Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies

Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies is a dish that transforms plain vegetables into a dish with complex flavours. The sweetness of the sautéed pumpkin is enhanced by the vinegar-soy flavour of crunchy baby sardines as a topping.

Today’s dish is a simple side dish, which is perfect when you want one more dish to complete a set meal. Not only does it  go very well with cooked rice, it is also great with drinks.

I like the contrast of the textures – crunchy anchovies and soft pumpkin. The flavour contrast between the sour and salty anchovies and sweet pumpkin is also great.

The baby anchovies used in today’s dish are the tiniest of the dried anchovies. They are less than 2cm/¾” long and very thin.

When I published Tazukuri (Candied Baby Sardines), I mentioned the mid-sized dried fish called ‘gomame’, which are baby sardines. Today’s tiny dried anchovies are called ‘chirimen jako’ (ちりめん雑魚).

‘Chirimen’ (ちりめん) is a crepe woven silk fabric. When tiny fish are spread to dry, they look like a crepe woven fabric. The fish that are included in chirimen jako can be all kinds of tiny sardines, anchovies, eels, etc., that are collectively called ‘jako’ (雑魚). So, using the words ‘Baby Anchovies’ in the recipe name is not accurate, but it was too difficult to translate ‘jako’ in one or two words.

What’s in my Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies

There are only two key ingredients:

• Thinly sliced pumpkin
• Chirimen jako (dried baby anchovies)
• Olive oil

Flavouring

• Rice wine vinegar
• Soy sauce
• Salt
• Pepper

I used Korean dried anchovies (see the photo below). You can of course use Japanese brand chirinmen jako although they are more expensive.

How to make Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies

There are two separate cooking processes in today’s recipe – cooking the pumpkins and making Chirimen jako topping.

1. Sauté pumpkin slices until tender.
2. Transfer the pumpkin slices to a plate.
3. Sauté chirimen jako in the same pan.
4. Add the Flavouring ingredients to the pan and mix.
5. Scatter the chirimen jako over the pumpkins.

You could bake the pumpkin in the oven if you prefer. I added instructions for this in the notes section of the recipe card.

Before adding the Flavouring ingredients to the pan, turn the heat off. This is because the quantity of the vinegar and soy sauce is so small that the liquid evaporates too quickly and burns if the pan is left on the heat.

You can cut your pumpkin into bite-size pieces if you want. You can either cut each pumpkin slice into 3-4 small pieces or cut your pumpkin into small cubes. The time to cook through the pumpkin in different shapes and thickness will differ slightly, but the rest of the cooking process is the same.

Yumiko

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Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Sautéed Pumpkin with Crunchy Baby Anchovies is a dish that transforms plain vegetables into a dish with complex flavours. The sweetness of the sautéed pumpkin is enhanced by the vinegar-soy flavour of crunchy baby sardines as a topping.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: anchovies, baked pumpkin, pumpkin recipe, sauteed pumpkin

Serves: 4

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 300-350g/0.7-0.8lb pumpkin deseeded
• 1 tbsp olive oil or normal oil
• 20g/0.7oz chirinmen jako (dried baby anchovies, note 1)

Flavouring

• 1½ tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 pinches pepper

Instructions

1. Cut the pumpkin into thin wedges with a thickness of about 1.5-2cm/⅝-¾"(thickest part). If your pumpkin is large, you may want to halve each pumpkin in the middle perpendicular to the first cut (note 2).

2. Put oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat.

3. Place the pumpkin slices without overlapping and cook for about 3 minutes (note 3).

4. Flip them over, place a lid on and cook further 3 minutes.

5. Transfer the pumpkin onto a plate. Repeat for the second or third batch if all of the pumpkin slices cannot fit in the pan at once.

6. Lightly wipe the frying pan with kitchen paper if there are pumpkin pieces on the pan. Put the dried anchovies into the same frying pan and cook for a couple of minutes over medium high heat.

7. Turn the heat off. Add the Flavouring ingredients and mix well quickly (note 4).

8. Place the pumpkin slices on a serving plate, staggering slightly, then scatter the anchovies on top.

Recipe Notes

1. TheJapanese version of dried baby anchovies is called chirinmen jako. I couldn’t find it, so I bought a Korean brand of dried small anchovies that is similar to chirimen jako (see the photo in the post).

2. I sliced my pumpkin this way for better presentation. But you can cut your pumpkin into bite-size pieces if you want. You can either cut each pumpkin slice into 3-4 small pieces or cut your pumpkin into small cubes.

3. You will need to cook the pumpkins in batches unless you have a very large frying pan. I cooked them in two batches.

If you are cooking thinly sliced small pieces or small cubes, the time required to cook through your pumpkin pieces may vary.

4. The quantity of the liquid is so small that it will burn if the pan is too hot.

5. You can bake your pumpkin in the oven instead of sautéing them in a frying pan.
i) Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/392°F.
ii) Place baking paper on a tray and brush the surface with olive oil.
iii) Place the pumpkin on the tray without overlapping and brush the surface of the pumpkin with olive oil.
iv) Bake for 10-15 minutes until the thickest part of the pumpkin is cooked through.

6. Nutrition per serving, assuming that 300g of pumpkin is used.

serving: 93g calories: 67kcal fat: 3.6g (5%) saturated fat: 0.5g (3%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.4g monounsaturated fat: 2.5g cholesterol: 7.6mg (3%) sodium: 638mg (28%) potassium: 346mg (7%) carbohydrates: 5.1g (2%) dietary fibre: 0.4g (2%) sugar: 2.1g protein: 4.2g vitamin a: 107% vitamin c: 11% calcium: 2% iron: 5%