Aubergine curry

Curry seems to be going down well at the moment - you ate this with a little rice and some cumin potatoes, and liked all three.

Makes enough for 4, as one of a couple of main course dishes. It'd also be nice with some chickpeas thrown in.

You'll need:

1 onion, finely sliced
1 medium aubergine, cut into chunks
1 green pepper, cut into large(ish) pieces
whatever veg you have left in the fridge that you need to use up (we had a small piece of butternut squash that got chucked in)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon medium curry powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
(you could also add some chilli powder, if you're making this for non-small people, or indeed for small people who like spice)
sunflower oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Fry the onion in a little sunflower oil until it turns translucent. Add the pepper and aubergine chunks, and fry until they have softened (you may need to add some more oil - the aubergine will absorb a lot). Chuck in all the spices, and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped butternut squash (or whatever other veg you want to use up), and the tin of chopped tomatoes. Rinse the tin out with some water, and add this in too. Bring everything to the boil, and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, or as long as you've got.

Butternut squash, spinach and blue cheese tart

This was inspired by the vast quantities of butternut squash in the veg box last week.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
a good slug of olive oil
lots of spinach (about 1/3 of a bag, or whatever frozen stuff you can drag out)
a good hunk of blue cheese (ours was miscellaneous Sainsbury's value 'blue cheese', but stilton would be good, and roquefort or gorganzola pretty special)
one onion, finely sliced
a clove of garlic, minced
shortcrust pastry (enough for an A4-sized baking tray - 8oz flour should do the trick)

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Tip your cubed squash into an ovenproof dish, and slosh some olive oil over the top. Shake the cubes about until they're coated, then roast in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the squash is soft.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until its turned translucent. Add the spinach, and heat in the pan for a couple of minutes until its wilted.

Grease your baking tray, and roll out the shortcrust pastry. Line the tray with the pastry, and then tip the onion/spinach mixture on top. Scatter over your roasted squash, and some cubes of blue cheese. It should now look a little like this:


Season with some salt and black pepper. Turn the oven down to about 180 degrees C, and bake the tart for about 20-25 minutes. It's ready when the pasty is crisp and golden brown, and the cheese has melted.

We ate ours with lashings of black pepper and a nice green salad:

Butternut squash and feta pie

Perfect for vegetarians, or for eating after a long afternoon playing with Gran and Grandpa.

Makes enough for 4 greedy adults. You'll need:

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and chopped into chunks
olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
about half a pack of feta cheese, cubed
dried thyme
whatever cream you have in the fridge (I used a drizzle of single cream)
shortcrust pastry

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. Sling the chunks of butternut squash into an ovenproof dish or on a baking tray, drizzle lots of olive oil over the top and give them a good shake. Bung this in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the squash is soft.

In the meantime, make your shortcrust pastry, and leave to rest in the fridge. Fry the onion in a little olive oil until it turns translucent.

Once your squash is done, you're ready to assemble. Don't turn off the oven!

You'll need a pie dish (whatever you've used for the squash is usually a good bet) - tip the squash, onion and feta in, and give it a good mix. Sprinkle some dried thyme over the top, and grind over some black pepper. Add a drizzle of cream or a little water so that it doesn't dry out in the oven.

Roll out your pastry to the size of your pie dish, and lay over the top. You could get fancy with pastry decorations, or brush with a little beaten egg, but frankly, life's too short.

Sling your pie in the oven - it'll be done in about 20 minutes when the pastry is golden brown. Slice and eat with a green, spinachy salad.

Butternut squash and feta tart

Your Dad and I ate this in front of the telly after you'd gone to bed, indulging in a little West Wing season 3.

Makes enough for 2. You'll need:

puff pastry, about 200g (I bought this - life's too short to make it)
1 onion, finely sliced
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into small cubes
a good slug of olive oil
50-100g feta cheese, cubed
dried thyme, lots of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray.

Sling the cubed squash into a pan with a good splosh of olive oil, and gently fry until it softens. Add the onion, and fry for another 5 minutes or so, until it turns translucent.

Roll out the pastry into whatever fancy shape you like (I'm rather boring, and usually go for a rectangle). About 1cm in from the edge, draw a border round the whole piece of pastry using the point of a knife. Carefully place the pastry on a greased baking tray.

Tip the squash/onion onto the pastry, and even it out. Scatter over the feta cheese (if I was Nigella I would say tumble, but that's wrong wrong wrong) thyme and black pepper.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry has turned crisp and golden.

Butternut squash stuffed with fragrant rice and feta

You're not a fan of butternut squash at the moment, so you had bolognese and rice for tea. It was the first time you really got the hang of the whole knife and fork thing (mainly because your Dad explained it to you in terms of Thunderbirds rockets).

This makes enough for 2. You'll need:

1 large butternut squash
cooked rice (I used about a mugful of dried rice)
half a pack of feta cheese, cubed
a large handful of fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
a large handful of fresh coriander, chopped
lots of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. First of all, you need to sort out your butternut squash - halve it, and scoop out (and discard) all the seeds and stringy stuff. An ice-cream scoop is quite handy for doing this bit.

Then you'll need to hack out a bit of the flesh (again, the scoop is quite useful for this), to give you room to stuff in the rice. Don't discard this - roast it in the oven, and shove it in some soup.

Drizzle a little olive oil into your butternut squash halves, and stick in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, tip the cooked rice into a large bowl, add the parsley, coriander, feta and lots of black pepper and mix well. This is the stuffing that's going to go in your squash.

After it's had 30 minutes in the oven (and the flesh is nicely softened), bring it out and stuff it with the rice mixture. Put it back in the oven again for another 20-30 minutes, until the rice has heated through, and any bits of feta peeking out the top have browned.

Decant onto a plate, and eat. You could have it as it is, but I ended up making a tomato sauce to go with it:

You could eat this as it is, but I made a tomato sauce to go with it. You'll need:

half a tin of tomatoes
a slosh or two of olive oil
a tablespoon balsamic vingegar
black pepper
a few flakes of dried chilli

Chuck half a tin of chopped tomatoes into a frying pan with a splash of olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Add a little black pepper and a few chilli flakes, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or so, until it's reduced.