Halloween marks the beginning of winter squash season for us in the West. The Japanese haven't traditionally celebrated Halloween, but their cuisine is exquisitely synchronized with the seasons. So, welcome to kabocha season!
In Japanese, kabocha refers to a hard-skinned squash; the characters applied to it means 'southern squash', and the pronunciation indicates it probably came through Cambodia (though originating in North America).
Any winter squash can be used with this recipe, though we find that butternut is the most convenient. Its skin is thin enough to eat without peeling, and peeling an acorn squash is a task in itself. We haven't actually tried the recipe with pumpkin — that's for you more adventurous souls. Here is what you will need:
Ingredients
- one winter squash (butternut)
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- enough water to cover the squash (but don't do this yet)
- stock flakes (see below)
- flavorings for every pint (two 8 oz cups) of stock:
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sake (optional)
- 2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar (or less, to taste)
Chopping ingredients
- Cut a butternut squash into bite-size pieces, skin left on or peeled as you like. Just remember that most of the nutrition is in the skin, as in potatoes.
- Coarsely chop the walnuts
Making the stock
First, the stock (dashi) needs making; this is the hard part here. Japanese stock is made from dried fish flakes, the fish being bonito (katsuo) and the flakes called katsuo-bushi. You can generally buy these in small packets in Oriental food stores (photo). If katsuo-bushi is unobtainable, plain water is ok; but if you choose to use other kinds of stock, including Western fish stock, the taste will be noticeably un-Japanese.
- It is usual to use about 1/3 cup of flakes (10-12 grams) to a pint (2 cups) of water; adjust the amount you need.
- Dump the flakes in the water and bring to a boil, then simmer several minutes.
- Drain off the stock to save but discard the wet flakes.
Cook the squash
- Add the flavorings above to the stock according to the amount of stock you have.
- Add squash bites to flavored stock and simmer until soft — maybe 10 minutes or so.
- Drain the flavoured stock and keep for another round (can be frozen).
Prepare to serve
- Lightly mash the squash bites. If you left the squash skin on, these will show up in the mash as square leathery pieces but edible.
- Sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Ready to serve!
If you have leftovers, the dish is also good cold. Or it may be frozen for later use, but the walnuts will go soft. Not unpleasant though. This is one of our most favourite recipes. Children like it because it is sweet; but even without sugar, the butternut is a sweet squash and very tasty with walnuts.
Sources inspiring this variation:
Handa, F. et al. (1965) Mainichi no Ryouri Shiriizu 1: Osouzai 365-nichi. Tokyo: Kodansha.
Rudzinski, Russ (1969) Japanese Country Cookbook. San Francisco: Nitty Gritty.
Shinmura, I. (ed.) (1969) Koujien. Tokyo: Iwanami.
Gina Barnes - A retired academic of anthropology, archaeology, geology, and Japanese Studies, with other avid interests....
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