Savoury Pumpkin Rice

My mom cooked this for dinner on a week day  - Savoury Pumpkin Rice - and I love it very much. This is what we called Giam Png (salted rice in Teochew).  Usually mom would cook Giam Png using yam. However, this time, she used pumpkin instead.  

Ingredients: 

- Pumpkin

- 3 layer pork & lean pork (marinate if required)

- Dried shrimps (hae bee)

- Chinese mushroom

- Mix of brown rice and white rice

First, the dried shrimps were sauteed with garlic till golden brown with aroma. Then the meat, which was cut into thin slices, was sauteed together with the dried shrimps, followed by strips of chinese mushroom, adding condiments like light soya sauce, pepper, and a little salt. When the ingredients were half cooked, they were mixed into the rice cooker with the brown and white rice. Pumpkin which was cut in cubes, was also included in the rice cooker.  Then you add light soya sauce to taste. My mom usually use very little light soya sauce or none at all, as the ingredients would already be sufficiently flavourful and salty enough.

This is so simple as you wait for the rice and ingredients to cook in the cooker. After about 20-30 minutes, dinner is ready.  Serve with crispy fried shallots and pepper. The dish looks interesting and so colourful, especially that of the pumpkin with both brown and white rice.

I love pumpkin alot. The pumpkin pieces here are soft, almost mashed, and they taste sweet, complementing the other savoury ingredients like dried shrimps, pork and mushroom. I prefer pumpkin to yam because yam is too dry and taste quite bland to me.

Have you tried Savoury Pumpkin Rice before?