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This is a French squash. You got an acorn squash there. Cricket ball squash, butternut squash here. You can get these in all the supermarkets. I think good delies or farmers markets. I'm going to use this one. And I want to take essentially the lid off of this part of the squash. It's very simple. I just put the knife in here, right? I stick it in. Hands are away. It's all safe, right? And we just rock it sort of around like that. And you can get someone to help you, you know, if you're not entirely sure. But you just rotate it until it joins up again.
And then that exposes this, a natural bowl that I'm going to cook in a way where you eat the whole thing, but also it can hold things. And I'm going to fill this up with lovely sweet leak white cheesy sauce. Okay. So, let's take the seeds out. Go around the bowl like this and just disconnect all those amazing seeds. And if you want to, you can wash these and roast them with a little spice. You can save them, put them in a little envelope and try and grow them the next year. Don't worry about the stringy bits because they are full of flavor. This first bit of preparation is so
so simple. A little drizzle of oil around the rim and also on the inside. We're going to go in with some salt and some pepper. And there's one other little spice that I want to use as well, which is a nutmeg. Now this is a mighty spice of Christmas time. About half of one grated. Smells amazing. Put that into a little dish where it snugly fits. So in the oven we go. 1 and 1/2 hours. 180° C, 350 fah. Okay. Three nice large leaks. Just take the outer layer off, which tends to be a little bit more fibrous. Just split the leak down the length like that. And then
when I wash it under the tap, wash it away from the stalk. Just open up the leak and just wash any grit away. And actually, this little bit of water here is not a bad thing because I'm going to start frying it and it's going to steam nicely before it fries. So, right, leaks washed. Finely slice that about a quarter of a centimeter. And then as it gets to kind of the whiter part here, then about a centimeter thick will go because they're more tender. I'm going to use garlic as well. Two cloves. Don't need much. Just a little slice there. I'm going to cook this in
a large pan. Whack that onto a nice high heat with some butter and olive oil. This is going to serve like 10, 12 people, right? So, our job here is to make these leaks like the best leaks ever. So, when that butter starts to bubble, in we go with the garlic. I'm going to use thyme, but you can pick any herb that you love, but just a little time really makes all the difference. Take the darker green part of the leaks. first and that can benefit from a little bit more direct cooking. The smell is amazing. In with some salt and pepper. Get that seasoning happening. Go in with the whiter part of the leaks.
Put the lid on. Turn it down to a medium heat. I'm going to cook this for about half an hour. And that environment of frying and steaming is going to tenderize those leaks like you wouldn't believe. I'll give it a stir every now and again, and these will be soft, tender, and gorgeous. So, this smells amazing. It's had just under half an hour. It's shrunk right down. And I've added a little splash of water here and there as well. And that just ensures that it's really tender and soft. Add a little bit of seasoning. I'm now going to turn it into a white sauce. One heap tablespoon of plain flour. You can use the gluten-free flour. No trouble at all. And that of
course will start to thicken with the butter and the oil that we put in. And then we'll add about 500 mls of milk. Just gently stir that in. It will thicken. It will go shiny. and it will give you that kind of really comforting, unxious kind of silkiness that you get from a bashameal sauce, but obviously with leak in it. At this time of year, we're all kind of getting our hands around fair old bit of cheese. So, um, you can use whatever you want. I'm using cheddar because it's nice and oozy. If you want to mix it up with other chosen cheeses that you love, of course,
who doesn't love a little bit of red leester? I'm just going to put a little bit of grier in there, which is fairly mild. It's not too funky, but it's going to really melt in the most beautiful way. Take it over to our white sauce, and I'll turn the heat off. Now, I don't want to boil cheese, but that residual heat of the sauce is just going to melt it into the most amazing sweet leak cheesy fondy white sauce. And this over your typical cauliflower cheese is like game changer. Next level. Even a spoonful over a little fillet of fish baked in the oven. Joy,
joy, joy, joy, joy, joy. I want to show you how it all comes together. I've got some breadrumbs here. About 100 g. And some walnuts. Just scrunch the walnuts into the bread. And then a little olive oil like that. And some salt. And this will be an incredible little crunchy topping for this dish. I've got the pumpkin here. It's had an hour and a half. Look at that. It smells amazing. It smells really festive. Super cool. You can see it's shrunk a little bit. That shrinkage means concentration of flavors. And what it gifts you with, which is really unusual,
is this little broth. It is utterly festive. take some of that amazing pumpkin broth and this method of cooking pumpkin like this I just love. And if I'm doing a curry, I will do this and just spice it slightly differently. And this juice you can put into your rice. If you were doing like a North African dish, a tajine or something like that, cook that as well. You know, this is a really cool technique. So, fill this up with the beautiful white sauce. You can kind of just go over the rim of the pumpkin. So, be generous. Just look at that. And
then on top of this, I'm going to go on with those beautiful breadrumbs and nuts. Just do a pile like that. And the great thing about this recipe is you can do it the day before, right? So, Christmas Eve or even the day before that if you want, right? You can put it all together, let it cool down, cover it, put it somewhere cold, and then on the big day when the turkey comes out, you can get that in the oven. And you just blast that until it's blipping and gorgeous. Look at that. Come on. Imagine that on Christmas day, right? Let's get it in the oven. Let's finish it.
So, in the oven now for 20 minutes until golden, blipping, and delicious. Look at that. Come on. Get a little platter or a cake stand and just move it over. Come on. That's something different, right? Let's just serve up a little portion just to show you. Beautiful silky creamy leak sauce with a chunk of that lovely squash. That oozy cheesy sweet leak sauce and those crunchy bits. So good. Oh my lord. Imagine that in the middle of the table on any Sunday roast, Christmas time, special occasion. It is a beautiful, spectacular thing. And whether
you scoop it or slice it, do whatever you want, it's utterly delicious. 20 seconds to tell you about my brand new book, Jamie's 20-minute meals. Of course, it's meals that are cooked in 20 minutes. No kind of shortcuts like when we did the filming. It's all in one take, no edits, and it's just beautiful, delicious, nutritious meals, colorful, textural food from all around the world that you can give to your family in 20 minutes.
