kabocha broccoli fried rice

So I was really excited to get cooking.

I woke up and spent the whole morning trying to decide what to make for lunch, going back and forth between pasta and rice. I planned on cooking the ube pasta I purchased a few days ago, topping it with a kabocha Parmesan sauce recipe I wanted to improvise on the spot. But our kitchen still lacks a lot of the necessary ingredients to make good pasta and good pasta sauce (like pepper, cream, herbs, etc.), so rice won out in the end.

This recipe is easy, quick, light, and healthy, a recovery from all of the greasy food I've had too much of lately.

The kabocha I used had orange skin, rather than the green that I'm used to (so it may just be a pumpkin...but...yeah). The lady selling them told me that orange-skinned kabochas have a sweeter taste and fluffier texture than normal ones do. They're somewhat custard-like, soft and chewy, and is a nice balance to the crisp broccoli florets.


Oh and guess what! I used the egg with the beautiful sun-kissed yolks again :) So pretty! Haha yeeaah I really need to get over it. 

For the recipe below I wrote 1/2 clove of garlic rather than a whole because the one I used was a mini garlic baby (it was so tiny and cute :D!).

Again, I approximated the amount of ingredients, so I might not have even used 1/3 cup of kabocha, or maybe your three broccoli florets are two times bigger or smaller than the three florets I used, and so on and so forth.

But all in all, just go with your gut feeling and add in as much or as little as you like! If you like it, your food will like it too :)

Kabocha Broccoli Fried Rice

yields 2 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
1/3 cup kabocha, diced
3 broccoli florets, chopped into small pieces
2 eggs beaten (I used one egg but I think two serves as better egg-to-rice ratio)
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

- COOK THE BROWN RICE FIRST. Chop up the kabocha and broccoli florets and steam them. Lightly salt the beaten eggs, and set these aside.
- In a medium pan, set the stove at medium heat and heat the teaspoon of olive oil. Add in the minced garlic and let simmer for about a minute.
- Add in the brown rice, using a spatula to even it out across the bottom of the pan. Pour the beaten eggs directly onto the rice, making a circular motion over the pan as you pour, and use the spatula to toss the rice around and thoroughly cook the eggs.
- Toss in the kabocha and broccoli, turn the stove down to low heat and add in salt and pepper to taste, occasionally stirring the rice.
- Transfer to a bowl and serve!

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OH WAIT I almost forgot to show you a picture of this panda bread my family and I bought yesterday! We explored further into the city last night, browsed the weekend flea markets and came upon this bakery called Bread Société, which is my most favorite bakery out of all of the other ones I've been to so far :) Their bread is spongey, chewy, and not too sweet! The best part is they have a small basket of samples in front of most of their products, and though I took bread out of my diet (for about two months now, I'm so proud of myself :D) I couldn't help but sample everything (I still don't really eat bread but how can anyone resist SAMPLES?). 

But yeah, I might go there again today, and I should probably take more pictures :) I'll remember! And here's the panda bread with a dry custard filling!