Well, maybe not one hundred but we can cook pumpkin in so many ways. The Chinese will use it to make kim kua koi (steamed pumpkin cake), the same way they make or koi (steamed yam cake) and the Malays have their bingka labu and in western cuisine, there are the pumpkin soup or baked pumpkin served at the side.
Well, the other day, I bought a pumpkin from my regular stall at Bandong here…
…for only RM2.50. My missus said that it was cheaper than at the market or the elsewhere in town.
The people from the kampong (village) do grow some vegetables and stuff in their garden and they may bring them to this stall for sale – thus, you can be assured that they are really very fresh. As a matter of fact, I bought their sweet corn not too long ago and because they were freshly-harvested, the corn was extra sweet and extra nice.
Anyway, going back to the pumpkin, the lady at the stall asked me how I would usually cook it and I told her, “Goreng dengan sambal udang kering (fried with dried prawn sambal).” She was so surprised to hear that and I explained to her that we would fry it the same way we would fry midin or paku (wild jungle fern) or kangkong (water spinach). Come to think of it, at the Malay food stall in the same vicinity around noon, they would either cook it with a bit of cangkuk manis, masak lemak style with santan (coconut milk) or sayur rebus style with ikan bilis (dried anchovies), belacan (dried prawn paste) and chilies.
Well, to fry it with sambal udang kering, you will need to cut the pumpkin into bite-size chunks like this…
…and you will need these ingredients to make the sambal…
Soak the dried prawns to soften them and in the meantime, peel the shallots and garlic and cut them into thin slices. Do the same with the chillies…and pound all of them together with the cube of belacan. Put that to one side and after that, pound the dried prawns.
Heat a bit of oil in the wok and throw in all the pounded ingredients except the dried prawns. Stir until fragrant and nicely-browned before adding the pounded dried prawns. Mix thoroughly and keep on stirring till the sambal is ready – golden brown and the nice aroma would fill the whole house…
Of course, you’re not supposed to take the sambal out of the wok – I just did that so that I could take a photograph of it to include in this post. LOL!!! Normally, we would throw in the pumpkin at this stage and add a bit of water to let it simmer and cook…and add a bit of salt and msg if so desired according to taste but that day, I did it a bit differently so that the pumpkin would not end up overcooked and mushy and the sambal wet and soggy.
I boiled the pumpkin first until it was cooked and then I drained it and added cold water to it to stop the cooking process. To check whether the pumpkin is cooked or not, just poke it with a toothpick – if it slides in and slides out easily (Hey! I’m talking about the toothpick here lah! Tsk! Tsk! Muahahahahaha!!!), it means that the pumpkin is cooked.
Once the sambal was ready, I threw in the cooked pumpkin and mixed everything thoroughly before dishing it out and serving it…
Was it good?
Well, I would say it was…and the sambal went really well with the rice. Yummmm!!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
It sounds and looks delicious.
We grow pumpkins in our garden. I’ve given some away, made a few pies, frozen some of them, and we still have more to pick from our garden. I believe my favorite way to eat pumpkin is in some type of soup. They’re good in fruit smoothies too.
My daughter loves eating pumpkin seeds, so we usually roast those (and lightly salt them) mainly on chilly nights.
Oh? You make your own pumpkin seeds? We throw them away, or replant them if we want – normally, we buy those salted ones to eat. Yes, I love pumpkin soup – nice and creamy and sweet.
Yes, we bake our own pumpkin seeds. The recipe is simple, I’ll post it on my site later this week, and link to this post when I do. We also save some of the seeds to plant for the next year.
Funny thing is, after I read your post I wanted to make pumpkins, I thought I had some on the porch, but I was wrong, heh. Today, I’ll get some from our garden.
You have your own vegetable garden? Gee! That’s nice. My missus and I do not have green fingers… We only have those things that have survived despite what we do… LOL!!! Mostly herbs for cooking and the usual stuff we use locally like lemon grass, tumeric, screwpine leaves…
Pumpkin, I simply love it! Kudos to the chef! 😉 And my home would prepare it the same way you do. It’s a popular dish in vegetarian restaurants (but of course minus the dried prawns and shallots, using only ginger instead!) and recognized by vegetarians and vegans as a good source of nutrition.
+Ant+
Ya…I’m pretty sure most people cook it like this at home. At those economical fast food places, they just fry with ikan bilis – dried prawns are too expensive. I don’t like ginger…and will not use unless no choice – the recipe must have it. Pumpkin just baked plain is nice as it is – very sweet.
I love pumpkin but for my hubby not so much that is why I hardly cook with it. I like roasting them as it will release the natural sweetness. I have to try to cook it your way as I like sambal in everything 🙂
Go ahead… I guess roasting or baking it is the western way of eating pumpkin – this is more Malaysian…or Peranakan like how they fry kangkong or lady’s fingers.
