Kabocha Squash Au Gratin

A few weeks ago I picked up a Kabocha Squash at the grocery store. Having never seen or heard of it before, I needed recipe ideas. I found one that sounded pretty good and relatively easy at Stephen Cooks!

This is my adapted recipe.

ingredients.

• 2 lb. kabocha (Sweet Mama) squash, peeled and cut in ½” chunks
• 3 T. + 1 T. + 2 T. butter
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• ½ c. chicken broth
• ½ c. heavy cream
• ½ c. panko flakes
• ½ c. garlic and herb breadcrumbs
• 1 T.  dried oregano
• ¼ c. Parmeggiano Reggiano
• salt and hot sauce to taste

directions.

1. Sauté the onions in the 3 tablespoons of butter on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are translucent. Add the squash and cook another five minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and hot sauce.
2. Spread the squash mixture into a buttered baking dish, pour in the broth and heavy cream and bake, covered, in a preheated 350º oven, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and mix it with the crumbs and panko to moisten. Stir the herbs into the breadcrumb mixture.
3. Raise the oven temperature to 400º. Spread the breadcrumb mixture over the squash mixture and scatter on the cheese. Dot with butter. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crumb crust is starting to brown. Serve immediately.

A few things about this dish:

1. The recipe did not specify what kind of dish to bake it in and since I had packed most of the dishes in our kitchen up in boxes for our impending move, I was left with a casserole dish. (Unless I wanted to unpack a box, and I certainly didn’t feel like doing that.)
2. Perhaps because I used the wrong kind of dish (next time I would use a shallow 9 x 13″ glass baking dish), the squash didn’t cook as it was supposed to. Despite the fact that I had baked this dish for 50 minutes, most of the pieces of squash were too crunchy.
3. Also, I’m not sure if the soup was meant to evaporate or what it was for, but when I took the dish out of the oven after the initial 30 minutes; it looked like I was trying to make squash soup. I dumped most of the soup out in the sink before adding the breadcrumbs and cheese. (See note below.)

I think this dish has potential for being a great dish if baked in a shallow baking dish and, perhaps, if the liquid mixture was reduced to half a cup.

(*Note: I actually planned on making this dish with heavy cream and chicken broth originally, but didn’t have heavy cream in the fridge so opted for 1 c. of chicken broth instead.)

Recipe rating: 