I don’t usually make Halloween dishes.
But I had a crate full of home-grown butternut squash in my kitchen when a friend of mine gave me a block of his home-made black garlic cheese. The handover, in a central London coffee shop, probably looked like an illicit drug tryst – the cheese resembled a very large block of resin – but cheese is my drug of choice these days!
Immediately, the orange and black colours of Halloween popped into my mind and I decided to adapt the recipe for ever popular Pete’s Cheesey Potato Bake into a Butternut Squash, Black Garlic & Blue Cheese Bake. (I added blue cheese to the black garlic cheese to give a more salty kick).
Of course, few of us make cheese from scratch at home but there are many recipes on the web that show you how to make American processed cheese slices from a combination of regular cheese, dry milk powder, milk and gelatin. I can’t give away my friend’s confidential recipe for his black garlic cheese, but you could experiment with the addition of black garlic to one of these recipes.
Because I liked the idea of the orange and black appearance, we layered the blue cheese below and the butternut squash and black garlic cheese on top, but if you use regular cheeses, you can mix all the ingredients together in the dish.
Butternut Squash, Black Garlic & Blue Cheese Bake
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash
- 100 g black garlic cheese
- 200 g strong blue cheese (we used Stilton)
Instructions
- Peel the butternut squash, halve and scrape out the seeds and pulp from the centre.
- Cube the flesh and add to a pan.
- Parboil the squash by bringing the water to the boil and let the squash cook for a further five minutes, remove from the heat and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (fan).
- Chop the blue cheese into small pieces and scatter along the bottom of two individual baking dishes (or one larger dish).
- Spread the squash over the top.
- Cube the black garlic cheese, and scatter over the squash.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, until the squash is cooked through and the cheese on top has melted.
- Serve hot.
Of course, if you don’t have black garlic cheese (and don’t fancy making your own) you can enjoy the delicious combination of sweet butternut squash and salty cheese with any combination of cheeses you like.
Other winter squash / pumpkin ideas:
- Urvashi’s roast squash with porcini cream
- Nazima’s roasted squash with coriander pistachio pesto
- Helen’s butternut squash gnocchi with harissa onions
- Jeanne’s butternut squash and gorgonzola salad
- Sarah’s butternut squash and taleggio tart
- Kellie’s roasted pumpkin hummus
- Katie’s butternut squash, bacon and parmesan tarts
- Jacqueline’s smoked vegetable stew
- Stuart’s mini pumpkin and pecan loaves
- Camilla’s pumpkin fruit cake
- Laura’s spiced pumpkin, rum and chocolate chip loaf
I’m also entering this post into the following blog challenges: Shaheen’s Vegetable Palette, Ren’s Simple and in Season, Hannah’s Credit Crunch Munch by Helen and Camilla), Emily’s Extra Veg (founded by Helen and Michelle), Nayna’s Let’s Cook for Halloween, Vohn’s No Waste Food Challenge (founded by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary) and Sarah and Katie’s Speedy Suppers (though I’m bending the rules a touch on cooking time, the prep is so quick and easy, I hope they won’t mind).
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!24 Comments to "A Seasonal Variation: Butternut Squash, Black Garlic & Blue Cheese Bake"
oh my god that looks genius!… and the black garlic cheese REALLy does look like resin… not that i’d know what that looked like of course… ahem…
No me neither. Only seen photos, yeah, that’s it! Who are we kidding?
Yes, a certain resinous doppelgänger! I’m not a Halloween buff either but then I don’t have a fab little spooky recipe up my sleeve. This is an interesting mix of scary and scrummy. 😉 Mature cheddar and aged black garlic might be a nice sub for the specialist cheese?
Yes I’d say so!
Glad you found such a good use for my cheese, the colours look amazing, am sure the flavours are just as good
Will be making more soon if you have any other ideas for recipes
D
Thanks Dave, very happy you approve! X
Fantastic – I LOVE the sound of that black garlic cheese, want, now! Fab little Halloween dish, for sure!
Thanks Elizabeth!
Black garlic cheese – a new one for me! They say you learn something new every day. What a great Halloween recipe! Love it.
It’s my friend Dave’s own creation and a lovely idea! 🙂
Oh your friend Dave has created something intriguing with his black garlic cheese. How can it be anything but good if it combines garlic and cheese. A recipe for success! I love the colours of this dish but more importantly the taste which I am sure is superb 🙂
Thanks Laura, yes I love the cheese and I’m looking forward to trying his bacon cheese next!
Ooh you dish looks really fab and I so want to try black garlic cheese now! Thank you for linking to mu pumpkin fruit cake:-)
Thank you Camilla, and the cake looks lovely!
Black garlic cheese?!? Who knew! I can imagine the flavours are fab in this, and the colours make it the perfect Halloween dish!
It could well be a new invention of Dave’s to be fair, but now I’ve tried it, I think it’s a great idea!
Haha- I love the description of your illicit handover in the coffee shop- I bet, being anonymous London, no one batted an eyelid! I’ve never heard of black garlic cheese, it sounds SUCH an amazing ingredient to cook with
No you’re right, no eyelids even fluttered… it’s a great idea isn’t it?
mmm, spooky and scrummy. I quite fancy your combination in some pastry, on the go. x
That does sound good too!
That black garlic cheese looks amazing Kavey! What a striking looking dish!
Thanks for sending to both #ExtraVeg and #CreditCrunchMunch
Thanks Helly!
Thank you so much for sharing with VegetablePalette Kavey, the round up will be up today. I am totally loving the idea of black garlic blue cheese, perfect for the Halloween season. And def. inspired. Please say Thanks to your friend Dave for sharing and inspiring too.
Thanks Shaheen, it’s a lovely idea, I shall have to see if I can prize a few more hints on how to make it out of Dave!!