This is definately something new to me. I didn’t know you can cook pumpkin with sambal. Haha… I usually just bake the pumpkins. Nice and sweet. But it depends on my luck. Sometimes the pumpkin doesn’t taste sweet at all.
Yup…sometimes not sweet, so not nice. This one that I bought wasn’t great either. Just ok…not too bad. You’re like my daughter – she bakes the pumpkin. Loves them that way.
Aha trick or treat with the sight of pumpkin haha. Normally would pick them in my regular buffet economical rice shop minus the skin, plain and pretty soft. Will the skin be crunchy?
The skin is nice, not hard if cooked long enough…and very good roughage…but usually, I do not like to cook the pumpkin so long so the skin would be hard and when eating, I would scrap off the pumpkin to eat and throw away the skin. Without the skin, if you do not eat in one or two sittings, it will become like mashed potatoes after being reheated too many times.
wah..u use the RM70 a kilo haybee. I cooked my petai that way… must try with pumpkin.
Yes, nicer… Use a bit only mah… Don’t like the cheap. curled up hay bee – got not-so-nice smell. You’ve never cooked it this way? I thought you would have as I assume it’s the family recipe – everyone in the family cooks it this way, no?
Pollie, now the price gone down, not so expensive already. My mum told me about RM50 or RM40 a kilo now?
THAT cheap? What I know is it’s around RM60-65, depending on the season. Hmmmm….next time, must ask your mum to buy. LOL!!!
I am not really a fan of pumpkin but when I see it cooked with sambal, I am sure it is nice. With this simple easy peasy receipe I would like to give it a try one day. At the malay fast food shop they cooked with cangkuk manis (not tear to pieces) and santan. I noticed the pumpkin skin is not peeled off. Can eat too kah?
You have a lot of commentors in yesterday’s post. Everybody so kiasu hor…and I am one of them,hahaha!!!…
Sigh!!! Today, so few already…half day, only 18. Hmmmm….must think of another tactic to get lots of people to comment. LOL!!! 😀 Ya…the Malays do not tear their cangkuk manis…and the tapioca leaves also so kasar – hard to chew and digest. I cooked the remaining half of the pumpkin yesterday with cangkuk manis… Nice also. Watch out for the post! 😉
Read your reply to Bananaz. By the time the skin becomes soft, the pumpkin itself will be like mashed potatoes. In this case, I think I will peel of the skin first if I ever try this receipe. Good Luck to me, ya. Thank you.
Can just keep the skin, scrap the pumpkin off the skin while eating – no problem at all. I do that all the time…
Not much comments cuz my Screamyx and Celcon cari pasal whole day wif me lah! @#!~@#!@# Mau check email oso blardy susah lah. So gerammmmm~!
Oh? So it isn’t just Sell-con? Upload/download 0 kbps, darn it!!! Pulling my hair out till botak liao!!! Cilaka betul!
U really a pumpkin lover!
Not really but I quite like it and wouldn’t mind buying and cooking it to eat.
use pumpkin to make steamed yam cake?? errr, that sounds like using duck to cook fried chicken to me, wakakakaka~~ never tried pumpkin cooked with belacan, but i think i still prefer the not spicy way of cooking pumpkins.. 🙂
It is nice, I assure you. There are people who are allergic to yam, so pumpkin would be a great alternative – same recipe. Ah well…to each his own.
Very nice, Arthur. You ever make pumpkin kueh?
Nope…but in my former school (before SHS), a colleague of mine would make very often – same way as she would make or koi…and she called it “kim kua koi”. Very very nice… 😉
Yes there are 100 ways to cook pumpkin. In Thailand, they make dessert by steaming the pumpkin and fill the hole with sweet kaya custard. When hardened and cold, they cut the slices to eat. So heavenly laaa.
Now I started steaming them with electric steamer and laced with honey. That is Japanese style!
Ahhhhh!!!! Thanks so much for the ideas. I must try these someday… Well, if I do, I’ll surely share with everybody. Both sound yummy…
Twilight Man… sounds yummy leh… but right now I keep tinking of the Japanese style…turn pumpkins into tempura veggies. Wakakakak… oso very sedaaaaappp~
Ya…tempura pumpkin would be nice…like cucur sweet potato. 😉
Sorry lah cikgu, in regards to your post before this, i need to clarify this, I do come to your blog ever so regularly, it is just that I sometimes do not pen down comments cos I can’t do it,when I can’t say it sincerely, I mean I am not much into food thing one lah, but it is good like I said i could learn a thing or two from you juga, like the names of the foods and etc…so please forgive me, didn’t know what I do.
