Roasting kabocha and yellow yellows together until caramelized brings out the sweetness as well as the earthiness of these vegetables before turning them into a rich vegetarian based soup.

I have been seeing a lot of kabocha recipes in my Australian Gourmet magazines.  I finally found both green and red varietals at the Berkeley farmers market.  What is a Kabocha?  It is also known as a Japanese pumpkin throughout Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.  It is the short stubby cousin to our native pumpkin.  The kabocha is round but also rather bumpy with knobby skin, the color is either a dull green or red but the insides are an intense red-orange color.  It is naturally sweet, even sweet than a butternut squash with a similar texture of a pumpkin.  I thought the flesh tasted rather earthy like a russet potato.  It is rich in beta carotene, iron, vitamin C and potassium.

I found the history of the kabocha interesting as well.  It is believed that all squash originated in Mesoamerica, but may have been independently cultivated elsewhere.  However the kabocha was introduced to Japan by Portuguese sailors in 1541, who brought it with them from Cambodia. The Portuguese name for the pumpkin, Cambodia abóbora,  was shortened by the Japanese to kabocha.

This was my first time using a kabocha and I decided that I wanted to make it into a soup.  I slowly roasted it with some yellow onions and olive oil until it was caramelized.  Then I simmered the flesh as well as the onions with plain water – I find that vegetable stock changes the flavor of soups and takes away from their natural taste.  I then pureed the mixture and served it with a piece of fried sage and a drizzle of the sage oil.  It was rich in flavor but light in calories.  This soup would make a perfect soup course for your Thanksgiving table.

Here is another recipe that would be perfect with kabocha.

Recipe:  Roasted Kabocha Soup

1 3 pound kabocha, cut into quarters

1 yellow onion, cut into quarters

drizzle of olive oil

3 cups of water

maldon salt, to taste

fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

sage

Heat oven to 425.  Put kabocha and onion in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for about 30 -45 minutes until soft and caramelized.  Remove from oven and gently remove the flesh of the kabocha from the skin.  Put it into a large saucepan with the onion and water.  Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes.  Puree with a food processor in small  batches, return to a saucepan.  Gently reheat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a small frying pan and gently fry sage leaves.  Before serving drizzle a bit of the sage infused olive oil over the top of  soup and float the fried sage leaf in it.  Serve.  Eat.

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dinner, Japanese, kabocha, Organic Food, Portuguese, Recipe, Soup, Squash, Thanksgiving, Vegetables

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If you are a regular reader, then you know my fear of “fish sauce”. I have been using a lot of recipes, lately, that all call for “fish sauce”. I am so naive that I thought it was the “oil” part of a dish and have been substituting just that, oil for fish sauce.

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Read the rest of Blood Orange & Lychee Nut Caipirinha (747 words)

© Denise for Chez Us, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blood Orange, Cocktail, Dinner, Food Blog Event, Japanese, Lychee, Recipe

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I was bumping around the world of food blogs today, when I should have been working, when I stumbled upon Sunita’s World. Sunita hosts a monthly event about spices we have never taken part in this; but, after I began reading about it, I became interested. I saw that the current month’s challenge involved Star Anise, now I was not sure what I would make with it as I usually just use it as a prop in photos, then I suddenly remembered that I used it in our Japanese Pot Roast and since we ate out last night we were dining on this outrageous meal again, tonight! Let me tell you after sitting in the fridge for a day, the flavor really blended even more, it was even more fantastic. You have to try this recipe!

So, here you have our entry for Sunita’s very fun event!

© dwoodward20 for Chez Us, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Food Blog Event, Japanese

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While, we have only joined Meeta in one of her Monthly Mingles – we had a great time. I was not going to do this months only because it was a “one-dish” meal and what comes to mind for us involves a crock pot food or casserole type meal, neither appealed to us, so we decided to sit this one out.

I was getting ready to put away my February issue of Food and Wine, when I decided to take one last flip through it. There on the cover was the topic, “the Ultimate One-Pot Meal”. I slowly turned to page 101, thinking it was going to involve a crock-pot or would be a casserole. So happy to see it was a nice slow braised meal cooked in one-pot and in the oven. The perfect meal for the lazy Saturday night we were planning.

FW gives you four options and we chose the Japanese style. We did use a few potatoes instead of the Daikon. As well I cooked Udon noodles instead of the egg noodles they suggest. The pot-roast was very easy to make and while it is cooking the house smells truly incredible. Great way to get the mood going for a “lazy but romantic” evening.

While the roast was slowly cooking we used up the left-over bubbly from our pre and Valentine’s dinners. We added a couple splashes of Bonny Doon Framboise and garnished with raspberries. What a great way to end your day and start your evening!

Then it was time to really chow down on the pot roast and buttered udon noodles. The roast was very tender and the carrots and potatoes were not over cooked, a slight crunch to them still. The broth was very flavorful – the saltiness of the Soy Sauce, and the sweetness of the Mirin and the Star Anise (which I almost did not add as I like to photograph with them) brought a very interesting flavor, a little spicy and not overwhelming, very exotic, definitely worked very well together – we loved it! Served a hunk of crusty bread with it and we popped open a lovely Bordeaux from the Loire Valley. For dessert we had a couple meringues left over, which, I made with my sweet little 4 year old friend, E. for Valentines – she is all about pink and love – I topped them with raspberries and drizzled deep dark chocolate over the tops.

Truly a great evening with the one you love!

© dwoodward20 for Chez Us, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beef, Food Blog Event, Food Blogging Event, Japanese, Monthly Mingle, Pot Roast

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© dwoodward20 for Chez Us, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Japanese, noodles, Salads, Soba

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Almost a year ago, I took a culinary course on making sushi – great gift from L. We were making sushi every Saturday for a couple months; but, then we got busy with life and have not made it in awhile. So, we invited our friend, R. over for dinner and we rolled!

Making sushi is not as hard as one thinks. The hardest part is getting your rice cooked and seasoned just right. I am not there yet, definitely need to practice more. The next part that is the most time consuming is all the prep work. Lots of washing, dicing and slicing. I always figure the above will take about 3 hours to complete. I usually wait to roll when our guests arrive, as well, it is fun to be the “sushi” chef … rolling, laughing, drinking sake; a very social evening.

We picked up lots of sake, Japanese beer, Salmon, Maguro, Dungeness Crab and Tuna – you MUST use sushi grade! I get most of the fish at a Japanese market as well Whole Foods does have sushi grade fish, once in awhile, you have to ask for it. We also used ginger, spicy little Portuguese peppers, cilantro, avocado, green onions, mango and sesame seeds and sesame oil for filling and for seasoning.

The end result – a great evening of homemade sushi and sashimi!

© dwoodward20 for Chez Us, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Homemade, Japanese, Sushi

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PS………. UPDATE, these are GREAT the next day as a cold lunch time salad!

© dwoodward20 for Chez Us, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chicken, Japanese, Soba Noodles

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