Ever Heard of Kabocha Squash?

No?  Me neither.

Until last week.  We came across this squat little squash while on our weekly grocery store trip and decided to give it a try.

Excuse the crappy iPhone pic

After some quick Pinteresting (what did we ever do before Pinterest?  Google is *so* 2005), I narrowed it down to one recipe that I wanted to try...but I made a few changes.

How did it turn out?  Really good.  Like, shockingly good.  It's a bit like butternut squash but a bit more savory.  I would definitely get it again and maybe make it into baked Kabocha fries (recipes also found on Pinterest).

Thai Red Curry with Kabocha Squash

Slightly modified from the recipe linked above on chow.com based on what I had around or was able to find at Target, natch.

Ingredients:

• sesame oil
• 1 white onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed and cut into 1/4-inch strips
• 4 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ground ginger (original recipe called for fresh ginger but who has that on hand regularly?)
• 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 (13- to 14-ounce) can unsweetened regular coconut milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 medium kabocha squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
• steamed rice for serving

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon of the salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened, about 6 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic, and ginger (I used a few shakes of the spice jar), stir to combine, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

2. Add the curry paste, stir to coat the onion-pepper mixture, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the coconut milk, water, soy sauce, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt, stir to combine, and bring to a simmer.

3. Stir in the squash, return to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium low, and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is fork-tender but still firm, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Taste and season with salt as needed.

4. Serve immediately over steamed rice.

Possible Variations:

The next night, Hubs fried up some pork cutlets and mixed it with the leftovers.  If he wouldn't have done that, I would have pureed it into a soup.  It would also be great with chicken.  The original recipe called for lime juice and cilantro...which I had both of, but had to feed LO and forgot to ask Hubs to add.  FAIL.

Although...one word of caution.  Peeling that sucker is a pain in the you-know-where.  (Just like any other winter squash.)