「かぼちゃグラタン」

Kabocha Gratin: we’re back with another yummy dish featuring the Japanese squash! Part two of our 2017 Halloween-inspired spooky recipes!

Gratin is a welcoming dish in colder seasons. As we have talked about before, kabocha is definitely one our big stars for Autumn season and Halloween. Since we’re getting closer to the end of October, now it’s getting colder and it’s also the kabocha season… why not combining both for a delicious meal?

The cooking steps for the kabocha gratin are more or less similar to the vegetable gratin we did for the blog, one year ago. Seems like a classic potato gratin – but in this case, naturally, we are using kabocha instead of potatoes. As a result, we have a lighter and slightly sweeter gratin with warmer colors. It’s a quite easy recipe and nice addition to your Halloween banquet!

At the end, I added panko and cheese on top of our dish for a crunchy crust layer. The extra texture and the extra flavor will add some extra yumminess points to your kabocha gratin.

1. A quarter (around 100g) of kabocha, cut in small slices
2. 100mL of heavy cream
3. 100g of grated cheese
4. 25g of grated cheese to put on top
5. 1tbsp of panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
6. Pinch of nutmeg

1. Season the heavy cream with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
2. Add the kabocha slices to the cream, then mix until everything is well coated.
3. Arrange the kabocha slices in a baking tray, interleaving with the 100g of grated cheese, distributed evenly.
4. Spread the panko and the 25g of cheese on top.
5. Put in the oven for around 20mins on 190°C.
6. Finally, switch the oven to grill mode. Cook until the surface is golden brown.
7. Serve the dish.

Try distributing the cheese and coating the kabocha as evenly as possible.

In order to get as much coating surface area as possible, cut the kabocha in very thin slices.

If you cannot find panko in your local market, you may replace it with regular breadcrumbs (or even remove it completely).