Butternut squash with walnut, mushroom and blue cheese filling, recipe courtesy of @Mrs_Gorman

Got this recipe on twitter from Bethan Gorman. She is in the soon-to-be world famous band Louise and the Pins. She very generously shared this recipe with me and I set about making it. The instructions via twitter were, as would be expected from that medium, sparse but functional:

@Mrs_Gorman
@majikthijs Of course! Cut a butternut squash in half & roast it until tender (45 mins approx). While it's cooking fry some mushrooms in ...

@Mrs_Gorman
@majikthijs garlic & butter. Then put them in a bowl chopped
up with blue cheese and walnuts. Mix well. Then top your butternut squash with

@Mrs_Gorman
@majikthijs the mixture & put back in the oven for about 5 mins till the cheese melts. You can add a little honey if you like things sweet.

@Mrs_Gorman
@majikthijs Serve with a salad. x

Needless to say, I heeded the instructions and the result is shown for all to see. The photo elicited the following response from @Mrs_Gorman.

@Mrs_Gorman
@majikthijs Hurray! That looks ace. Nice bit of food photography there too. ps. I'm so proud.

So, besides being a great singer and all-round nice person, she can also cook. To prove it she's writing a cookbook in "Louise and the Pins" style (i.e. 1950s).

So, how did I get from those instructions to the culinary masterpiece depicted? Well it was actually very easy. The recipe is quite intuitive and there's not much else to do. The only thing missing are amounts, but that varies from person to person.

In general I would start with a butternut squash of around 250g per person, 300g per person for 'normal' pumpkin. This is because the cavity of a round pumpkin is larger than a squash and is full of seeds which will most likely be discarded. I hollowed out the squash a little bit to make a bigger cavity for the filling and put the flesh in with the cheese and mushrooms.

You'll also need about 100-150g of filling per person to make it a good main meal and you should divide that more or less equally between the mushrooms, walnuts and blue-cheese. You obviously don't count the carved out squash/pumpkin here because you've already taken it into consideration elsewhere.

Roasting root vegetables makes them sweet enough without adding honey, so I would only do that if you're adding really strong cheese. Goat's cheese works just as well, as does a good Brie, if you don't like blue cheese.

I roasted the pumpkin at 190°C in an electric fan oven (200°C without the fan) and it was nice and tender after 45 mins. Any warmer and it would have burned. I put the oven up to maximum (225°C) for melting the cheese. That way the cheese melts very quickly without overdoing the pumpkin and you can bake a part-baked baguette/ ciabatta at the same time.

So, thanks again to Bethan Gorman for this delicious recipe. Can't wait for the book!