For Island Japanese, kabocha pumpkin is home food, comfort food — gently simmered in dashi or as part of a nishime stew. It's also bar food, served in Japanese taverns and small restaurants, deep fried in tempura batter, or simmered in a rich broth, chilled and splashed with sauce.

For many of the rest of us, this convenient small winter squash is a newer discovery.

Originally from Central America, kabocha traveled first to Southeast Asia — Kimiko Barber writes in "The Japanese Kitchen" that the word kabocha is derived from Cambodia. Today the squash is extensively used in Japan, where there are many different varieties. We're lucky that the squash is available here year-round and in almost every grocery store. Say kah-boh-CHA.

In America, according to Amy Goldman, author of "The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower's Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes and Gourds," the most common kabocha variety is Cucurbita maxima.

"Maxima are the finest squashes in the world," Goldman writes. "The best tasting, the best texture. These are good carbs — it's what we should be eating in our pumpkin pies and soups."

Though I fell in love with kabocha in a Japanese restaurant, and began cooking it at home in a classic Okinawan recipe, I've since branched out, using it to make silky-textured soup and thin-sliced in stir-fries. Then my friend and fellow foodie, attorney Marylene Chun, mentioned to me that she knew a Big Island woman who makes her pumpkin pie using kabocha squash.

I got excited.

As a veteran of pumpkin wars in the days when I thought it was a Good Thing to cook pumpkin from scratch, I knew that cutting into an oversize squash is a death-defying act of bravery, every moment thinking you're going to slice off a finger as you wrestle with a large blade and a round object.

I'd already learned from Dr. Bradley Willcox's "The Okinawa Diet Plan" (Clarkson Potter, $24.95) that you could microwave a whole kabocha a few minutes to soften it enough for easy cutting.

What if you could microwave the pumpkin all the way to fully cooked, without having to cut it up or fuss with it at all?

And what if kabocha — such a gorgeous saffron color and so easily turned into a smooth puree — could be used wherever canned pumpkin puree is called for?

Before I could even get to the store to buy a kabocha, Marylene was on it. She sent me complete instructions on how many minutes to microwave pumpkins of different sizes and even developed a couple of her own recipes, including a smoothie, which is included in this section.

And my what-ifs all came true. You can go from pumpkin to puree in minutes — 10 to 15 minutes to microwave the pumpkin, five more minutes to scrape out the puree and mash it up. The only thing that takes time is letting the pumpkin cool off enough to be touched. When you remove the pumpkin from the microwave, you'll noticed that its skin has darkened and may appear shiny in spots — it's extremely hot and can emit burning steam when you cut into it. So let it sit.

How you go about pureeing the pumpkin depends on how you intend to use it. An immersion blender (pictured) is easy but may leave a few lumps. For smoother texture, use the blender or food processor, but don't liquify it unless you're making a drink. For a silky texture, but with enough body to sit up, the old-fashioned method is best: Use a flat rubber or silicon spatula to push the cooked pumpkin through a sieve or tamis. I prefer this last technique for soups.

In a pleasant day of recipe-testing, Marylene and I tried out her friend Fumie Nakamichi's pumpkin pie and a killer pumpkin-filled ravioli recipe from her cousin Tina Ho Wing. I also made a light and easy pumpkin mousse in phyllo cups that would be a sophisticated and less-fat-laden surrogate for pumpkin pie.

From now on, for me it's not pumpkin, it's kabocha.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.