Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Kabocha Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Salad


This dish was inspired by a recent trip home to Hawaii, specifically one of my lunches at Shirokiya. I had a salad that was very similar to it, so I tried to re-invent it. I used it as a side dish for this dinner: Misoyaki Butterfish. But, judging from Raquel's reaction, this was more like the star of the meal. That's saying a lot, because she's not big on potato salad in general because of the mayo. But, I used Japanese mayo (Kewpie) instead of regular mayo. It tastes a little different because they use rice vinegar instead of white vinegar, and soy oil instead of regular oil. Also, you just can't beat at how pretty this dish is. It's so colorful!

Japanese Kabocha Pumpkin/Potato Salad
(all ingredients can be found at any Japanese Supermarket, like...Marukai or Nijiya)

-1 Kabocha Squash/Pumpkin (seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks, keep the skin. you're going to need a sharp knife and be careful, because this sucker is hard to cut)
-1 Medium Japanese Purple Sweet Potato (Cut into 1-inch chunks w/ skin on)
-1.5 cup Sugar Snap Peas (raw and chopped)
-1.5 cup Carrots (raw and chopped)
-2 Tb Cilantro (chopped)
-1 cup Corn (optional)
-1 cup Peas (optional
-approximately 3-4 Tb Japanese Mayo
-Hawaiian Sea Salt (can substitute kosher salt)
-Pepper

Boil Kabocha Pumpkin and Sweet Potato in water salted with sea salt for around 10 minutes till tender. Drain and Cool. Mix all vegetables together with Japanese mayo. Add sea salt and pepper to taste, and more mayo if desired. Chill.

2 comments:

Jolene said...

oooh, i just picked up some okinawan purple potatoes from the store and am about to make potato salad with it! it's all about the kewpie!

Unknown said...

oh this is that thing we were emailing about! thank you for posting!