Ya, you’ve said this before. Nah…no need to be an expert in food to comment – just say that looks good, or no, thank you…I don’t think I’d want to eat that. Free country mah – you can say anything you want, good or bad…all ok. 😉
Kakakaka… apalah Eugene… u drop by to sembang sembang with Cikgu’s other commenters also syiok leh… some of them are responsive and friendly. Shereen, Annie, and many more over here will yak yak wif u oso leh if u reply to their comments and stuff.
My readers oso not like as lively as this, that is why I love to lepak here more than my own blog. Wakakaka… eee… must not kacau too much, later kena chatting fees by Cikgu! 😛
Yalor! He…macam throw stones (buang batu), don’t want to drop by. Huh? Chatroom kah? Ok, never mind…as long as there are people dropping by – the more the merrier… LOL!!! 😀
Yes. My mum used to cook it that way too and I love it. Cooking the pumpkins separately is a good idea too.
My missus would throw in the pumpkin once the sambal is ready and add water – also nice that way…but if reheat to eat later, the pumpkin and the sambal would gradually become a mushy mess. Ok if cooking one serving for one sitting…
Everyone in the family loves pumpkin except me. I do eat it but not crazy. I have used pumpkin to make kueh recently and it turned out quite nice. My Quay Lo love roasted pumpkin with sea salt, black pepper and herbs. I have to say it is very tasty. I have also made pumpkin creamy soup for him. Of course I have used it to make pumpkin pie too. Talking about pumpkin, when I was expecting my son, I put on SOOO much weight and my tummy was SOOOO big and I am SOOO short, so people in my family called me a pumpkin… hahaha… Now coming back to your way of making pumpkin. It is completely new to me but I will definitely try making it because I love sambal!!!
New? Gee! I’ve been eating pumpkin this way all my life – my mum fried it with sambal too… My daughter likes it baked/roasted…like potatoes. Hmmmm…pumpkin pie? I think I’ll google that and maybe I can try making it someday. Wah!!! Your son’s so big? How many pounds? I was 8 lbs at birth, not really big. LOL!!! 😉
I haven’t tried cooking pumpkin..must try one day!
Careful with the cutting – that’s the hardest part. LOL!!! 😀
Huh? Pumpkin hard to cut meh? It’s quite easy to cut to me… the only thing that is leceh with pumpkin is that you have to dig out the seeds with a spoon…
That’s ok, no problem at all. Cutting…you’ll need a cleaver – the skin is hard.
I never like pumpkins except in creamy soup but perhaps adding some homemade sambal would give it a kick.
That’s the western-style soup – thick, rich and creamy. I like that too… 😉
We usually make pumpkin soup when buying pumpkins most of the time! Your dish looks delish!
Yes, I like it this way…and in other ways too. I like pumpkin… 😉
kek punek. long time don’t eat this. If buat soup also nice, add ikan bilis, ikan buris and the river prawn… uiiiiii….. dakek dakek..
Why? You can buy pumpkin there very easily… No ikan buris or river prawn, just use belacan…and tambah chili and cangkuk manis for kampung style- sayur rebus. Oops! No cangkuk manis there either… LOL!!! 😀
Left over pumpkin from Halloween Day? hahahahhahahah
I don’t like pumpkin, but i know it has a lot of benefits to the body. I will still eat, but not really craving for it .
It has? I didn’t know that? I don’t crave for it either…just that I will buy and cook to eat once in a while. Wouldn’t order it in a restaurant and anyway, they don’t serve pumpkin anywhere…
Besides potato and sweet potato, I think pumpkin is another vegetable that is readily availavle in NZ and they are so darn cheap also that they might as well give it away for free.Pumpkin is so versatile that you can turn it into any recipe and they will taste good.As regards to your recipe tu, I also cook a bit like you but my recipe is even simpler ( hah..for once!..lol! ).It’s my mom recipe lar which is of course very Nyonya.I’ll cut the pumpkin like how you do..with skin on ( to hold the flesh when soften ), fry dried prawns until garing, add minced garlic and tumis until wangi.Add the pumkin and add a bit water and light soy sauce to taste and cover.When the pumpkin dah lembut and the water evaporated, just goreng a liitle bit more until the edges starts to caramelize. This way, the pumkin sweetness will come thorough and the udang kering make the dish very wangi.Sedap until menjilat jari I tell you 🙂
That’s similar to what we usually do… I’ve another pumpkin recipe coming up soon – also nice and kampung-ish. I’m sure you will love it. Sweet potatoes are also popular for sayur rebus or masak lemak here…but they’re worth their weight in gold these days. VERY expensive… 😦
Sayur is very mahal in KL these days…ppl say because the Thailand flood and stuff worr… 😦 Cilaka betul… now I started to wonder if Cameron oso flooding cuz sayur from Cameron oso naik harga.
