Sesame and Soy Butternut Bites {#12WksWinterSquash}

Here's a tasty little Donna Hay appetizer that is perfect for your holiday pupu platters. These little squash bites have a sweet and salty sesame flavor and would go well with a glass of something bubbly for the New Year.  

Sesame and Soy Butternut Bites 
From Entertaining by Donna Hay 
(Makes about 24 pieces) 

1/2 small sweet pumpkin or winter squash
olive oil
sea salt
3 Tbsp honey
2 tsp sesame oil
1Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine (shao hsing) or sherry

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F./200 degrees C.

Peel squash, cut it into bite-sized pieces and toss with olive oil and salt. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until they are tender.

In a large frying pan, combine honey, sesame oil, sesame seeds, ginger, soy sauce and wine or sherry. Allow mixture to simmer until it is quite syrupy. Add pumpkin to fry pan, a few pieces at a time and toss to coat. Remove the pumpkin from pan and place pieces on a baking tray line with parchment. Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees F./150 degrees C. Return pumpkin to oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Serve warm with toothpicks.

Notes/Results: These little warm-from-the-oven bites of butternut squash pop with flavor. The sesame, ginger, honey and soy are an excellent compliment to the sweetness of the squash. You could use any winter squash--I am think kabocha would be nice. Because I am lazy, I used already peeled and cut butternut from the grocery store which made these a snap to make. If planning on several pupus, you could get these ready to go--roasted, coated in the sesame-soy mixture and sitting on the lined tray--then pop them into the oven until warm when you are ready to serve. I will make these again.

Tis' the Season for holiday-friendly party foods at I Heart Cooking Clubs. You can check out the Donna Hay recipes everyone made by going to the post and checking out the picture links. 

This is also my Week 8 dish for the 12 Weeks of Winter Squash Event hosted by my friends Heather and Joanne. Feel free to link up your winter squash dishes during the week at the linky below or on any one of the other participating blogs.