Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin)

After eating Vegemite last week, I thought I would go with something safer this week and that turned out to be Kabocha. It turned out to be safe and easy to cook with (once I realized how to). Kabocha, also known as Japanese Pumpkin, looks similar to a miniature pumpkin with a tough, green skin and a yellow/orange inside. It smells like a pumpkin on the inside but like a sweet potato when it is being steamed. Ironically, the majority of the crop grown in California, among other states and countries, is exported to Japan, hmm...

Producto de Mexico. Not Japan. Why?

I chose my Kabocha at Raley's with help from Maygor.* I looked up some recipes, many said to simply cut it into cubes and cook with spices, but I wanted something different. I chose Kabocha Manju. It is a dessert with the kabocha mashed with sugar and cinnamon, wrapped in dough and steamed. This sounds so easy! Cool! It's not. First step was to cut the kabocha in half, which is incredibly difficult to do if you do not steam it first (thanks recipe for telling me to do that). After trying for, I'd say roughly 10 minutes to cut it open, I researched how to cut kabocha and found out how to steam it. After steaming that bad boy for about 7 minutes it was much easier to work with. The inside was just like a baked potato. After scooping it all out, I had to steam it again because some of it wasn't soft enough. The recipe says to steam it in a bamboo steamer which I don't have because what college student owns a bamboo steamer? But I made a makeshift steamer on the stove which kind of worked, but took too long. Why didn't I just throw it back in the microwave? Because I don't know how to cook.

Yes, I realize how stupid this is.

When the kabocha was finally soft enough to be smashed I mixed it with the sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt. It turned into the yummy mixture below. It was so yummy because it basically tasted like sugar. This recipe called for wayyyyyyyy too much sugar (emphasis on the way).

I then proceeded to make the dough out of flour, baking soda, sugar and water. Long story short, the dough was too thin and the kabocha mixture started coming out everywhere, they didn't steam on my homemade steamer, but baked in the oven. I don't have any pictures because things were moving so quickly. I improvised and threw the dough into a cupcake tin and filled the dough with the kabocha mixture. They came out good, but the dough tasted like a biscuit which didn't go well with the kabocha mixture. I have an idea of putting the mixture on a muffin with possibly raisins and/or walnuts, which I will try later this week and update you.

The one really good thing that came out of this was the roasted seeds. Toss them in a little olive oil, garlic salt and paprika and toast them in the oven for 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

In conclusion, kabocha is a great substitute for potatoes or yams. Just mash them with a little butter and salt or brown sugar and you've got yourself a nice side dish.

UPDATE: If you are ever in the market for Vegemite, Raley's sells it for $6.99.


*Gable decided to change her name to Maygor this week.


-Em