Hobakjuk or Korean Pumpkin Porridge is the perfect food for a cold winter day or any day. It is also a yummy healing food, light on the stomach and very nutritious!
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HobakJuk (호박죽 Korean Pumpkin Porridge)[/caption]
Hobakjuk (Korean Pumpkin Porridge) is considered a great healing food among Koreans. In addition to Miyeok Guk (Korena Kelp Soup), Hobakjuk is another one of Korean mothers' favorite soup to make for their daughters after having a baby. While Miyoek Guk is known to help with milk production and the recovery of the new mother's body (esp. uterus), Hobakjuk is known to help new or expecting mothers get rid of their puffiness. Hobak (Pumpkin), especially Neulkeun Hobak (늙은 호박 which means mature Pumpkin), is a mild diuretic and is also high in beta carotene and potassium. So it is good for your eyes, heart and bladder/kidney. How awesome is that??
So before I get into the recipe for Hobakjuk I wanted to share a little bit about how I ended up making this dish recently. Last Saturday, I hosted our neighborhood people at our home as part of our neighborhood Progressive Dinner.
What is that??
Well, if you have not heard of it, a Progressive Dinner or Safari Supper (in the UK) is "a dinner party with successive courses prepared and eaten at the residences of different hosts".(Wikipedia) And I am just so lucky to live in a neighborhood where neighbors gather each year to visit each other's homes to enjoy food, mingle and share the joy of living in such a wonderful neighborhood.
All 120 or so people start out gathered all together at one house for Appetizers and then we are divided into groups of 8-10 to move onto different homes that host the first Salad or Soup course. After the soup/salad course, the group is shuffled once again and assigned to different Entree course host homes. Finally, for dessert, people gather up again at our club house to enjoy desserts and drinks to end the night. It really is fantastic! I just LOVE IT. I love getting to know neighbors that I don't know, I love visiting different homes decorated beautifully and of course, most of all, I LOVE having great food prepared by amazing home cooks who are so generous enough to share their home and food with others. The only thing that stresses me a bit is that the parties always have a theme. And we have to dress with the theme. Koreans are just so NOT used to this kind of thing and I am just so not creative that way...
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