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October 22, 2013Cozy Asian Pumpkin Recipes and IdeasIf you live in the northern hemisphere, it’s hard to escapepumpkins and various hard fall/winter squashes these days. They’re displayed by thefront doors of grocery stores and end-caps in the produce section. Farmers arebringing them to our weekly markets and there are better and bigger selectionsat Asian grocers. Halloween-carved pumpkins and related holiday decor are frontand center in store ads and people’s lawns. Food magazines are loaded with photos and recipes for squash-centric dishes for Thanksgivingcelebrations. It's a food that screams autumn in color and evokes the coziness of the cooler weather ahead.
In Vietnamese, a generic term for squash is bi and one with red/orange/yellow flesh (e.g.,pumpkin, kabocha and butternut) is bi do.We bought a pumpkin to carve for Halloween a couple of weeks ago but instead ofthinking about cutting into it for decoration, I pondered hard squash andpumpkin recipes.
No, I’m not saying I cook with pumpkins raised for carving.They don’t taste good. We mistakenly bought a wedge of Cinderella pumpkin froma Mexican market last month and it looked gorgeous in the oven but tasted blahon the plate. At the store, I recognized it in its cut form as a decorativepumpkin but since it was sold under the auspices of being good for cooking, Itried it out. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.
For cooking, I like kabocha (can’t lose with this Asianfavorite), butternut (sweet, creamy orange flesh), kuri (has a chestnut-liketexture and flavor), and banana (firm flesh, conveniently sold in sections atsupermarkets). I’ve been meaning to try baby cooking pumpkins as they’dprobably work well in recipes.
To prep fall and winter’s bounty of hard squash, I reach fora cleaver, vegetable peeler, and grapefruit knife. The cleaver is great forhacking into a big hard squash; if it’s an extra heavy one, use a rubber malletto help get the blade through. The peeler is good for removing the tough skinof butternut squash. A grapefruit knife’s curved blade is handy for scrapingout seeds and stringy fibers lingering in the center cavity; if you don’t havea grapefruit knife, use a spoon.
Several ways to cook up these orangey beauties and theirparts:
Fried Squash Blossomsare enjoyed at the Viet table as much as anywhere else. If you grow anykind of squash, you’ll have blossoms to pick and eat. Pumpkin and other hardsquashes tend to have larger flowers than summer squash like zucchini. But youcan treat them similarly, or select relatively small ones for this recipe.Large squash blossoms are great and easy to stuff and steam, an approach that I’veseen in older Vietnamese cookbooks. Deep-frying is so darn nice though.
Roasted squash withsoy sauce is combination that I gleaned from a friend in high school. Iwent over to her house one day and her mom was eating half a table queen squashthat had been roasted with a drizzle of soy sauce. Her mom said it was easy,nutritious and satisfying for a woman like her who was going through menopause.Lots of takeaways in that experience and since I’m not yet in that stage inlife, I’ll keep that tip in my back pocket while I simply enjoy my roastedsquash. Here’s an exampleof how to roast the squash and enjoy it with a Japanese vegan soy concentrate(soy sauce that you doctor up to be extra delicious).
Pumpkin and coconutmilk are a match made in heaven. Instead of regular or sweet potato, I cutup butternut or banana squash into thumbnail size cubes and drop them into asimmering pot of coconut-milk laden Thai curry; try it in place of potato in theThaiyellow curry with beef. The result is a great flavor and color contrast. Ifyou have Into the Vietnamese Kitchen,the winter squash simmered in coconut milk recipe on page 176 is terrific. Thevegan dish combines peanuts with banana squash and sweet potato in a creamysauce.
Pumpkin, lime leaf,and coconut soup (at the top of the post) plays off the idea of combiningpumpkin and coconut milk. The recipe was something I came up with for myhusband’s aunt who was basically on her deathbed and couldn’t eat solid food.She lived for two more years after I made the soup for one of the lastThanksgiving dinners with her. The recipeis easy and you can zip things up with chile oil, if you like.
Roasted kabocha and vegetabledumplings is a terrific way to use leftover roasted winter squash. It’ssavory-sweet and loaded with color and texture. I made it in response to a fewso-so renditions of pumpkin dumplings I had at Asian restaurants. As shown in the above photo, this vegan recipecan be cooked in many ways.
So what are yourpumpkin tips and tricks for the season?
Related posts:
Friedsquash blossomsThaiyellow curry with beefJapanesevegan soy concentratePumpkin,lime leaf and coconut soupRoastedkabocha and vegetable dumplingsPosted in Asian Dumplings, Asian Ingredients, Recipes: All, Recipes: Appetizer and Snack, Recipes: Banh (Crepes, dumplings, cakes, bread) Recipes, Recipes: dairy-free, Recipes: Deep-Fried, Recipes: Dipping Sauces, Recipes: Dumplings, Recipes: Fast and Easy, Recipes: Gluten-Free , Recipes: Gluten-Free Adaptable, Recipes: Japanese, Recipes: Soup, Recipes: Vegan, Recipes: Vegetable Sides and Pickles, Recipes: Vegetarian | Permalink | |
| Comments Cozy Asian Pumpkin Recipes and Ideas If you live in the northern hemisphere, it’s hard to escapepumpkins and various hard fall/winter squashes these days. They’re displayed by thefront doors of grocery stores and end-caps in the produce section. Farmers arebringing them to our weekly markets and there are better and bigger selectionsat Asian grocers. Halloween-carved pumpkins and related holiday decor are frontand center in store ads and people’s lawns. Food magazines are loaded with photos and recipes for squash-centric dishes for Thanksgivingcelebrations. It's a food that screams autumn in color and evokes the coziness of the cooler weather ahead.
In Vietnamese, a generic term for squash is bi and one with red/orange/yellow flesh (e.g.,pumpkin, kabocha and butternut) is bi do.We bought a pumpkin to carve for Halloween a couple of weeks ago but instead ofthinking about cutting into it for decoration, I pondered hard squash andpumpkin recipes.
No, I’m not saying I cook with pumpkins raised for carving.They don’t taste good. We mistakenly bought a wedge of Cinderella pumpkin froma Mexican market last month and it looked gorgeous in the oven but tasted blahon the plate. At the store, I recognized it in its cut form as a decorativepumpkin but since it was sold under the auspices of being good for cooking, Itried it out. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.
For cooking, I like kabocha (can’t lose with this Asianfavorite), butternut (sweet, creamy orange flesh), kuri (has a chestnut-liketexture and flavor), and banana (firm flesh, conveniently sold in sections atsupermarkets). I’ve been meaning to try baby cooking pumpkins as they’dprobably work well in recipes.
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Asian Tofu in the News"Informative, engaging, well written and researched, this is also the best book about tofu."— Winnie Yang, The Art of Eating
"A whole cookbook devoted to tofu? Yes, please."
— Kate Williams, Serious Eats 2012 Favorite Cookbooks
"Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!)"
— Michael Rulhman on his tofu conversion
Book info, reviews, radio & TV . . .Classes & EventsHands-on @loveapplefarms, Santa Cruz
Sat, Oct 26, 12-4pm: Get Into the Viet Kitchen! {a few spots left}
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Fri, Oct 18, 5:30-10:30pm: Asian Dumplings {waitlist}
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