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!