Pumpkin Croquette-- Japanese home cooking

Croquette is served quite often in Japanese household. It's not fancy meal like Sushi. It's more like everyday home cooking meal.  I made with Kabocha Pumpkin, but most commonly we use potatoes. We eat this dish all the time, served with other items to go with rice. 

Point : Kabocha Pumpkin is naturally sweet. But you can add some honey to have the sweetness a bit smoother.

Start to Finish: 45 min

Ingredients: using 1/2 Kabocha (whole is really big. If you want leftover for freeze, use 1 whole Kabocha Pumpkin, it becomes really good lunch!)

1/2 Kabocha Pumpkin

* Honey 1TBSP
* Butter 1TBSP
* Salt to taste

Flour
Egg
Breadcrumbs

Direction:

1.Peel the skin (green part) of Kabocha, Take the seeds out and cut in 1/2 inch diced. (3cm).. this is for microwaving purpose

2. Put some paper towel in heat-resistant cookware (this is to absorb the water), microwave for about 5-6 min till become soft.

3. While it's hot, mash the Kabocha with masher, add Honey, Butter, Salt to taste. You can adjust the honey and butter depending on how sweet and buttery flavor you like. 

4. Make patties in the size you like and dip in order of Flour, Egg, Breadcrumbs. Then deepfly. 

The best sauce to go with this dish is this! You can find it at any Asian store, or wherever sell Japanese food. This is MUST-HAVE sauce for Japanese food, especially, Pankocrumbed flied food!

If you can't find this, It's OK. My husband use Ketchup!

Fresh Basil Pesto Pasta

Pesto Pasta is BY FAR my most favorite pasta! Canned pesto is good but nothing is better than mixing fresh basil in our own food processor! This is my husband's recipe. Garlic, tomato and red onions are the only vegetable we added to this pesto pasta this time. Sometimes, we add chopped grilled chicken.

Serving : 4

Start to Finish : 45 minutes or less

1 red onion

2 roma tomatoes

Pasta ( I used angel hair pasta)

Salt and pepper

Pesto Ingredients:

1 whole garlic bulb ( not each cloves)

1/2 lb of fresh basil

1/4 cup of roasted pine nuts ( roasting can be done in a flying pan for more flavor)

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup or more of olive oil depending on how oily you want the pesto to be

1. Put all the ingredients in the food processor and make pesto.

2. Chop 1 whole red onion. In a flying pan or wok (wok is better. it holds large quantities ), sauteed with 4 garlic cloves (chopped or sliced), then add the chopped tomatoes and pesto, then add the cooked pasta. Toss everything. You can adjust flavor by adding salt and pepper, more pesto, more garlic, vegetables etc.... 

Talah~  DONE!  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper is good!

(optional 3. if you add Lemon oil, it gives more flavors but it's ok not to have it)