the recipe:
5 cups hubbard squash, diced
salt and pepper to taste
3 ounces olive oil
4 ounces butter
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 whole eggs
5 egg yolks
4 ounces grated parmigiano reggiano
1 package phyllo pastry
1 clove garlic
3 cups shitake mushrooms julienne
2 ounces white wine*
1 ounce aged balsamic vinegar

*Beppi's wine match
"the sweet creaminess of this squash creation is an ideal match for a full-bodied, oak-aged chardonnay, especially the toasty, tropical-fruit-bomb styles common to the sunny regions of california, australia, and chile"

we got "western family sautere cooking wine" with a man in a straw hat and a bunch of grapes on the label.
we started making substitutions early and continued with much celebration.
"do you like pumpkin? i love this time of year because you can get huge pumpkins for like 4$ and then you get to eat so much yummy pumpkin. i love savoury pumpkin dishes. like pumpkin curry."
"weelll," sighed megpye thoughtfully, "i like pumpkin pie and i love squash but i've never tried just eating pumpkin. the picture looks yummy."
"i hate hubbards, which is what this recipe asks for, but i think it'll be awesome with pumpkin instead." i hypothesized.
since we didn't have a 10 inch spring form pan, and since the organic market didn't have phyllo pastry, we bought 2 small frozen whole wheat pie crusts that came with their own pie plates. there were already crimini mushrooms at home, and nature harvest buttery vegan spread so all we needed was cheese, eggs and onions. we selected 'l'Ancetre' raw quebec parmesan.
"sooo... 'five cups hubbard squash, diced' is like, what, slightly less than half this pumpkin?"
i eyed the massive orange squash and gestured with the cleaver.
"just chop up however much fits in this roasting pan. it's the only thing we have to roast it in"
i roughly chopped the pumpkin while megpye prepared the seeds for toasting.
we were confused by the first sentence in the recipe calling for the sprinkling some of the oil, salt, pepper, butter and syrup over the squash and the recipe never later calling for the rest of it. we decided to mix everything but the butter up, then pour it over the pumpkin pieces, and save the butter for frying the onions. we didn't have any black pepper, so we added a few dashes of tobasco.
the pilot light went out on the oven about six times so it took us a terrible long time to roast the pumpkin. eventually we got it tender and not too burnt on the bottom. we did not "let it rest for at least an hour" we just let it cool slightly while we fried the onion and then tossed the pumpkin into the blender with the eggs. not really understanding the need to use both whole eggs and egg yolks in the recipe, and since the cartons of eggs came in sixes we just used six whole eggs. the pieces of roasted pumpkin were amazing. very tasty.
i recommend serving the first part of the recipe on it's own as an amazing side dish. just mix up some oil, salt, maple syrup and tobasco and roast some roughly chopped pumpkin in it. possibly a dash of nutmeg or cardamom. yummers. you could sprinkle it with the toasted pumpkin seeds for texture and contrast.
the blender was too small to contain all the ingredients so we sprinkled the fried onion over the bottoms of the two pie crusts and just stirred in the cheese. we added a dash more maple syrup and more salt before we put it into the oven. then we took it out and re-lit the pilot light.
we fried up the criminis in the wine and buttery vegan spread without garlic and waited.
the pies seemed to be taking a long time to cook. the pilot light was out again. we luckily had some yummy spiced toasted pumpkin seeds to tide us over.
to toast the seeds we first picked off the strings, and more importantly, did not rinse the seeds. the pumpkin juice is the key to delicious toasted pumpkin seeds. we added salt, paprika, tabasco, nutmeg, cardamom and stirred well. we laid them out in a single layer in the pan the pumpkin had been roasted in, so they picked up some extra oil and flavour too. they were stirred frequently (every time the pilot light went out) and roasted until one or two had begun to brown and the shells were dry.
finally the pie crusts were brown around the edges, and the flan was rising up and beginning to set.
by this time it was 11:30pm.we were almost too tired to eat.
the "flan" (which was now two pies) came out of the oven and was absolutely gorgeous. we dressed the pies with mushrooms and ate it with a mango salad. we forgot about the balsamic vinegar, i don't think it was needed. maybe some balsamic reduction (thanks to komet my new favourite condiment) to dress the plate. i might try that next time. it was amazing and delicious. we froze one pie to eat next week. i will for sure make this recipe again. i think it could use a little saffron, paprika or turmeric just to give it a bit brighter colour. i expect that isn't needed for the hubbard version, since hubbard is much darker in colour. it would also have had extra yolks. i wonder if the original version is even more delicious than my version!
it is quite tasty, i don't know if it could be served with meat as a side dish, it was rather rich with all those eggs, and sweet. maybe pork or game would match. it is essentially a pumpkin quiche, so i think it would stand alone with a nice salad as a lunch.
bon appetite!