Discover Japanese Food #10: Kabocha no nimono: simmered pumpkin in ginger soy sauce (THE EAST Campaign in Association with Atsuko’s Kitchen)

Kabocha is a Japanese name of pumpkin which has rich and nutty texture and had a natural sweetness also high in beta carotene.
Now a days you can find a Japanese kabocha in the supermarket.
This recipe is a very quick and basic type of stewed dish. Add a ginger is great idea to help to warm your body temperature.
When you simmer it, it is nice to leave the skin on to not to break into pieces and enjoy the rich texture and contrast of the colour.
Just slice some part of the skin to penetrate the flavour to it.

Ingredients: serve 4 as a main
500g Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), A finger sized piece of ginger, 8 Sugar snaps
Seasonings: 300ml Kombu dashi, 1 tbsp Sake, 3 tbsp Mirin, 2 tbsp Shoyu (Dark soy sauce )
For thick sauce: 2 tsp Katakuriko, 2 tsp Cold water
*mix together before cooking

Preparation
1. Peel the skin of kabocha randomly, dice into 3cm cube.
2. Peel and slice the ginger, cut into juliennes.

Method
1. Place the kabocha skin side down and ginger in the medium sauce pan then pour the kombu dashi.
2. Bring it to the boil.
3. When it starts boiling reduce the heat, add sake and mirin, then simmer with low heat until kabocha becomes soft which will take about 12 mins.
4. Add shoyu last, cook slowly with low heat for 5mins.
5. When the seasonings penetrated to the kabocha, take the kabocha out then place on the dish.
6. Reheat the seasonings then add sugar snap, stir in the katakuriko and water mixture to thicken the sauce.
6. Remove from the heat then pour the sauce on the top of kabocha.