As promised, today I’m bringing in the big guns – a Xmas centrepiece of butternut squash Wellington that I’m hoping you will be inspired to try out next week. The concept isn’t dissimilar to my last year’s Beet Wellington, but it features a different star vegetable and a completely different filling.
Roasted butternut squash is one of my favourite vegetables so I’ve decided it’s high time to incorporate it into a festive menu, especially that it’s elongated shape lends itself quite well to being wrapped up in pastry. Its sweet flavour sings against the sour notes of balsamic glaze and a simple vegan stuffing made up of crunchy pecans, sour cranberries, salty olives, sage, rosemary and spinach. While this centrepiece may look impressive, it is really quite straightforward to make. We are bringing it with us to Duncan’s counsin’s Xmas dinner next week and I bet there will be meat eaters making eyes at it as it looks a picture. It’s the beauty of golden brown puff pastry, isn’t it? This time I went for a braid as not only does it look pretty, but it also does a better job of holding a slightly unevenly shaped filling tightly in place. Additionally, braiding gives you plenty of natural gaps in the pastry, which means the steam created during cooking has somewhere to escape and you don’t have to worry about your pastry bursting or tearing as the Wellington bakes. Forgive me the lack of process photos, but I’m still struggling a bit with adjusting to a completely different light. Plus the lack of a decent tripod (which is part of our now very delayed shipment from Greece) or my usual props slow me down even more and that’s not a magical combination when the black clouds are never too far away. Changes, eh? Who said it was going to be easy, Ania!?
120 ml / 1 cup balsamic vinegar 80 g / 2/3 cup sugar (I used raw cane)
ASSEMBLY
