Itoko-ni — Japan

Itoko-ni is a simmered dish combining kabocha squash with azuki beans in a broth lightly sweetened with sugar and seasoned with soy sauce, so the beans and squash end up tasting of one another by the time they are served. The name refers to the way ingredients are added to the pot one after another as they finish cooking, rather than to any single fixed set of vegetables. It is reported across Japan, most often around the winter solstice, when eating kabocha squash is said to guard against illness during the cold months. Regional households vary the ingredients placed in the pot, adding root vegetables, konjac or other beans alongside the kabocha and azuki depending on what is on hand, so the dish is better described by its method than by one exact recipe. The azuki beans are soaked and simmered first, since they take the longest to soften, then the kabocha is added to the same pot along with sugar, soy sauce and a little mirin. The pieces of squash are left large and simmered gently rather than boiled hard, so they keep their shape while turning tender, and the beans lend their colour to the broth. What separates one pot of itoko-ni from another is mainly the extra ingredients folded in beyond kabocha and azuki, the ratio of sugar to soy sauce, and how long each vegetable is simmered before the next is added. Some cooks favour a sweeter, almost dessert-like broth, others keep it closer to a savoury side dish served alongside rice.