Kaboom-cha

Over the last year or so I've become addicted to butternut squash, I absolutely love it - roasted, boiled, microwaved, mashed, souped - it's all good.

Jamie Oliver seems to have caught on to it too but I feel rather smug knowing that I started eating it before it became trendy. Ol' wubber lipsth wrote a recipe for it recently in our Sunday magazine, it was a variation on Pumpkin Pie and he used the seeds as a topping by roasting them off and sprinkling them over the top.

It got me thinking that I might try and do something with the seeds the next time I got a squash rather than just chucking them in the compost bin. It just so happened that instead of a butternut squash I bought a Kabocha which looks like a small green version of your standard Jack O' Lantern type pumpkin.

I scooped out said seeds and set about washing the pulp off them (which was revolting as it felt like dense, slimy, matted hair). I then dried them off, put them on a baking tray and drizzled over some oil, some salt and smoked paprika. Then I put then in the oven where I was roasting the flesh along with some other veggies and a turkey breast.

After they had been in the oven for about 15 minutes I tried a couple of them - and found them somewhat crunchy - the seeds were considerably thicker than in a butternut squash. Still I thought I would persevere with them, perhaps they would be better if cooked a little longer.

After the seeds had been back in the oven for a while I was busy washing up when I started to hear strange noises coming from the oven. Kerpow! Pop! Kerpow! Ping! I rushed over and looked through the glass door only to the seeds dancing in the oven and exploding. I got the tray out of the oven and almost lost an eye as the damn things were cracking open all over the place.

I could see inside the cracked shells that there was a brown kernel but it was impossible to get out whole so I gave up in the end. Sigh, another cooking calamity ... the salt and paprika was an inspired combination though, it smelled gorgeous while coooking so I shall give it one more try with butternut squash seeds before I write-off the experiment completely. Stay tuned.