What has turned out to be very popular on several occasions is Japanese boiled pumpkin. It’s cooked with sugar and dashi, which gives it its unique taste. Some people even remarked that it almost tastes a bit like marroni, and I can see (or rather taste) the similarity.
Ingredients:
1/2 pumpkin (best to use kabocha pumpkin, if they have, or otherwise some other green skinned pumpkin)
3 cups dashi (1 tsp. dashi powder)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tblsp. salt
Preperation:
Peel the pumpkin, unless it is very young and tender in which case the skin can be left on. Cut into large pieces. Pour the dashi into a saucepan, add the pumpkin an bring to the boil. Reduce to medium flame and cook until the dashi has reduced about a third. Add the sugar, soy sauce and salt and continue to cook untill the pumpkin is tender. Serve hot.
This is the way it’s written in a cooking book. I prefer to add all ingredients right at the beginning. This will give the pumpkin a richer and sweeter taste.