Saturday 5 November 2022

One Home Grown Bottle Gourd For 2 Dishes

I wanted to boil soup for dinner so I went to the garden to get one of the bigger bottle gourds hanging from its vine. I have given away a few bottle gourds to friends who were interested to try. The feedbacks were good and they all love it.

This bottle gourd measures about 17 inches long, big and quite heavy.
I divided the gourd into 2 portions. I used the bigger portion for making soup enough for sharing with our neighbour.
2 bowls of soup. The one on the left was for hubby because he doesn't like carrot. Ingredients for soup: half a bottle gourd, 1 corn on cob, carrot and pork rib.
A dish I didn't cook for a long time. This dish consists of cloud ears (black fungus), dried lily buds (golden needle), chicken breast meat strips, oyster sauce, soy sauce and dark sauce. The portion was big, so I kept half for the next day's dinner.
Dinner with steamed brown rice. Home grown chili in soy sauce as condiment.
Cranberry Hibiscus in my garden.
The plants have grown too tall and I have trimmed them shorter.
~~~~~
The next day's home cooked dinner.
The smaller portion of bottle gourd was cut into shreds. I cooked the bottle gourd shreds with chopped garlic and soaked dried shrimps and salt to taste.
2nd portion of the wood fungus, lily buds and chicken breast meat strip.
Simple home cooked dinner for 2 people.
This is a sculpture and not a real ape (orangutan).
My friend saw this at the Taiping zoo. It looks quite friendly.


Many curry favor with a ruler,
and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.
(Proverbs 19:6, New International Version-NIV)

49 comments:

  1. Love that sculpture, it's sweet.
    The gourd soup is looking good and I was wonderful to myself the other day why I never saw carrots on your plates, now I know why :)
    The hibiscus is beautiful but they all are Nancy.

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  2. The sculpture is so cute and adorable to look at. Gourd soup is something I make regularly myself at home. It is a great anti-inflammatory soup to have

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    1. Thank you for sharing the info on anti-inflammatory

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  3. Your hubby doesn't like carrot? Ah well! To each his own!!!

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  4. Thanks for your sharing, have a lovely weekend...

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  5. Lots of wonderful food. What does bottle gourd taste like? Love the ape sculpture. Valerie

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    1. Thank you, Valerie. I think they taste something like squash.

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  6. You eat hot soup in hot weather?
    Your "cloud ears" sure gave me a creep before reading on, LOL.
    Hmmm, would love to try that! And your Hibiscus is a beauty.
    I think your gourd is what we call cucumber?
    Sweet orangutan - oh, what "we" do to these animals...
    Anyways .- to a happy Saturday!

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  7. Good morning Nancy :=)

    The Orangutang looks quite friendly. It's a neat sculpture.
    Have a good day.

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  8. Hello Nancy,
    I love the Orangutan sculpture. The flower is beautiful. The bottle gourd name fits the shape perfecting. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.

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  9. ...your Cranberry Hibiscus is a delight.

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  10. Your dinners look very interesting. Love that statue.

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  11. I know your soup was delicious! Did you save me some?

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  12. Todo genial, me encantó el hibisco. Besos.

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  13. Nancy, you surely know that cranberry hibiscus is edible. Both the leaves and flowers can be eaten and are used raw in salads and stir-fries. The flower petals are used in tea and other beverages. The flowers are harvested once they have been folded and then soaked in hot water or mixed with lemon juice and sugar for a delicious drink.

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    1. Thank you, Norma. I have read about the benefits but I have yet to try.

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  14. I too don't like carrots; my loss! (sigh).
    The hibiscus flower with its beauty and delicacy, definitely 'wins the show'.

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  15. Your hibiscus is a gorgeous color! The ape looks kind of friendly!

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  16. Thank you Nancy. The two gourd dishes are delicious! Do you need to wait for the gourds to be ripe before harvesting them?

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    1. Actually I just harvested 1 gourd this evening and found that it was overdued. The skin was very hard. But am glad that the flesh still soft and can be eaten.

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  17. Linda escultura, me gusto la flor. Te mando un beso. https://enamoradadelasletras.blogspot.com/

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  18. How can you eat wood fungus? Doesn't it dangerous?

    Cruisin Paul

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    Replies
    1. Not all wood fungus can be eaten. This one is cloud fungus and can be eaten too.

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  19. Me ha llamado mucho la atención esa calabaza con forma de botella, porque en España nunca las vi, y por la pinta que tienen esas dos tazas de sopas debe de estar deliciosa.
    Lo mismo me ha pasado con los hongos de la madera, producto que jamás oí hablar de él, en ningún tipo de gastronomía. Y aunque el color de este hongo es muy oscuro, con esas yemas de lirios y tiritas de pollo me atrevería a probarlo. Me imagino que la textura debe de ser muy parecida a las setas que por aquí recogemos en los bosques, o a los champiñones que criamos en las cuevas, que al fin y al cabo, también son hongos.
    Que tengas, amiga Nancy, un bonito día.

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  20. Zabawna jest ta rzeźba. Pyszne jedzenie poprawia humor. 😊

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  21. Your cranberry hibiscus is so pretty!

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  22. The hibiscus is so pretty and your dinner looks delicious!
    Julia x
    https://www.thevelvetrunway.com/

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  23. Nice bottle gourd. I've not seen any of them. I'm sure it is delicious for soups 🍲. I made my own soups as well. Nice orangutan. I saw a dog indoors at Panera Cafe, where I work, today. It's a labrador dog with coyote. Interesting.
    Have a blessed day.

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  24. Oh wow enjoying the fruit of your labour again!

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