A couple of weeks ago I made the Congee with Pumpkin and Pine Nuts recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

The most unusual ingredient in this dish is the kabocha squash, which was also in the Stir-Fried Kabocha Squash with Sake and Miso recipe. We were not fans of that one, so I hoped this preparation of the squash, where it’s peeled and cooked until tender would be better.

The preparation is a lot like the other congee recipes. This one calls for cooking leek and garlic before adding the rice and stock. The squash and some sugar are also added at the beginning. Then it simmers for an hour as usual. The now-tender squash is mashed until it becomes more of a broth thickener than a distinct ingredient.

The taste was fine. The kabocha was better than our previous experience. Maybe we’d enjoy it more in the winter when a hot porridge would be more welcome, and I might try it again then.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.