Winter melon: Encyclopedia - Winter melon

Winter melon

The winter melon (Chinese: 冬瓜; Pinyin: dōngguā, and पेठा in Hindi), also called white gourd or ash gourd, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable. The fruit is fuzzy when young, giving rise to the name fuzzy melon (Chinese: 毛瓜; Pinyin: máoguā). By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The word "melon" in the name is somewhat misleading, as the fruit is not sweet.

Originally domesticated in Southeast Asia, the winter melon is now widely grown in East Asia and South Asia as well. In India it is cut into rectangular pieces and boiled in a sugar syrup to create a translucent, almost clear candy or sweet, and is often flavored with rose water. In this form it keeps and cans well allowing it to be sold in canned form around the world.

The winter melon requires very warm weather to grow but can be kept through the winter much like winter squash. The winter melon can typically be stored for 12 months. The melons are used in stir fry or to make winter melon soup, which is often served in the scooped out melon, which has been intricately decorated by scraping off the waxy coating.

The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.

See also

• Double steaming for a Cantonese dish called Winter melon urn (冬瓜盅).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Winter melon", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki