Mini pumpkin patch and crunchy kabocha salad

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 :

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

A baby butternut.

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.

Add the juice and grated zest of 2 sudachi limes.

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

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.

The next day, flavors have mixed harmoniously.

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

Gifu squash and fondue-pa’

A little early Autumn party around cheese fondue ! There is a special guest, here is :

宿儺かぼちゃ suguna kabocha. , from Gifu Prefecture. This monster makes about 3 kg. Inside, it’s kabocha pumpkin, a potimarron and it does taste very chestnutty.

We are far away from the fondue savoyarde with mountain cheeses. Today : pumpkin, red wine and… processed cheese.

The result is incredibly yummy…

Dip in bread. Or toasted bread.

Or veggies.

Togarashi kabocha tarte for lunch

That was our fav girls’ lunch when I was a student. We’d meet in town, 2 to 4 friends and when we were tired by window shopping we’d invade a salon de thé that proposed savory pumpkin tart, salad and drink set. Then we’d share a wedge of… a full ? Well cake. I have no cake here… well, I don’t show you everything.

The twist on this one is the addition of fresh chilis (togarashi) that are just in season :

You’ll see some again. I have a ton. They are very fruity and quite hot.

Kabocha pumpkin puree as a filling…

Then paint with olive oil…

I’ve added more chunks of kabocha in the mix, as it is so good in this season that you want some just like that with nothing added.

Romaine, onion, goya bitter squash… splashed with balsamico.

Nashi (Japanese pear) and mugicha (iced barley tea).

Save my skin !

Steamed kabocha skin. All that !
Throw away ? No way !
It is edible, super healthy. Even better, it’s very tasty.

I’ve used a lot of kabocha pumpkin flesh. I took away the green skin as the color is not so bright.

The skin is cut and sprinkled with lemon juice. Let overnight in the fridge.

With lettuce, cucumber and fried tofu.

DIY fried tofu

Soleil d’automne : la tarte au potiron

This Autumn sun is a pumpkin pie… but not a dessert. In France, the pumpkin is a vegetable mostly. In the North, I think there are only savory recipes. The pumpkin pies of my childhood were main dishes. Actually that was fast-food when I was a student. No, they weren’t selling them in burger places, but the tea rooms were a similarly priced alternative. I’d have a tarte au potiron and a tea or coffee for lunch. And a dessert, let’s be honest, I have never left a tea room without a sweet bit in the tummy. They’d make us a good deal including a little wedge of cake.

One layer of rice bran dough (see here). One layer of fried bacon bits and onion. One layer of cooked kabocha, egg, salt and a little coriander seed. Baked.