Spiced pickled shallots
Preserve our lovely shallots when they are plentiful in the summer and you’ll be able to enjoy them with cheese or cold meats for months to come.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-pickled-shallots
Squash mash
Works well with any of our winter squash and freezes well if you don’t need it all at once. This recipe tops the mash with crispy onions for texture. Pumpkin seeds work well too. Crown Prince is a drier squash than the others that we grow so add a little butter or hot milk if you prefer a looser texture to your mash.
https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/roasted-squash-garlic-mash
Squash and ginger cake with buttermilk drizzle
One of Paul’s famous cakes: squidgy and delicious
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 225g white spelt or plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 300g peeled, diced coquina or butternut squash
- 2 tsp grated root ginger
- 50g golden syrup
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 50g ground almonds
- 250g dark brown muscovado sugar
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 175ml buttermilk
- 150g golden icing sugar
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
- 50g crystallised ginger, chopped
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C, gas mark 3. Generously grease a 2.4 litre, 26cm x 9.5cm bundt tin and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
- Steam the squash over simmering water for 12-15 minutes until completely tender. Drain on kitchen paper, then mash with a fork in a mixing bowl. Stir in the ginger and golden syrup.
- Sieve the flour, raising agents, spices and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir in the almonds.
- In a third bowl, beat the butter and muscovado sugar with electric beaters for about 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add ½ the beaten egg and a spoonful of the flour mixture, then beat again until fully incorporated. Repeat with the remaining egg. Gently fold in the remaining flour mixture, the squash mixture and 150ml buttermilk.
- Tip into the bundt tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch.
- Place the cake on a wire rack and allow to cool upside down in the tin for 15 minutes, then hold the rack up against the tin opening with a cloth, flip and shake firmly once to remove the cake.
- For the drizzle, combine the remaining 25ml buttermilk with the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a sticky, stiff icing that thickly coats the back of a spoon. Drizzle over the cake, allowing it to drape down the sides. Scatter with crystallised ginger and leave to set for 15 minutes before slicing.
Squash and quinoa salad with beetroot yoghurt
This Meera Sodha salad does duty as a main course or a rich side dish. Switch in other grains to suit or use Greek yoghurt in place of the vegan yoghurt.