Pumpkin and caramelised onion panade

Serves 8 

A note on the baking dish: I baked mine in an oval dish but you can use whatever you have as long it is roughly 25cm x 18cm and 5cm deep. 

Ingredients: 

¼ cup Extra virgin olive oil 
3 large brown onions, peeled and sliced thin  
1 bay leaf 
6 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
100g smoked pancetta or bacon, cut into small cubes
1 cup red wine 
2 Tbls. red wine vinegar
1L roasted brown chicken stock *
500g pumpkin, peeled and sliced about 3mm thick
4-6 slices stale country style bread, or sourdough, crusts removed, 1/2 cm thick **
25g grated parmigiano reggiano 
40g grated comte cheese  

** Best to buy unsliced bread so you can slice to the correct thickness

Method:

Heat a large sauté pan oven medium/high heat. Add in the olive oil and sauté the onions with the bay leaf and thyme and a good pinch of salt until they completely soften and are deeply caramelised, about 15-20 minutes. Make sure you’re stirring them every couple of minutes to ensure they don’t burn. If you fear they are getting a bit too dark before being “caramelised” add a splash of water to the pan and keep cooking.

While that’s happening, add your stock to a small pot, bring it to a boil and reduce the stock down until you are only left with about 300ml of concentrated stock. You can do this a day in advance and refrigerate overnight. Remove and discard any fat which rises to the top as it cools.

Preheat your oven to 200C conventional (180C fan-forced).

Returning to the onions, add in the smoked pancetta and let that render a bit and begin to brown itself. Then, add in the red wine and vinegar allow that simmer and reduce until it has almost completely evaporated away.

Toast the bread in the oven until browned on both sides. Alternatively you can also char these on an outdoor grill to add more lovely smokey flavour.

Before you start assembling, taste the reduced stock and make sure it is really well seasoned.

Assemble panade by first covering the base of the dish with a layer of bread, then spoon half the onions over that to cover, make a double layer of pumpkin , making sure to season the pumpkin with salt. Next, add another layer of bread, the remaining onions and another double layer of pumpkin. Finally pour the reduced stock over everything, pressing everything down so the bread can absorb the stock. Cover the top with the grated cheese. Add a layer of baking paper and then foil and place the dish on top of a baking tray so that it doesn’t make a mess in your oven if it bubbles over. Bake covered for 45 mins, then uncover and bake a further 20-30 mins until well browned and bubbly.  

*To make a brown roasted chicken stock: Remove the breasts from a whole chicken and reserve for another use. Cut up the remaining carcass, legs and wings of the chicken and place on a roasting tray. Roast at 240C conventional (220C fan-forced) until the chicken is deeply browned on all sides. This takes about an hour. Pour off the chicken fat and reserve for another use. Scrape the chicken pieces into a stock pot and then use a bit of cold water and a spatula to scrape off all the brown bits that have stuck to the bottom of the tray. Scrape this slurry into your stock pot with the chicken bones. Add in a sliced onion, 3 sliced carrots, 2 stalks celery (sliced), a couple bay leaves, a few sprigs thyme and some black peppercorns. Cover everything with cold water by about 4-5 cm. Bring to a simmer and ladle off and discard any foam that rises to the top. Let it simmer on low with a lid ajar for 2-3 hours. When finished, pour it through a chinois and you will be left with a gorgeous rich brown chicken stock.