what kind of melon is this?

[mrbigjas]

hi folks--i bought this melon at the vietnamese market here in philadelphia last week, and i'm wondering what it is, and what kind of recipe to use it in:

for size and scale purposes, that's a 10" knife next to it.

when i cut it open and tasted it, it's bitter. but it's not shaped like the bitter melon that i'm familiar with (the long wrinkled kind), and it's not quite as firm as that either, but closer to a watermelon or zucchini in texture.

anyone know what it is? or have any idea how i should cook it?

Edited September 2, 2005 by mrbigjas (log)

[Jason Perlow]

If they told you it was a melon, then it probably is some kind of bitter melon, in which case I would just stir fry it just like a Chinese bitter melon.

It may, in fact, be a small variety of Winter Melon. Vietnamese use Winter Melons in soups as well as in stir frys:

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/evergreensee...nmelhybsma.html

it might be a variety of Khao Nuan:

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/evergreensee...waxgohykan.html

[mrbigjas]

thanks jason--that's what i was thinking, that it was similar to a mini-winter melon, but for some reason my googling wasn't turning up anything that actually looked like it, so i wasn't sure they even existed. that first link you posted is probably the closest.

this is a discovery i'm pretty happy about, actually--i thought winter melons were only the huge 10-lb things, and there are only two of us, so i thought i was SOL when it came to making them.

[Tepee]

Yep, looks like a mini winter melon to me, though this one looks very very young...no seeds. Some recipes I like to use it for:

1.Savory soup recipe - if getting some of the ingredients are difficult for you, you can just do the basic...chicken stock, chicken meat and red dates.

2.Sweet soup - Use a V-shape knife to cut off the top in a jagged fashion. Scoop out the seeds in the middle. Fill with dried longan meat, pre-soaked white fungus, ginseng, red dates, boxthorn berries and water. Close with top, skewer with one or two short toothpicks. Slow double-boil for at least 2 hours. Betcha get a good night's sleep. When serving the soup, scrape some flesh off for each portion.

3. Another good cooling sweet soup. After peeling off the skin and clearing the seeds, finely grate the melon. Boil with barley and flavor with pandan leaves if you can find them. When the barley seeds 'open', add rock sugar to taste.

4. #3 value-added: Add sea coconut and dried longan meat.

For #1 and #2, if you have a lot of time on your hands, do some carvings at the sides, like a dragon or bamboos...but, you may be more used to Jack-o-lanterns.

Edited September 2, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[trillium]

this is a discovery i'm pretty happy about, actually--i thought winter melons were only the huge 10-lb things, and there are only two of us, so i thought i was SOL when it came to making them.

←

No way, that's no reason not to enjoy winter melon! They get cut into chunks and you can buy the pieces. Most families are not big enough to eat a whole mature winter melon. If there aren't any cut, the people who work in the produce section are usually very willing to cut one up. Enjoy your mini melon, and next time, get a chunk of a mature one. I was taught that the best ones are those that have lots of white powdery stuff on the outside of the rind.

You can find a weeknight soup we make at home very often in the Chinese Cooking: Southern home-style dishes class I did for eG.

regards,

trillium

[Pan]

TP, what's sea coconut?

[Tepee]

Michael, sea coconut is the fruit of a palm tree, not really a 'coconut' tree. You can find it fresh in the pasar malam or tinned, honeyed or not.The flavor is quite like the coconuts but the flesh is translucent rather than opaque white like the coconut's.

Edited September 3, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Pan]

Thanks. What's the Malay name?

[Tepee]

Simply Kelapa Laut.

[mrbigjas]

wow, thanks, y'all.

tepee, that soup looks great, but i'm not sure i'm up for buying all those ingredients--i have to admit i don't have dried cuttlefish, bamboo fungus, lotus seeds, red dates, or jasmine petals around the house. also i already cut it in half, so i can't steam it whole now. oops.

i think i'm going to have to go with trillium's soup recipe--i made the steamed beef from that course before and it was great.

but next time, with some more planning, i'm definitely going to get more complicated with it.

thanks again!

[mrbigjas]

check it out:

deeelicious!

(there's a little more chicken than the recipe called for, but it was good. i'm going to have some more for lunch today!)

[Dejah]

deeelicious!

(there's a little more chicken than the recipe called for, but it was good.  i'm going to have some more for lunch today!)

←

Your soup does look delicious.

This is how I make dong gwa tong most of the time. For "health" soup, I leave the skin on each chunk, add dried tangerine peel, ginger, dried red dates, and dried oysters. This is "lau for"....long simmering...especially good in the winter.

I always buy wintermelon when I see ones with the white frost.

For a party, I don't have the skills to carve pretty things on the shell, but I would add diced Chinese mushrooms, water chestnut, ham, chicken, shrimp or crab meat, lotus nuts, ginger.