Having spent three weeks in Colorado, our garden was very much neglected. The jungle had taken over. After weeding, I was surprised to find massive melons in the undergrowth.And the papaya tree we planted last year is so productive, the weight of the 2 dozen plus papayas are making it lean like the Pisa Tower. I had to whip out the dehydrator and dry some of them (135 degrees for 12-15 hours.)
Winter Melon
Honestly, when we bought the seedlings, we thought they were watermelon. Personally, I'm not that much of a fan of winter gourd (also called ash pumpkin). The tea is too sweet for me, and the way its served at my work, (braised and served daily in season) really it's nothing to call home about. When we picked our first melon, thirsty, anticipating sweet watermelon, boy were we surprised- and disappointed!
Having said that, I suddenly found myself with 5 massive winter gourds the size of large watermelons. My neighbors who are are farmers with their own gardens certainly don't need my small donation and fortunately, they don't spoil quickly.
It was time to learn some recipes.
In my research, I was pleasantly surprised at how nutritious this humble vegetable is. It is 98% water and is rich in vitamin C and B2, iron, and potassium. Being relatively low in calories and high in fiber, it's very useful for losing or maintaining weight. Also called ash gourd, it has been used for thousands of years in Asia and India and in both TCM and Ayurvedic medicine to cool the body in summer. This means its excellent for treating "heat" imbalances such as boils, constipation, and ulcers and should be avoided in large amounts by people who are asthmatic or prone to colds. Adding black pepper offsets the cooling effect. It is one of the most revered plants in Ayurvedic medicine as its so high in "prana" (chi) and extremely energizing. Drinking winter melon tea daily supposedly sharpens the mind, without agitating the body like caffeine. Since 1995, western science has found winter melon to help with balancing blood sugar to shrinking cancer tumors to treating opioid addiction (see Sadhguru).
The easiest way to serve winter melon is drinking it in tea. In Taiwan, the tea is sold at tea shops, street markets. If you want to "make it yourself", its sold in small cakes which have been dried and molded with brown sugar. I decided to make a syrup that I could add to water. This recipe used brown and rock sugar, but I decided to use date sugar. When we wanted a quick dessert, we made winter melon tea with some taro balls and whipped cream.
Just a warning, but cleaning out the flesh of an ash melon and boiling it for 90 minutes is much more labor intensive than I thought. The flesh is certainly firmer than a watermelon, but not as compact as an uncooked pumpkin. I recommend buying the small sugar brick and boil it in hot water into a syrup, much less time-consuming. Water it down according to your taste.
Traditionally, winter melon soup is cooked with pork ribs, ginger and rice wine or braised with carrots. We served our soup inside our empty gourd. It can also be cooked with chicken, or with dried shrimp, pork meatballs or in vegan soups.
Winter Melon Recipes:
Kerala Olan (Indian CurryVegan Soup with cowpeas, coconut milk and cubed wintermelon)
Wintermelon Jam
Wintermelon Candy: Right now I don't have semolina, rose essence and just threw out my cardamon so I will have to wait until a trip to Taipei to stock up and try this one.
Wintermelon and Barley Soup with Clams and Shitake
Wintermelon and Citrus Caprese Salad: This year our pomelos are sweet and ready to eat so we used this instead of grapefruit, and replaced champagne vinegar with pineapple vinegar (made by our neighbor). Mozzarella balls are unavailable in Yilan so we made our own vegan version with cashews. [Note: agar agar is called 訂購 in Chinese and can be replaced with gelatin if you can't find it].
Papaya
Who doesn't love papaya? (I'm sure there is someone). In Taiwan papaya is used as a shaved ice flavor or topping, ice cream and we add it to our shakes chia seed puddings or as a topping to our yogurt. It's great to eat it all on its own. My kid grew up drinking papaya milk at the night market or at home (raw milk).
Papaya can be savory. Recently, we made green papaya salad with Thai fish sauce, coconut sugar, bean sprouts and shredded carrots over mung bean noodles and garnished with crushed wasabi peanuts. Just be sure to mix well the coconut sugar because I didn't the first time and got some bites of sugar bits, which isn't cool. Normal granulated would be fine.
Likewise, the fruit can be grilled all on its own, or in kebabs with shrimp, boneless chicken, and any other vegetable. Papaya also can replace tomato for a chunky Mexican salsa. Perfect for a Moon Festival BBQ.
Every part of the papaya plant is useful and edible, if not medicinal. (Read, 9 Uses of Papaya Leaf)
Papaya Recipes
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| Salmon and Papaya Salsa |
Blackened Salmon with Papaya Mojo
Papaya Coconut Cupcakes
Papaya Dragon Fruit Coconut Pie: We replaced mango with red dragonfruit for the pudding.
Papaya Pecan Streusel Cake
Simply blended with milk is one of the most basic drinks in Taiwan, a night market favorite.
Combined Recipes
Soup
Jam: My next experiment. Why not combine them? I'll add pectin just in case, and will boil away the water of the winter melon before adding the papaya.
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