Hot sweet baked pumpkin

And to start well to Autumn, a lovely pumpkin dish by Nigel Slater. Sweet, hot and delicious…

Hot sweet baked pumpkin 

Ingredients

• 1,5kg pumpkin or butternut squash, unpeeled weight, chopped in 3cm cubes
• 50g butter

 For the dressing:

• sugar 4 tablespoons
• water 200ml
• ginger a thumb-sized lump, chopped
• 1 large, medium hot, chopped ed chilli
• the juice and the zest of 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• coriander a small bunch, finely chopped

Method

Set the oven at 200 oC/gas mark 6. Peel the pumpkin, discard the seeds and fibres, and cut the flesh into small pieces, about 3cm in thickness. Put them in a roasting tin with the butter and bake for 50-60 minutes, turning occasionally, till soft enough to take the point of a knife.

Put the sugar and water in a shallow pan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer till the liquid has reduced by half. Meanwhile, peel and roughly chop the ginger and put in the bowl of a food processor. Halve the chilli lengthways and chop roughly, removing the seeds if you wish for a less spicy seasoning. Add the chilli to the bowl, then grate in the zest of the limes. Squeeze in the juice from the limes, then process to a coarse paste.

Stir the spice mixture into the syrup and simmer for a minute before adding the fish sauce and coriander. Remove from the heat.

When the pumpkin is fully tender, spoon most of the chilli sauce over, toss gently to coat each piece, then return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes. Toss with the remaining chilli sauce and serve.