Pumpkin “Kabocha” salad カボチャのサラダ

We regularly get Japanese/Asian groceries from Weee. This time we got a Japanese “Kabocha” かぼちゃ squash. It was larger than usual. I made my usual simmered kabocha and pottage かぼちゃの煮物とポタージュ but some still remained. I thought about tempura but that was too much work for such a small piece. So I decided to make this “kabocha salad”. I did not follow any particular recipe but sort of combined two different recipes. This is curry flavored and turned out to be quite good highlighting the natural sweetness of the kabocha.

This is just a note for myself.

Ingredients:
Kabocha squash, seeds removed, skin shaved off (optional), cut into half inch cubes
Raisins

For the dressing
Greek yogurt
Mayonnaise
Curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil the kabocha in salted water for 5-7 minutes until cooked but not too mushy
Mix the ingredients for the dressing (about the same amount of mayo and yogurt, the amount of curry powder is to your liking)

For an impromptu salad, this was much better than I expected. The natural sweetness of the kabocha was complemented by the curry flavor. The mixture of the yogurt, mayo and kabocha made a nice creamy texture with some tartness. I will make this again.

P.S. Hawk joins us for Hanami 花見!
This year was a bit unusual for the cherry blossoms. The trees bloomed early and the blooms lasted for a long time. Since we have three trees with different bloom timing, we had a very long time to enjoy cherry blossoms or “Hanami”. One afternoon, a hawk joined us for Hanami! We looked out the window and there he was in all his magnificence sitting not ten feet from the window on the railing of the deck. We marveled at the image of such an awesome creature juxtaposed to the delicate loveliness of the cherry blossoms.