What’s better than a baked butternut squash? One that’s smothered in raclette cheese…
Hola y adiós!
I’m flying off to Barcelona today for a few days for work.
In all honesty, I’ve been a bundle of nerves these last few weeks getting ready for this conference, and while it’s like my umpteenth time working there, the stress never gets easier. If anything, it gets worse!
I’ve barely seen my husband as I’ve been staying up in London so as not to lose time commuting to work, and bless his sweet heart, he planned a lovely meal for us last night before I left. Guess what he had in mind? 🙂
A proud advocate of British beef - check out that awesome marbling
Ever since we watched his programme, we’ve been following Heston Blumenthal’s way of preparing a steak before you grill it. The trick? Buy a super thick slice (at least an inch or more)and let it air dry in a fridge (unsealed and uncovered) for between 24-48 hours. This dries it out and intensifies the flavour. Take your steak out an hour before you grill it to bring it back up to room temperature.
My husband is the best griller of steaks ever. No contest.
He asked me to pick up some potatoes for baking to go with our steaks and while I was at the greengrocer’s, I spied the cutest little baby butternut squash ever! I am a lover of the ‘dink’ ie anything dinky and cute – I can’t help it – so I couldn’t resist and decided to buy one potato and this baby squash to have with our supper. Look, it’s barely bigger than the potato…!
Cute and delicious. It's only just bigger than the potato!
Peeled, de-seeded and halved before the roasting
Salt, pepper and thyme for the squash and into the oven for 40 minutes initially.
I'm sure this would work with whatever your favourite cheese is but we loved it with raclette.
I had the perfect recipe in mind as last year, I remembered a recipe on epicurious which was basically a halved butternut squash roasted with some brie.
We didn’t have any brie in the house but we did have some smelly raclette left, so raclette’s what we used but on both the squash and the baked potato.
My oh my were these delicious! They are practically a meal in itself but they were much nicer with the steaks we had to go with it, and the grilled courgettes and blanched mange tout as well.
That little pool of melted cheese is the ultimate jackpot.
Cheesy potatoes and cheesy squash. YUMMMM!
No real measurements today but if you’re game to try these baked beauties yourself, here’s all you need to do.
- Cut/peel the skin of your butternut squash
- Cut them in half and discard the seeds
- Drizzle some olive oil over the squash
- Sprinkle some sea salt, black pepper and fresh thyme over them
- Bake in a 180 degree (celsius) oven for 40 minutes
- Take them out, place slices of cut raclette cheese over them
- Return them to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes
We put a drizzle of worchestershire sauce over our baked potatoes before placing some raclette on them too.
That's a lot of red meat but don't worry, we didn't eat all of it at once. My husband's got plenty left over to have in his sandwich when I'm away.
I know that I’ve just said that we’re trying to watch what we eat more. Yes this is a blow-out but I also know I’m hardly going to get a chance to eat much in the next few days. It’s always the case at a conference because the food is dire! What is it about conferences and bad food??
Anyway… as I’m away, my husband’s going to take over again and post some of his recipes this week until I return.
Enjoy the rest of your sunday and have a wonderful week!
Vegetarians turn away now! Grilled steak with our butternut squash roasted with raclette cheese.
Lots of love
thebigfatnoodle
thebigfatnoodle 
Since I was kid, I have always loved worcestershire sauce on baked potatoes!
Us too! It’s the only way I’ll eat baked potatoes and I was trying to be restrained by not pouring too much on it for the photos. I normally put A LOT more 🙂
Not sure how I started it … maybe the sauce from my steak would just sneak over into the potato? People have always laughed at me about it. Glad to find a kindred spirit!
Gorgeous butternut and thank you for the great airing tip for steak! This was a fantastic meal. have a great trip, i am sure you will be fine! c
I think it’s the best trick in the world. It really helps to age the beef and it dries it on the outside but keeps the lovely juices on the inside. It really works.
Wow. That sounds delicious. The idea of smothering the squash with this sauce looks great!
Can’t go wrong with melted cheese on most things. LOL.
LOL! Sorry but I couldn’t concentrate on the butternut squash! The steaks look so juicy!!
When I was posting the pictures, I actually thought you’d probably say that Arturo 🙂
LOL!!! But it’s true!!
That’s funny – My friend just went to Barcelona. I intend to visit there perhaps this summer – I’ve wanted to go there for a while. This looks delicious, Noodle – amazing looking mince.
I’m only ever here for this conference and have never had time to do the touristy thing, which is a shame. If I find any nice restaurants etc, I’ll let you know!
This looks like a very satifsying meal! I must try your squash & cheese idea. When I’m going to rast a beef rib roast, I’ll leave it, uncovered, in the fridge for about 5 or 6 days. It really does, as you said, intensify the flavors. I’m sure the conference will go well. Safe travels!
Genius – squash and smelly cheese, guess what I’ll be making soon 🙂 Hope the trip goes well
I hope you have a great week and I wish you mounds of success at your conference. If you have to have a conference somewhere, you could do a lot worse than Barcelona! The steak looks incredible.
What a wonderful way to prepare butternut squash! The whole meal looks divine. Good luck with your trip!
Holy heck, that looks like one delicious, scrumptious mouth-watering meal! LOVE the ginormous amounts of cheese that has been place atop the squash. You are my kind of cook! Good luck at your conference!