Make Sweet Japanese Pumpkin (or root vegetables)

This dish was introduced to me by my friend Keiko A., who served it at her party. I was amazed how satisfying and appetizing this dish was, so I urged Keiko to share her recipe with me. When the opportunity arose and I picked up a pumpkin (not kuri) and some fresh carrots at a friend's vegetable farm-share, I knew I had to try it. For best results, a kuri pumpkin is recommended. I usually have it with rice or porridge (mueh or okayu) or snack it neat.

For a step by step guide,
here's the pumpkin we picked at the farm!

cut in half.

spoon out seeds and pulp.

all hollowed out :)

 cut it up...

 You need 2 cups of dashi (mine's granulated hon dashi), 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tablespoons of mirin (Japanese sweet wine), 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Make sweetened dashi with condiments mentioned.

Once boiling, add pumpkin chunks.

according to Keiko A: "In a pot, bring dashi, sugar, salt to boil. Add Kabocha. Turn down the heat to medium and use 'otoshi-buta' (basically the lid that is a bit smaller than the pot...so that it sits on top of Kabocha, which still allows some steam to escape yet heat is mostly kept) and cook down until there's very little broth-mixture left. Kabocha get very soft - so don't use chopsticks or forks to turn (it will break). Try jiggling the pot to move it around."

All done and ready to eat!!!

Keiko's Kabocha/sweetened pumpkin dish (adapted for sweet carrots that I pulled from the earth :D)-

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Keiko's Kabocha/sweetened pumpkin dish- here's the pumpkin we picked at the farm!