Cut the bottom (the bit with seeds) off a medium to large butternut squash. As we are going to use the top half only in this recipe, you are free to use the bottom half as you wish.
Remove the skin with a sharp knife or peeler
Slice finely longways, ending up with pieces of even thickness.
Marinate the butternut squash in Umami Chef® Shio Koji for 4 hours, turning once mid-way through. Interleave the slices with herbs of your choice, we used bay leaves in this case as they marry well with the stuffing.
Drain the marinated slices, put flat on a baking tray and dry uncovered in a cool place for approx. 4 hours until shiny.
Meanwhile, make the filling. We made a leek and sage risotto, but you could use whatever vegetables you wished, or fish or chicken so long as cooked before it goes into the roll. Note: bring risotto just to al dente as the cooking continues when in the roll.To fill and roll, simply take a slice, heap up filling across the middle and roll up, pushing the mixture firm from both ends. Allow a centimetre overlap of roll underneath, which aids their stability in cooking. Note: the amount of filling varies depending on the size of the roll – we used 2 – 2½teaspoons per slice.
Gently place the filled rolls in a baking dish, add salt-free vegetable stock up to approx ¼ ofthe roll, cover and place in a 150°C oven for 10-15 minutes depending on their size, then uncover the rolls and cook for a further 5 mins to dry out the top surface a little.