Acorn Squash Tart

En Croute is in a crust or case. It’s a wonderful way to cook a lot of foods, it can be assembled earlier and baked at the last minute and it’s always impressive.

Plus, if you buy the pastry, it’s easy.

Even easier (and mush quicker) is if you make the squash ahead of time. I roasted two, served one as a vegetable and saved the other for this tart.

You could, of course, use any winter squash, leftover or not.

Acorn Squash Tart (en croute)

Total time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

1 – 2 sheets of puff pastry, you’ll need 2 squares, about 7″ (17cm) square. If they are not big enough you can roll them out a bit (using a rolling pin). You could also use a large square cut from corner to corner as a triangle.
1 small acorn squash, yielding 1 cup of cooked squash
1/3 cup (3oz, 90gr) crème fraiche
2 tbs prepared horseradish
1 tbs toasted pumpkin seeds
Tomato Sauce:
1 cup (8oz, 240ml) tomato sauce
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp smoky paprika
2 tbs pumpkin seeds

Instructions

Cut acorn squash in half and remove seeds.
Either roast, cut side down in 400F (200C) oven for 35 minutes or microwave for 8 – 10. Either way, until the flesh is tender.
Remove flesh from shells and put into a bowl. Allow to cool slightly or completely (can be done ahead).
Add crème fraiche, horseradish, pumpkin seeds and stir well.
Prepare pastry if necessary (roll, cut, whatever, to get the size you need).
Mound half of the acorn squash mixture into the center of each pastry sheet.
Bring corners together over top and press together, making a little parcel. You want to seal the corners or tips but not all the seams, so that it can expand but not come apart.
Put the parcels on a baking sheet and bake at 400F (200C) for 15 – 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
Tomato Sauce:
Heat oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add mustard, paprika and sauté briefly.
Add tomato sauce, bring to a simmer and keep warm until needed.
Remove Pastries when done, spoon a bit of tomato sauce on the side, garnish with pumpkin seeds and serve..

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The last bit of house to be worked on….

This area had been blocked off for so long it was almost easy to forget it was there. The doors just stayed shut and we ignored it.

This became our final 2 bedrooms.

First a dividing wall had to be built. The chimney from the kitchen stove cut the area in half.

This room was going to have closets – to store luggage and winter coats and all the stuff that was still packed away.

There’s even a linen closet that opens out into the hallway from this room.

This was a good photo showing how the ceiling lights were installed – before the ceiling, of course.

As usual, there was a lot of cement repair work to the outer walls and, particularly, to where the outer walls met the roof.

It may be a guest bedroom, but it’s also my exercise room. My bike is down in the pantry – too big and awkward to haul upstairs, but the gym comes apart so we could set it up here where I can use it all year.

The green thing leaning on the wall is the last bed waiting for a room…..