December 30, 2013
By Anna Varriano
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Oishii desu ne! Squash and pumpkin are my favourite ‘warm-and-fuzzy’ foods. They are excellent for the health of our digestive system, and promote regular bowel movements. In fact, putting a tablespoon or so of plain, cooked or mashed pumpkin (or squash) into a cat or dog’s food is a great way to keep them regular too!
My brother grew kabocha squash in his garden this year, and I was the lucky recipient of some…as well as this great recipe. Kabocha squash are often used in vegetable tempura. The skin is thin, so you can leave it on and eat it.
What You’ll Need
- 1/2 kabocha squash
- 3/4 cups of water
- 2 tablespoon of soy sauce (organic and gluten-free)
- 1/2 tablespoon of mirin
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
- 4 tablespoon of sesame seeds
Step 1: Prep
I cut the squash in half, spooned the seeds out, used one half for this recipe and stored the other half in the fridge for next time. Then I cut up half the squash into bite-sized pieces and added just over 2 cups of it to a pot along with the water, soy sauce, mirin, and maple syrup. Mirin is a popular condiment in Japanese cooking. It is often described as a cross between rice wine and sake.
Step 2: Cooking
Stir everything together, bring to a boil, and then simmer on low heat, with the lid off, until the squash is thoroughly cooked (about 10 minutes or so – it should be soft and easy to pierce with a fork). There should barely be any water left in the pot at this point. Take it off the heat. Toast about 4 TBSP of sesame seeds (you can do this while the squash is cooking). I toasted mine by putting them in a 350F oven for about 10 minutes. Stir them around/shake them around 1/2 way through to make sure they evenly toast. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they are golden. They can go from golden to burnt pretty quick! Once they’re toasted, coarsely grind them. I put mine in an electric grinder. You could also put them in a plastic bag and pound them with a rolling pin…use your imagination to coarsely grind them!
Step 3: Serving
Pour the ground sesame seeds into the pot with the cooked squash, stir it up so that the squash gets coated with the sesame seeds and enjoy! Oishii desu ne? (Google it!)
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