9th fia fia cooking--3-Cup Bottle Gourd(31/03/2012)

 <<<To Eat is To Be Healthy>>>   31/03/2012

TODAY SPECIAL: Sweet and Sour Bottle Gourd or
                              3-Cup Bottle Gourd  (10 Servings)

PLACE: Nanumea Maneapa                            PHOTOS by LADER

RECIPE 

Ingredient	Condiment
3 cloves of garlic	Soy sauce
Spring onion	Oyster oil
Ginger	A.Tomato sauce & vinegar B. Rice wine & sesame oil
Basil	Sugar
Chili	Corn flour
5 Chicken legs	Soybean oil
	Black pepper

        

        DIRECTION:

1.     Bone the chicken legs, and marinate it with garlic, soy sauce, black pepper, some sugar and corn flour for 20 minutes.

2.     Peel the bottle gourd and chop it into chunks.

3.     Deep-fry the bottle gourd chunks in hot oil (about 180 to 200 ° C temperature) for 5-10 minutes.

4.     Sift the oil of the bottle gourd and put it aside.

5.     Slice the garlic, ginger, and chili.

6.     Cut the spring onion into small pieces, wash and trim the basil.

7.     Make the sauce

A. Sweet and sour: mix 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce, some oyster oil and sugar.

B. Spicy and sweet: Mix 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice wine, 1 cup of sesame oil, some oyster oil and sugar.)

8.     Quickly stir and fry the garlic, ginger, chili, spring onion (white part) and the chicken.

9.     Put the bottle gourd chucks into the wok, pour the sauce in, and stir-fry for a while.

10. Add the basil and spring onion (green part) into the wok, and quickly stir-fry before serving.

Benefits Of Bottle Gourd

            Not very familiar to the western world, bottle gourd is one of the favorite vegetables in Indian cuisine. Known by various names, the bottle gourd is yellowish-green in color and usually in the shape of a bottle. Bottle gourd is cultivated in the humid weather of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, tropical Africa and South America. Though the vegetable is quite bland and tasteless, it has many nutrition benefits. Read on further to know the nutritional value of bottle gourd, along with the health benefits of eating it.

 

Bottle Gourd is good for:

•       Bottle gourd is an excellent vegetable for hypertension patients.
•       It is a suitable vegetable for light, low-cal diets as well as for children, people with digestive problems, diabetics and convalescents.
•       High in water content, and easy to digest when cooked.
•       Be effective in treating constipation.
•       Be helpful in treating urinary disorders.
•       Bottle gourd is recommended by ayurvedic physicians for balancing the liver function.
•       Drinking a glass of bottle gourd juice once in the early morning helps in treating grey hair.
•       Mixing the juice with sesame oil for massaging the scalp every night, provides an effective medicine for insomnia.
•       A glass of bottle gourd juice, mixed with a little salt, helps in preventing excessive loss of sodium from the body. It quenches thirst, prevents fatigue and keeps one refreshed during summers.
•       Bottle gourd juice is also very useful for shedding extra calories and maintaining optimum health.