A few days ago, my mom harvested a green melon-like hairy gourd. In Chinese, we call it "Mo Kwa" and it translates to "hairy gourd". It was a large one and grew on a vine. It has fine hair on it, hence the name.
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| It was quite big... 670g |
So my mom cooked it the traditional way. With glass noodles and dried prawn. It is a traditional dish and we have been eating it for as long as I can remember.
Ingredients
- 1 hairy gourd, sliced into thin sticks
- sliced carrot
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- small packet of glass noodles or a large handful, soaked in water for 1/2 hour
- 1 tbsp dried prawn
- salt to taste
- a pinch of chicken stock granules (optional)
Directions
1. Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic until fragrant. Add in dried prawns and fry them until coated with oil.
2. Throw in carrot and hairy gourd. Fry until cooked through but firm.
3. Add 1 cup of water and continue to cook. Add salt and chicken stock granules. Simmer until reduced a little.
4. Add in soaked glass noodles.
5. Cook until glass noodles are heated up, not too long.
6. Dish out into a dish and enjoy!
By the way, the hairy gourd has a back story. It grows from a vine, or creeper. So there needs to be something to hold it up. Quite easy to maintain. We got the plant from a small seed.
The gourd started out as a yellow flower. After a while, it grew into a small green fruit.
Then it grew some more and became the hairy gourd we ate! Hope nature blesses us with some more!
Labels: garden, home cooking, meals, recipe, vegetables
