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In the Tsukui area of Kanagawa these buns can hold adzuki beans, dried daikon, mushrooms or pickles; this one is filled with kabocha mashed with its skin. They are browned in a dry pan first and then steamed, so they come out soft and puffy with toasted spots still on them.
Part of the kabocha melts into the porridge, so it thickens and turns gently sweet without any added starch. With shrimp and squid in every spoonful, it is closer to a meal than the snack-like pumpkin porridge most people know.
Raw kabocha cut into thin crescents cooks through to a soft, fluffy center before the batter has a chance to darken. The batter is equal parts flour and potato starch mixed with ice water, so the coating stays thin. Eat them warm with vinegar soy sauce.
Kabocha steamed in its skin and blended smooth turns milk into a thick, golden latte with a hint of cinnamon. Any graininess in the purée separates from the milk and lingers on the tongue, so it is blended until no specks remain. Lightly whipped cream is spooned on top just before serving.
The kabocha spends 2 minutes in the microwave before it goes into the pan. That head start lets the center turn tender before the soy and corn syrup glaze has a chance to burn. The skin stays on.
Buckwheat dough rolled between the palms into thin strands shaped like little loach fish cooks gently in a dashi full of vegetables. Bound with egg and hot water, the dough should be as soft as an earlobe without sticking badly to the hands. Burdock, carrot, kabocha, napa cabbage, shiitake and chikuwa fish cake share the pot, which holds far more than a plain flour-dumpling soup.
Steamed kabocha is mashed while hot, kneaded with glutinous rice flour and pressed into small flat rounds for the pan. A little sugar makes them closer to a snack than a side dish, and the rice flour gives the inside a chewy, rice-cake texture.
Short ribs braise in a soy broth sweetened with Korean pear juice, which softens the meat and leaves a faint fruit sweetness through to the end. The dish takes the galbi jjim served at Korean holidays and birthdays and adds kabocha, which softens only at the edges and thickens the sauce naturally.
Wide flour noodles from Yamanashi simmer straight in miso broth with kabocha, potato, daikon, and napa cabbage, leaving the soup thick and slow to cool. In mountain areas poorly suited to rice, houtou long served as a staple, and its lasting warmth means it is eaten most often in winter. Unlike udon, the dough has no salt and the floured strips are never boiled on their own, which leaves their starch to thicken the pot.
Roasting the kabocha squash until its edges brown concentrates its sweetness, and once blended it thickens the sauce without any flour. Even with cream and Parmigiano, the sauce stays a bright orange, with nutmeg rounding out the squash flavor. The squash can be roasted a day ahead, and butternut squash works in its place.
Chewy farro, an old Italian wheat that holds its shape when boiled, carries oven-roasted pumpkin and red onion browned at the edges. Bitter arugula keeps the roasted sweetness from going one-note, and roughly crushed almonds add crunch. Balsamic vinegar and olive oil make up the whole dressing, light enough to leave each ingredient tasting like itself.
Sweet rice flour, not grains of rice, thickens this kabocha porridge, so it stays smooth all the way through. A teaspoon of ginger juice stirred in at the end leaves a warm, sharp note behind the squash and sugar.
Steamed kabocha mashed into the finished malt punch turns ordinary sikhye a deep golden orange and gives it noticeably more body. The base sweetness still comes from malted barley working on cooked rice during a long warm hold; the pumpkin adds weight and color rather than replacing that step. Thin slices of ginger steep with the rice, leaving a faint heat in the finish that stops the pumpkin from tasting cloying. Served cold with a few rice grains floating on top, it sits somewhere between a drink and a light dessert.
On the domed jingisukan pan, lamb fat and juices run down the grooves into the bean sprouts, onions and squash ringing the edge. This Hokkaido style skips the marinade and dips the lamb after cooking in a soy-vinegar sauce made with grated apple, pear, garlic and ginger. The fattiest pieces cook first in the center, and their rendered fat coats the grooves so nothing sticks without added oil. Everyone eats as things cook, lifting off meat and vegetables as they are ready, with potatoes and squash taking the longest. Hokkaido began eating lamb when sheep were raised for wool in the Taisho era, and the dish is now cooked at home year-round and outdoors at spring blossom parties and summer barbecues.
This Ishikawa miso soup comes from the Buddhist temple tradition and uses no meat or fish stock: kombu dashi is mixed with the water the adzuki beans cooked in. The first boiling water is thrown out for its astringency, and only the second goes into the soup.
Kabocha roasted with its skin on turns chestnut-dry and fluffy inside, with caramelized edges outside. Autumn squash, at its sweetest, gives the clearest version of that flavor. White miso loosened with rice vinegar and maple syrup makes a dressing that is salty, sweet, and sour at once, and it makes the squash taste sweeter rather than masking it. With a very salty miso, add the dressing in portions and taste along the way. A bed of peppery arugula keeps the plate from tipping too sweet. Chickpeas and walnuts add chew and enough heft to make this a vegetarian main.
Steamed kabocha is pureed and thickened with glutinous rice flour, so the porridge is completely smooth, with no grains of rice. Milk rounds out the sweetness, and a few pine nuts go on top.
Thin wedges of pumpkin come out of the oven browned at the tips and soft through the middle. Cut thicker than about 7 to 8 mm, they dry out on the surface before the center cooks through. Crumbled feta lands salty and tangy on that chestnut-like sweetness, and toasted pumpkin seeds add crunch. Laid on the spinach while still warm, the pumpkin wilts the leaves just slightly and the parts come together instead of sitting separately on the plate. The leaves need to be shaken or blotted very dry, since wet spinach thins the lemon and honey dressing and flattens the taste.
Whisking doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) into plain yogurt gives a dressing that starts tangy and finishes savory and salty, a lighter alternative to the usual mayonnaise. Roasted kabocha and chickpeas make the bowl filling, while lettuce, red cabbage, and grape tomatoes keep it crisp and juicy. Sunflower seeds go on at the very end so they keep their crunch.