These business people will find all kinds of excuses to increase the prices…and when things get better, the prices stay. Really! They will all burn in hell…and people don’t blame them – you know who they always blame…like they’re the ones selling… 😦
got cangkuk manis but the name here is pucuk manis. No ikan buris at all here
The retarded variety from Sabah…or big like ours? Ya…nowhere else but in Sibu can you find ikan buris. Da’au nyam…
Annie Q– happy to know the price has gone down. TQ.
Not that cheap still, around RM60. Must ask her mum when I see her where to get RM40-50. Maybe the mum knows people, special price.
It is nice to cook with porridge…When my kids were small, I used to cook for them. Very good for system digestion..ehehheheh
Oh? I use sweet potatoes for porridge, never tried pumpkin. Perhaps I should do that – for one thing, it’s cheaper.
My porridge is always savoury instead of sweet… I remember I used to dump those Ayam Brand tuna chunks into the porridge too, and it tasted just like chicken porridge! Very sedap!
Yup! I do that too. My daughter likes my tuna porridge and my friend, Jimmy, learnt to cook it from me. When he cooked it at home, the family also thought it was chicken… Sweet potato porridge is also savoury..not sweet, not the sugar sweet kind of sweet like oatmeal.
Aiye, your mind also very dirty ah? (toothpick sliding in and out)
I never knew you could eat the skin? I’d love to try this recipe. Usually I’d cook it with curry leaves and curry powder with dried shrimp.
I think I’ve tasted it with curry powder before but I can’t recall where. Dirty mind? What? Where? @.@ *innocent look on face… LOL!!! 😀
😮 i have never eat pumpkin cooked this way! i always drink pumpkin soup and eat the cake only. >.<
You mean pumpkin chunks in soup? They’re nicer this way, I think, as the taste would not be lost into the soup.
I also use the expensive heybee that u n Pollie gave me. Ooops Pollie! N recently my mil also gave me a huge packet someone gave her. They hardly used them. so i stocked all in my freezer, got a bit crispy but still ok. yummy with pumpkin and kangkong. i love rebus style too u posted last time, but not my foochow family they preferred the fried ones, so sometimes i cooked a small bowl for myself.
I got a lot from Sophia the last time they drove to Sibu – bought in Sarikei…and I think she also bought me some as well when she went to attend a relative’s wedding there. For cooking, we only use a bit so it can last a long time…but not if we use to make sambal hay bee. Soak in water to soften before pounding. I have another recipe for cooking pumpkin – coming up in a few days…but with the rich and thick belacan gravy, I don’t think your Hock Chiew family would like… Muahahahahaha!!!!
Yellow minded old man! hahahaha~~~
Who? Me? You like??? LOL!!! 😀
Wah! I wanna gila liao… from Tues until now I try to online with the Screamyx, cannot online. Very sien la… dunno what happened to the line. As long as rain, it will be like Astro… so difficult to connect and the line so dam slow. Argh… geram… even my Celcon broadband oso tak guna!
Neway, enuff venting… I heard my mum said pumpkin cannot cook with udang kering cuz it will become poisonous… I dunno how true is that cuz she still cook it every now and den to eat. Said sekali sekala makan tak apa…same like brinjals…cannot eat too much cuz it contains high nicotine in it.
Brinjal? Nicotine? Oh me oh my! Ya…somebody mentioned that to me on Facebook – pumpkin and udang kering. Well, udang kering or for that matter, udang…and all seafood are poisonous – many/some people are allergic to them… 😦
nice, even a pumpkin can be used to make such delicious meals. I have tried pumpkin soups before though, but didn’t really tickle my fancy.
The western-style one? I like…rich and creamy. Here, I think they added a bit of curry powder…. Went very well with the pumpkin. But ang moh soup – can’t eat too much…too rich…and after a while, you just can’t take in anymore…like cheesecakes.
i din know pumpkin goes well with sambal belachan. I never like pumpkin not until I tasted the pumpkin & yam fried rice at a wedding luncheon. I fell in love with pumpkin. hahaha….
It’s nice. You can give it a try. Now, I’m wondering what the pumpkin and yam rice looks and tastes like… Never heard of it before.
Haha, I was reading your blog starting from the most recent post and moving backwards till here. So, this was the earlier post on pumpkin recipie. Yeah, I think I’ll like this dish, too 🙂 And you’re right – pumpkin is such a versatile vege…so many ways to cook it. I like pumpkin rice, pumpkin cake, pumpkin kueh, pumpkin bread, pumpkin noodles, pumpkin soup…haha, you name it! 🙂
Now you’ve reached the one with the sambal udang kering recipe, I see… LOL!!! When was the last time you were here? Haven’t seen you around for quite a while, I think…
Yeah, haven’t been online for more than a week. Went for a long-awaited “all-girls” holiday 🙂 So much to catch up!
Oh? No wonder you’re back with a vengeance! LOL!!! 😀