Squaffles, sage & a double yolker
Winter squash waffles with sage butter and a fried egg. They're waffly versatile.
“They’re waffly versatile”
If you’re a child of the 80s in the UK, you almost certainly grew up on Birdseye Potato Waffles and their earworm of an advertising jingle.
I certainly did. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always had a soft spot for waffles. But potatoes, not so much.
A mash alternative
I’m not a big eater, or grower, of potatoes. So, when that childhood jingle popped into my head as I wrestled the waffle maker out of the way in the cupboard-under-the-stairs whilst searching of last year’s Christmas jam (still missing), I began to wonder what starchy alternatives might be used to make a savoury waffle.
The answer, staring me in the face every time in enter the kitchen (as regular readers will know and explained here), is pumpkins. Halved, roasted and scooped from its flesh, a good winter squash (not a watery, flaccid ex-carving monstrosity) makes a mean mash. Perfect for waffles
But what to call it?
My first instinct was poffles. Pumpkin + waffle. Get it? No? No. Neither did anyone else. A quick straw poll on Notes made it very clear that squaffles (squash + waffle) was much preferred.
So here we go. Squaffles…
Squaffles, sage butter & a fried egg
You can, of course, serve these with baked beans, or plain eggs, or whatever your childhood-self preferred, but I find pumpkins welcome more complex flavours if they are to be elevated to anything more than monotone sweetness. So, at the end of the recipe below I suggest other ways to flavour a fried egg for sliding on top of your squaffle before devouring (and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write).
Serves 2
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
20g salted butter
2 eggs
