With Zinfandel
Ingredients
Merguez
- 2 Merguez or (raw) Chorizo sausages
Pumpkin puré
- 300 grams Butternut squash
- 1 dl Heavy cream
- 1/2 dl Dry white wine
- 10 grams Butter (preferably room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon White balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Kikkoman Soy sauce
- 5 teaspoons Extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
Roasted Pumpkin
- 150 grams Butternut squash
- 2 teaspoons Olive oil
- Salt
Garnish
- 5 grams Small dark green pumpkinseeds
- 1/2 teaspoon Olive oil
- Watercress or mint
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F
Pumpkin puré
- Slice of the very top of the butternut to remove the stem, sometimes it helps to twist the pumpkin while cutting.
- Carefully slice three rings of 3/4inch or so. I find this to be the easiest way if you don’t have a knife big enough to slice the length of the butternut.
- Cut off the peel from the disks, then using a fork, remove the seeds.
- Take one ring and leaving the stringy center out, cut 12 triangular pieces and put in a roasting pan.
- Roughly chop the other two rings. Take four small pieces and add to the roasting pan (These will later be used to prop up Merguez for nicer presentation)
- Add the roughly chopped squash in a pot with 2/5 cups heavy cream (10 tbs), 1/5 cup white wine (5tbs), 1/2tsp salt. Stirring occasionally, let simmer without a lid until the pumpkin is very soft, about 20-25 minutes on medium high heat.
- Continue with the rest of the recipe while the pumpkin is cooking.
- When cooked take the pumpkin mixture of the heat and strain away the liquid.
- In a blender add 40 grams of butter and 1tbs of white balsamic and 1tbs of soy sauce and the strained pumpkin. Blend until smooth.
Roasted Pumpkin
- In a small oven form roll the butternut triangles in 2tsp of olive oil, and a generous sprinkling of salt, put them in the oven for 15-17 minutes. They don’t need to be shaken or stirred.
Merguez
- Sear the Merguez sausages for about 15 minutes on medium heat, if the Merguez starts getting very dark, add 1-2 tbs of water to the pan.
Pumpkin seeds
- With a ½tsp olive oil put the seeds in the oven for 3 minutes to give them a bit of a toast.
Plating
- For a little extra dazzle to the plate, put a ½ tsp of good quality olive oil on the plate and using a brush, brush the oil across the plate, delicious and beautiful! (Optional)
- Slice the Merguez in long, elliptical slices, and brush them with oil to give them a little sheen.
- Take a spoonful of the puré and dollop it on the plate, sprinkle the seeds across the plate.
- Now to prop up the Merguez slices take one of the small pumpkin pieces and hide it under the Merguez in the puré.
- Place the pumpkin triangles nicely on the plate, garnish with watercress or mint.
- Enjoy with a nice glass of Zinfandel!