‘Ang Kalabasa’ (The Squash)
“Kalabasa mo!” I hate squash!
The skin is just so darn thick and hard. You can hurt someone by throwing a squash at them, you know. I mean, don’t do it. I’m just saying. And I remember my mom asking me to peel the skin off when she has to cook with it. Argh.
Now that it’s autumn there’s bound to be plenty of squash for carving, displaying, and eating. I mean, I love it and it tastes so good, especially sauteed with ground pork and shrimp. Ginisang kalabasa. Ukoy (squash and bean sprout fritters with large tiger shrimp). Dinengdeng. Yummy.. but then again, argh. Peeling the skin is much too much work.
Not anymore! I found the secret to peeling and enjoying the humble “kalabasa”. Here’s how:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scrub squash with soapy water to remove dirt or debris. Stab the squash all around. Yes, and I mean stab with gusto. (Psycho music…) 
Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes to.. and here’s the secret… soften the skin. Peel, and there’s nothing to it. Cut. Carve the seed out. Cook!
Enjoy as ginataang kalabasa, mashed potato and kalabasa, ukoy and here’s a new one – kalabasa leche flan.
Tags: Kalabasa recipe, squash, Filipino cooking
6 Comments
wow…for a kalabasa recipe, why give yourself a hard time baking and then peeling the skin. why not just clean the outside part of the vegetable, open it and remove the core then chop into bite sizes and cook with the skin on it, cook with coconut milk, some nice shrimp and jabanero pepper ..the most spicy one, and then serve it to your mother in law!! aray ko nanay!!
we also cook kalabasa with skin on it. more fiber, less mushy.
ey, grace, you should explain to them the colloquial meaning for kalabasa and the kalabasa awards, haha!
That’s coz squash is too tough for me to chop. I guess I can forego the peeling, but I’d still bake to soften it enough. Thanks for the tip, re: recipe for spicy squash. I think she’ll acually love me more for this
And yeah, the “kalabasa awards” are a high school thing our english teacher gives. or was it someone else, Ruth? I can’t remember who.
I am Ilocano, and we don’t remove the skin of the kalabasa prior to cooking. It tastes just as good with the skin.
we are planning to use kalabasa as a main ingredient and it enabled us to gain so much points
tagalog plzzzzzzzzzz,assignment q kc ehh^_~tnx