The Rest of the Kabocha was...

Kabocha no Nimono (Simmered pumpkin) It was used for this simmered dish. Yes, I'm talking about the kabocha pumpkin from my parents' veg. garden --- the one that I used for the casserole the other day. This is the way my mom simmers kabocha pumpkins and I should warn you that it is not a typical way in Japan. She uses chicken and another ingredient in addition to kabocha. This is the “another ingredient” which we call kakuten or hiraten around here. It means square tempura or flat tempura, but in this case the “tempura” does not mean “batter-fried food” as is commonly known. This tempura means “deep-fried fish paste.” These additional ingredients, chicken and deep-fried fish paste, give so much extra flavors to kabocha and my family loves it. I admit that this is a rather heavy and mushy dish that people in the countryside tend to make…you probably won’t see something like this in a sophisticated Japanese restaurant. Actually I once asked around among my Japanese friends, and only some of them said they would add chicken to simmer kabocha, but no one said they would add this kind of tempura. Then this could be my mom’s original?? ;P