Savoury Crumble

This recipe turned out to be quite  a lot more effort than expected. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily, but when you have a cranky husband, woken from a nap by the electric beater and you were already worried about this dish was going to do down, you really don't need anything else against you.  From my perspective this looks delicious: mashed potatoes, bacon, creamed squash and a fragrant crunchy crumble topping. But from the husband's perspective its a dismal evening: no meat (bacon is a breakfast accompaniment, not a meat product apparently), creamed squash, scary nuts and seeds on top and no cheese!  What was I thinking?

To be fair maybe I should have started things a little earlier in the afternoon. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to make white chocolate buttercream frosting to top my cupcakes, and a marinade for Cuban Beef with Oranges whilst cooking this dish at the same time. Maybe I should have saved this and filed it away in the 'to eat with friend Sheryn' folder that I keep, mainly for dishes involving harvati or dukkah. We're like that. But maybe isn't really going to work when it's warm from the oven and ready to go.  What this dish taught me is that acorn squash are super cute, but the kabocha squash is much bigger and probably better suited in this recipe. Dukkah is awesome and I miss having it around - I must make some again soon as I have a favourite recipe from an old Cuisine magazine somewhere.

super cute acorn squash!

It also taught me that my husband is no different from any other human being out there: no matter how many wonderful pots of chili, or lovingly prepared pulled pork meals you make, or how many cupcakes you bake, he's still going to remember the warm roast vegetable salad you made way back when you first and compare every slightly different or new dish to that one, swearing that he must be being punished. The dishes that he doesn't like are few and far between, but getting him to try them in order to like them... well that's a different story!

mmmmmm the bacon layer

I actually really liked this, although it's more of a dressy way to serve mashed potatoes than anything else. I could see myself serving this as the potato dish at a festive meal such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, or maybe at potluck style dinner. If you're a mashed potato fan I suggest you try it!

1 kabocha squash

1 1/2 lbs potatoes

1/2 lb bacon, chopped into small pieces

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup cream

salt & pepper

1 tsp sumac (optional)

pinch nutmeg

3 tbsp chopped parsley

3/4 cup flour

6 tbsp butter

3 tbsp polenta

4 tbsp dukkah

Roast the squash until soft.  Boil the potatoes until cooked, then mash with salt, pepper & the sumac, adding the 1/2 cup melted butter (brown this first in a pan for extra flavour).  Peel and cut the squash into small pieces.  Bring to the boil with 1/4 cup water and up to 1/2 cup of the cream, them simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and mash with salt, pepper, nutmeg and 1 tbsp chopped parsley.

Fry the bacon to your liking (the original said crispy, but I'm not a super fan of crispy bacon) and then drain on paper towels.  Layer the potato into a baking dish and top with the bacon pieces. Add the remainder of the parsley and then layer the squash on top.

Cut the butter into the flour, polenta and dukkah, using your hands to mix together until it resembles large crumbs. Crumble the topping onto the squash and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.