Pumpkin Pie - Sort Of

I know what you are thinking. “Another pie? Bridie’s going to need a shoe horn to get into her new Renault Twingo.” Well, think on – this pie contains a root vegetable high in vitamins and dietary fibre, so it can’t be bad for you.

After last week’s Pecan Pie, I started reminiscing about a pie I baked with my Mum for Halloween, back in the day when Gladiators was the must-watch Saturday night show, and you got bullied for NOT owning a shell-suit. It was a recipe that we found in a women’s magazine for pumpkin pie, which was the ideal way to ‘use that left over pumpkin’

However, living in Lancaster circa 1989 the most exotic thing we picked up from the fruit and veg shop was a red pepper…and even then you were the talk of the town. We searched high and low for a pumpkin, but in the end it proved vegless and we resorted to tinned pumpkin instead. I remember we topped the pumpkin pie with pecan nuts, and I felt very refined as I ate my slice.

This sweet memory, together with the fact that I got a butternut squash for 35p in the reduced section of Asda, was enough motivation to cook this American favourite. I know a butternut squash is technically not a pumpkin, but it was the closest I was going to get in July. One of these days, I might just cook a pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin.

Unfortunately, the recipe from my childhood had long gone, and I didn’t have the networking skills to search the archives of Bella magazine for that 80's Halloween food feature. For this reason I did a bit of googling and had a browse of a cookery book or two, and loosely formulated a recipe that I thought might work.

I steamed the butternut squash, and then put into a blender with sugar and cream. When it was cooled slightly, I added three whisked eggs. I then poured into a sweet pastry case that I made earlier, and topped with pecan nuts just like I did all those years before.

The results of my cooking experiment turned out great! I had some while still warm, but it was even better when it had been chilled in the fridge overnight.

Next week I’ll try and cook something other than pies – promise :)