Kabocha is the Japanese winter squash. It’s one of my favorite vegetables and it’s next on my list of foods to introduce to baby. I make a new batch of baby food once a week on Saturdays (when Aunty Joni visits), so I went to Foodland today to pick two: one for baby and the other for the big people in the house.
For kabocha-lovers, I found it on sale at Foodland for $0.99/pound, which I assume is a pretty decent deal because I later saw a Marukai ad for kabocha listing it at $1.99/pound. I’m not sure if there’s anything special about the Marukai kabocha, but that’s a pretty significant difference to me!
Kabocha, Japanese Winter Squash
I’ll share my Japanese style simmered kabocha recipe (for big people) today. Kabocha makes a great side dish. It’s extremely simple with very few ingredients — my favorite kind of recipe. The hardest part of preparing the kabocha is cutting it because the skin is so hard. A video and entry will be forthcoming on the kabocha babyfood endeavors this weekend.
Ingredients
1 lb kabocha (my kabocha was nearly 4 lbs., so I just adjusted the measurements accordingly)
3/4 cup dashi stock
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Directions
- Wash kabocha skin with a vegetable brush because we will leave the skin on. Although the skin is very hard when uncooked, it becomes tender and lends a nice texture after being simmered.
- Cut in half and remove seeds. Cut kabocha into 1-1/2″ cubes. Be careful ~ kabocha skin is very tough and you could easily lose a finger if you’re not careful!
- Put dashi soup stock, sugar, shoyu, and kabocha chunks in a pan, placing on HIGH heat and bringing to a boil.
- Turn heat down to LOW and allow to simmer until liquid is nearly gone.
- You may serve kabocha warm or cold. (I prefer it warm.)
Uncooked Kabocha
Simmered Kabocha – tender and delicious!
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[...] recently did an entry on Kabocha (Japanese Winter Squash), sharing my simple simmered kabocha recipe. Kabocha is one of my [...]
[...] this tasty and nutritious squash/pumpkin, and chose to go with a simmered kabocha recipe found on champuru.net . i didn’t have all the proper ingredients on hand so i made a few substitutions, but my [...]
Hi, a very easy, no cutting, and extremely delicious preparation method – is to preheat your oven to 400 degrees for 10 min, wash your kobucha, wrap the whole thing up with tin-foil, put the thing in a pan filled with about 1/2 inch deep with water, then bake for 1 hour. Eat that au naturale and it’s the most velvety-smooth, creamy, sweet food you have ever tasted!
FYI, the skin will be very soft and extremely tasty – highly nutritious too!
If you like, scoop out the seeds and broil that, but I haven’t tried it.
The whole thing can be eaten!
Enjoy!