Mini pumpkin patch and crunchy kabocha salad

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I have a little collection of mini-pumpkin. So I made a kabocha sarada, a pumpkin salad. That’s a healthier alternative to potato salad.
It’s the ideal way to get a refill of vitamins in the darker season.

First, this is my basket :

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4 minis. There don’t all have names. Well all pumpkins are called kabocha in Japanese.

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A baby butternut.

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The smallest is called a botchan kabocha. Botchan, it’s the last youngest son of a family, the spoiled brat.

If you want ideas to use pumpkins, browse :
my pinterest selection
and
Dissection of a Summer kabocha, no waste
and
Cinderella gourmande, recipes of golden carriage
and
kabocha keyword

So take any sweet pumpkin, steam it and take the flesh. Add the white part of negi leeks, a small onion thinly sliced, a little fresh ginger thinly minced. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

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Add the juice and grated zest of 2 sudachi limes.

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Renkon, lotus root. I buy them already peeled, sliced, cleaned and blanched, but you can do it yourself

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Small cucumbers, cut in sticks. Add the cucumber and lotus into the kabocha mix. You may need to add water. Cover and let a few hours in the fridge.

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The next day, flavors have mixed harmoniously.

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I eat it over 2 or 3 days as a side dish, or as an item to fill a lunch box.

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Bochan kabocha, Thai style (via gourmande in Osaka)

It’s time to steam your pumpkins… LY

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…. And cut in wedges. Everything can be eaten together, the custard, the orange pumpkin flesh and the green skin.

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Or savory :

Okowa, kuri-gohan in kabocha pumpkin

Slow rice : okowa in kabocha

That’s funnier than simply using your rice cooker…
Okowa means steamed sticky rice, usually with “gu” (toppings).
There are “classic ones” :
kuri-okowa, with chestnut.
kinoko-okowa with mushroom.

I have twisted the recipes by steaming them inside kabocha pumpkins and using raw chesnuts (instead in syrup ones for most recipe).

The day before : rinse and soak mochigome (Japanese sticky rice). Also soak dry shiitake mushrooms.

Empty a few bochan kabocha (baby sweet pumpkins).

Take out of the shell a few kuri (Japanese chestnuts).

Fill a kabocha with mushroom + rice, another with kuri + rice.
Add liquid. For the mushroom, it’s soy sauce + sake + mushroom soaking liquid. For the kuri, it’s mirin+sake+ a little sea salt.
Keep some mushroom water and rice soaking water for adding while it cooks.

Steam it long enough… add liquid to the rice if needed. That took 3 hours (on low heat on the induction stove).

Cut and eat with goma shio (that means sesame + salt, pounded together. I keep them whole). The kabocha is eaten with its skin.

I found the mushroom version delicious. The kuri was good too. The chesnuts were cooked, but could have been more cooked… Boiling them before might improve that.

Desserts inclassables – Other sweets (compilation)

NB : Click on the text, not the images.

All those that didn’t fit into :

French desserts – Dessert francais (compilation)

Wagashi Saga : Photo-menu of all Japanese sweet posts.

Most of these sweets (not all) are very healthy and can be eaten every day. Whenever it is possible, I use only natural and whole ingredients, little or no added sugar. Many desserts are vegan. A few are decadent…
Enjoy !

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FUNNY

The cruel end of Lady Hana in her strudel kimono
Like butter on sweet potato
Marron syrup cream flower

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AGAR-AGAR

Made with agar (kanten) seaweed.

coconut flower

mango cocoa heat-fighter

fruity animals

Summer spiced wine pears

“cafe au lait, revisited”

buko pandan (Filipina salad)

organza peach

grape marguerite

mousse de vin

3 textures for Belle-Helene

ubatama

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CLASSICS FROM EVERYWHERE

Oat style, not Buck’ Palace shortbread
The simplest aot cookies
Cake a la banane -Banana bread
Strawberry cookies

Opening of Gourmande ice-cream bar : coconut paradise isle-cream
Riz au lait gourmandise d’automne
Hattaiko cake
Kiki the witch bakes cherry bagels

Panna cotta
Pavlova au chocolat
Omelette norvegienne
Flock insane (flocken sahne torte )
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CHOCOLATE AND AZUKI BEANS

Chocolate and azuki
Choco-azuki, le retour
Azu-choco with blueberry

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FRUIT POWER

Lighter pain de Genes (with dry apricot)
Papaya on vanilla
Fruits and petals
Flan de tofu au jus de legumes- veggie juice tofu pudding

Iced strawberry-banana
The simplest mango ice-cream
Kiwi smoothie
kiwi and banana on green

Mousse au chocolat vegetale
Salade d’ aloe vera
compote de pomme sur creme d’amandes
Very matcha

Suriminutsu-ppai , like a tiramisu ready in 3 minutes
matcha and mango
Banana tofu pudding with dragon fruit
Mint and melon

Kaki surprise

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ASIAN JOURNEY :

Bochan kabocha, Thai style
Passion fruit dessert
Thailand street banana roti, with coconut

Sorbet de mangue petillant
Fleur de tofu, torufa (Chinese dessert)

Tapioca pudding without added sugar

Bochan kabocha, Thai style

Bochan kabocha, little boy pumpkin…
The Japanese name “kabocha” meant Cambodge, Kampuchea, well they could repeat it, because that plant probably came from there. Of course, it’s also popular in Thailand where they prepare custard in steamed pumpkins. This way, with my little personal adaptations…

Empty the squash, let about 1 cm of flesh.


Prepare custard with egg, coconut cream and brown sugar (Okinawa’s kurozato). The “cream” can be obtained by opening a can of coconut milk, and letting it a few hours in the fridge. The cream will float above the liquid. I put about 1/2 cream, 1/2 eggs.

Place the kabocha in a steam basket, on a sauce-pan of water. I put a few more blocks of sugar in it. You will see it on the next photo, the sugar will melt into a syrup/caramel.

Steam 20 to 40 minutes, till the kabocha’s flesh is soft and the custard solid.

When it’s cool, refrigerate a few hours.

And cut in wedges. Everything can be eaten together, the custard, the orange pumpkin flesh and the green skin.

The rest of custard was cooked in micro-wave. That doesn’t make a regular shaped pudding as you see. You can probably do it in a classical oven, by immersing the kabocha in a dish of hot water.