doesn't offend your sensibilities. Mix with a whisk, gently but thoroughly.
Drop closely spaced half-moon mounds onto a well oiled baking sheet and bake in a medium oven until the peaks are browned.*

Serve with hot fresh wheaten bread of some sort, some salad and wine, or as cocktail snacks.

Notes:

*You may as well boil up twice this much, as they're handy to have around.
*Leave the outer skin on the onion, to protect the layers beneath from drying out.
*Use a teaspoon to drop snack sized units, or a tablespoon for meal-sized 'lottes.

Recipe Index

More Savouries:

Broiled Grapefruit | Anticuchos Without Heart | Roasted Vegetables | Braise of Onions, Leeks and Shallots | Chayotes in Pepitas | Mushroom Fried Rice | Braised Parsnips and Peas |