Braised Kabocha Squash (カボチャの煮込み)

When I was a kid, my mom used to make this for us kids all the time. Thanks to the variety of squash that you can find at groceries and farmers' markets these days, it doesn't take a separate trip to a Japanese grocery store to find these kabocha buggers.

Here's what to gather for this delectable, nutritious side dish.

• 1 kabocha squash (about the size of a canteloupe or slightly larger)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce 
• 5 tbsp mirin
• 2 c dashi sauce (fish stock)
• Salt and sugar (a dash of each)
• Optional: 1 tbsp olive oil

There are a few key steps in making this dish come out lovely, and I'll note them as I go. (If you don't have dashi, you can make your own fish stock. If you have bonito flakes boiling some flakes in hot water also does the trick. Chicken stock is ok, but then you might have a dish that tastes like a half-done squash soup - though if you like that sort of thing, go with it. If you don't have mirin, you can mix sake with sugar, enough like you would add to your iced tea to make it sweet. White wine is an ok substitute, though not quite the same.)

First, I split the squash in half. Maybe I'm a wuss, but sometimes these kabocha are very hard - so I put on a mitt for my left hand and cleave the squash with a big, sharp chef's knife or santoku. Luckily, that's the only 'hard' part of making this dish. 

I scoop out the seeds so that I have two cleaned kabocha halves. I take the two halves, set them cut side down on a baking sheet, and bake the halves at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Don't skip this step! If it's not roasted, you'll miss out on all the Maillard caramelization, that yummy, meaty, roasted taste that the squash will impart on your palate. Instead, you'll have a dry, pasty, dry - did I mention dry? - mashed mushy potato-like substance. If you have an oven that tends on the side of burning, you can brush the cut part of the squash with some olive oil to help it from crusting. Although roasting the kabocha adds to the prep time, it beats having to cut the raw kabocha into bite size pieces. That's hard work! The kabocha doesn't have to be cooked through and through, but it should be slightly browned on the skin and steaming when you lift it. I can tell they're ready when there begins to show a wrinkling in the skin and the color changes. 

Once out of the oven, I cut them into bite size pieces. Now that the squash has been roasted, it's a super cinch! 

My fingers will live on intact yet another day. Careful, the squash is steaming hot.

Into a large skillet go the bite size morsels. To the skillet, I add all the other ingredients: soy sauce, dashi sauce, mirin, a pinch of salt. At this point, I might add a pinch of sugar, but it's not really essential. Chances are the squash has imparted a lot of sweetness due to the roasting. The mirin also has sugar in it. So, I wait until the dish is done to adjust the sweetness with sugar at the very end. 

I get the liquid to a boil and then I turn it down to a simmer. I want the liquid to boil off, but my roasted squash is delicate so I don't want it to boil into oblivion. I stir occasionally to make sure that all the pieces get an opportunity to soak in the liquid. I have just the right spatula for this task - it's a floppy but heat proof spoon made of silicone. The floppiness saves my kabocha pieces from falling apart. I gently mix around the kabocha as it simmers. When all of the pieces have turned from an early spring yellow sunflower color to a deep summer orange sunflower, I know my dish is done. (This probably does not take much more than 30 minutes.) Give it a taste and add salt and/or sugar to taste. I serve these in individual bowls. The squash is meaty, hearty and delicious. Okawari onegai! 

Ponzu Hot Pot with Gyoza 水餃子

If you've ever made gyoza and had leftovers, and wondered how you're ever going to eat all of these gyoza you've made, then here's one great way to have them -- in a deliciously soul-warming hot pot dish.

I keep falling back to this dish because you just can't go wrong with it. Here are the basics, for a quick meal you want to throw together for yourself:

• 5-6 gyozas 餃子
• 1-2 leaves of napa cabbage, roughly chopped 白菜
• 1 1/2 cups hot water 湯
• a pinch of dashi だし
• Less than 1/4 cup ponzu sauce ポン酢
• Optional: enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, scallions, broccoli, tofu, etc., etc.! エノキ、椎茸、にんじん、ねぎ、ブロッコリー、豆腐、等々

If you missed my recipe for gyoza, it is right here: pan fried gyoza. 

Start by boiling 1 1/2 cups of water in a small pot. I like to use my stoneware for one (pictured above) so that I don't have to wash extra dishes! Throw in the dashi (fish stock concentrate). Once it comes to a boil, I add the gyozas and napa cabbage to it. If there's anything else I have around, mushrooms, veggies, whatever, I'll also drop that in. Tofu is a great addition, as is chicken, pork, meatballs or fatty fish like salmon. It's such a flexible dish, that it's perfect for getting rid of anything withering in the fridge. 

When my napa cabbage has softened and the gyoza has heated up, really just a few minutes on the stove and not much more, then it's done! 

To finish the dish, I add some ponzu sauce, a few tablespoons, to the boiling soup. This ponzu sauce... can be gotten nearly anywhere that sells Asian cuisine food / condiments. I suppose it's also called "citrus seasoned soy sauce." Originally I think it was made from a combination of soy sauce and a citrus fruit called yuzu but these days the commercially made stuff probably doesn't even have yuzu (it's pricier than lemon). So I add the ponzu to taste. If I add too much, it'll be too salty - easily fixable by diluting with hot water. 

On a cold winter's day, what better than to have a bowl of this deliciousness! To serve for a party of more than one, just make the hot pot in a big pot, leaving out the ponzu until the end, and serve the whole hot pot at the table family-style, with ponzu for everyone to add to their own bowl, to taste.

出来上がり！