Benincasa hispida, the wax gourd, also called ash gourd, white gourd, winter gourd, tallow gourd, ash pumpkin, winter melon, Chinese preserving melon and Puhul, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The fruit is covered in a fuzzy coating of fine hairs when young. The immature melon has thick white flesh that tastes sweet. By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd. The wax coating helps to give the fruit a long shelf life. The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length. It has yellow flowers and broad leaves. The taste is rather bland. It is native to South and Southeast Asia. The wax gourd is widely grown throughout Asia, including Java and Japan, the places where it is thought to have originated and Sri Lanka. One variety of the plant, called chi qua, is commonly used in Asian cuisine.
Etymology
The name "winter melon" that is sometimes given to this plant is based on the Chinese name dōngguā ; however, the character 瓜 can also mean “gourd” or “squash.” It is likely that the name “melon” is given because this gourd is sometimes candied or made into a sweet tea.
Cultivation
It is grown in well-drained loam and sandy soils in warm, mild climates, and will not tolerate frosts. It is grown in riverbeds or furrows, and needs constant irrigation during the growing season.
Uses
The wax gourd can be stored for many months, much like winter squash. Ash gourds of the Indian subcontinent have a white coating with a rough texture. Southeast Asian varieties have a smooth waxy texture. It is one of the few vegetables available during winter in areas of deciduous vegetation. In India, the wax gourd is recognized for its medicinal properties in the Ayurvedic system of medicine. It also has significance in spiritual traditions of India and Yoga, where it is identified as a great source of prana. made from Wax gourd In Vietnamese cuisine, it is called bí đao, and is usually used to make soup or stew. When cooked with pork short ribs, the resulting soup is traditionally thought to help produce more milk for breastfeeding mothers. In Chinese cuisine, the gourds are used in stir fries or combined with pork or pork/beef bones to make winter gourd soup, often served in the scooped out gourd, carved by scraping off the waxy coating. It is also chopped and candied as wintermelon candy, commonly eaten at New Year festivals, or as filling for Sweetheart cake. It has also been used as the base filling in Chinese and Taiwanese mooncakes for the Moon Festival. In the Philippines it is candied and is used as a pastry filling for bakpia. It is also an ingredient in some savory soups and stir-fries. In Indian cuisine it is traditionally used to prepare a wide variety of dishes. In northern India it is used to prepare a candy called petha. In South Indian cuisine, it is traditionally used to make a variety of curries, including a stew made with a yogurt base. The juice of the raw ash gourd is used by the Mizo community and indigenous Assamese ethnicities of North-East India as a natural remedy to treat mild to severe dysentery. In north India, particularly in the middle Himalayas, it is paired with pulses such as moong which, when crushed, along with winter gourd, make a dish locally called bori. When dried in sunlight it becomes somewhat hard and is used in curry dishes and eaten with rice or chapati. This practice is especially prevalent in the Himalayas due to the long shelf life of the resulting product. In Andhra Pradesh, it is called "boodidi gummidikaya". It is used to make stews, stir fries and vadialu. Vadialu are made by chopping the gourd in small pieces and mixing with yogurt and spices, then sun-drying. To eat, vadialu are deep fried in oil and eaten as an accompaniment to rice and sambar or lentil stews. In Kerala, the plant is called Kumbalam and the fruit is called Kumbalanga or Kooshmandam. It is traditionally used to offer 'Guruthi' instead of 'Kuruti' among Malayali Brahmins. Thus, instead of offering someone's life in the pier, an ash gourd is cut into two as a symbolic performance in lieu of human sacrifice. In Udupi cuisine, the ash gourd is known as Budu Kumbda or Boldu Kumbda in the Tulu language, Budi Kumblakayi in Kannada is used to prepare dishes like Kodel, Ale bajji, Kashi Halwa and chutney. In Gujarat, is called kolu. In Nepal, where it is called Kubhindo, it is cooked as a vegetable when young, but the ripe gourds are usually made into preserves or crystallized candy known as "murabba" or "petha". Occasionally, it is used to produce a fruit drink with a distinctive taste. It is usually sweetened with caramelized sugar. In Southeast Asia, the drink is marketed as wax gourd tea or wax gourd punch. The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.
