Hobakjuk

Hobakjuk is a smooth Korean pumpkin porridge, often made with small, chewy rice-cake balls. Maangchi describes it as a late-autumn and winter dish, recalling pumpkins her grandmother stored for the colder months. Her recipe permits butternut squash, kabocha or another sweet, orange-fleshed squash. The cooked flesh is mashed and diluted with water to form the porridge.^[1]

Glutinous rice flour supplies both the dough for the little balls and a slurry that thickens the porridge. Maangchi cooks beans with the pumpkin and fills some of the balls with pine nuts, leaving others plain. Salt and sugar adjust the flavour. Her optional garnish combines dried jujube, dried persimmon and pumpkin seeds; she serves the porridge with kimchi or water kimchi.^[1]