Description and calorie content of wax gourd. Useful properties and contraindications for use. Method of preparation of tropical fruit and features of use. The benefits of wax gourd are also manifested when the pulp is applied externally. It is used to moisturize the skin, in the fight against cracks and peeling, against tightness. The effect of using for cosmetic purposes is visually noticeable after 2-3 procedures.
Harm and contraindications to the use of wax pumpkin
There are few contraindications to eating wax pumpkin, the exception is individual intolerance. Allergic reactions are extremely rare, and their severity is insignificant: redness, itching, localization of a small red rash around the lips and on the cheeks, sore throat. To relieve these symptoms, it is enough to drink antihistamines and prepare food based on other ingredients.
Allergic reactions from the skin more often appear when preparing pumpkin for cooking. Flushing can be provoked by contact with plant leaves or young peel with bloom on the surface. To eliminate negative manifestations, it is enough to use gloves.
There are no restrictions on the use of benincase during pregnancy or for young children.
Wax Gourd Recipes
Due to bloom on the surface, ripe fruits retain their beneficial properties for up to 2 years. You can store the pumpkin at a constant temperature in a dark place in your own apartment. When choosing, you need to pay attention to the surface. You should not purchase damaged fruits, even when it is planned to cook immediately after purchase. Bacteria that have already colonized cracks on the surface can change the chemical composition of the pulp, and it becomes impossible to predict what effect the dish will have on the body.
Wax Gourd Recipes:
- Seafood soup … The soup is best cooked in a mild red meat or red fish broth. The ear should be pre-filtered. When cooking broth, only onions and carrots are used. The same amount of broth is needed for 250 g of pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin pulp into thin strips. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds. The shrimp is cleaned, the esophagus is removed. The weight of the shrimp meat should be 25 g. The pumpkin is cut into slices 5 cm wide and 5 mm thick. The broth is brought to a boil, slices of beninase are added to it. Cook for 20 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft, put the shrimps and chopped leeks in a saucepan, cook for another 2 minutes. Serve hot.
- Soup-puree … Finely chopped red onion and garlic are fried until transparent. The pre-prepared broth is brought to a boil, the frying is poured into it, salt and pepper. The pumpkin is cut into cubes, also dipped in broth and boiled until tender. 200 g of pumpkin needs 200 g of broth, so the pulp is stewed rather than boiled. When the pumpkin is soft, grind the contents of the pot with a blender. So much milk is added to the puree so that the consistency is creamy. Serve hot, sprinkled with grated cheese and croutons.
- Crystal Wax Gourd … Cubes with holes in the middle or beautiful rings are cut from the pulp of a mature large fruit. You can use metal cake tins as a reference, then all the pieces will become the same and beautiful. Ingredients for minced meat, which is later spread into pumpkin: 20 g each - ham, shrimp meat, chicken breast; 10 g each - shiitake mushrooms or champignons, chopped carrots, wine vinegar; 50 g each - corn starch and cooking oil. The very pulp of the pumpkin is 0.5 kg. For frying, you need to prepare: carrots, ham, chicken fillet, mushrooms, shrimps. Place the slices in a deep skillet and fry for about 5 minutes with wine vinegar, pepper and half cornstarch diluted with water. When the minced meat is ready, it is laid out in pumpkin blanks and sent to a double boiler. After 8 minutes, the stuffed workpieces are removed from the double boiler, the minced meat is removed and brought to readiness in a pan, adding the rest of the starch - after the first frying, the pan does not need to be washed. The pumpkin is stuffed again and steamed for another 2 minutes. The dish is laborious, but beautiful and very tasty.
- Casserole … Pumpkin (half a kilo) is cut into cubes and fried in butter. A third of a glass of semolina is boiled in a glass of milk. Combine soft benincasa with semolina, drive 1-2 eggs into the dough, add a glass of cottage cheese and a quarter of a glass of sugar, add a little salt. You can enhance the taste of seedless raisins by mixing them with casserole dough. The mold is greased with butter, the cottage cheese-pumpkin dough is spread into it, the surface of the casserole is smeared with egg white. Bake for half an hour in the oven at 180 degrees.
- Candied fruit … Required ingredients: 350 g benincase pulp and the same amount of sugar, a quarter of a large lemon, a clove inflorescence, a cinnamon stick, powdered sugar. The pumpkin pulp is cut into cubes or slices, but not small and not thin, otherwise they will burn. Finely chop the lemon. All ingredients, except for powdered sugar, are laid out in an enamel bowl and left overnight. By the morning, juice is released from the pumpkin. The container is put on fire, brought to a boil, boiled for 2 minutes, set aside. After 4-6 hours, boiling is resumed. These actions are repeated up to 4 times, then the pumpkin pieces are put in a colander, the syrup is allowed to drain completely, the pieces are laid out on a baking sheet and baked in the oven at a temperature of 50-60 degrees for 5 hours. Ready candied fruits are cooled and rolled in powdered sugar.
- Sweet salad … The pumpkin pulp is rubbed on a coarse grater, the banana and apple are cut into strips. Chop the onion and parsley. Mix everything, add crushed almonds. Season with unsweetened yogurt, a mixture of lemon and orange juices, apple cider vinegar, vegetable oil. All liquids take 1 tablespoon. Salted to taste, you can add cinnamon.
- Meat salad … Pumpkin and chicken fillet are cut into cubes - 250 g each, gherkins and prunes in equal quantities, approximately 100 g each, are chopped. The pumpkin is fried with pepper and ginger until soft. Combine ready-made ingredients, add leek, cut into half rings, 2 tablespoons of walnuts. Season with mayonnaise.
For a salad, it is better to use young fruits, and ripe ones with a waxy bloom on the peel must be heat treated. The taste of the young pulp of beninkase resembles fresh cucumbers, only slightly sweet. Ripe waxy gourd can be prepared using the same recipes as regular gourd.
Interesting facts about wax gourd
It is wrong to think that the "winter" pumpkin is called because of the growing conditions. The juicy sweet pulp of a wax gourd will turn out only in ideal growing conditions for it - in the tropics or subtropics. When the temperature drops below 10 degrees, it becomes "wooden". The fruit is called "winter" because of the frost-like bloom on the peel and the possibility of long-term storage.
During the vitamin deficiency season, you can replenish the body's vitamin and mineral reserve with the pulp of this useful vegetable. The most delicious seeds are obtained from the wax pumpkin.
The natives grew wax gourds to make lamps from them. It is difficult to imagine how many fruits you have to peel off the wax deposit in order to make at least one candle.
The Chinese prefer to cook soup from this pumpkin and serve it in its own skin. Combine benincase pulp with pork. Sweets made from the pulp of this plant for the new year are popular with the Chinese. And at the autumn festival, where the main dish is "moon cakes", the filling is made of wax pumpkin.
In the Philippines, winter gourds are called gondolas, candolas or condoles. It is used as an ingredient in sabau - national soups, as well as in guisado - for frying. To quench thirst in Southeast Asia, wax gourd tea is offered.
Benincasa can be grown in the vicinity of any pumpkin and squash variety - it is not afraid of cross-pollination.
What to cook from wax pumpkin - watch the video:
In the middle lane, it is better to plant a vine on a windowsill or in a greenhouse. Only in this case, the fruits ripen so much that a white bloom will appear on the peel - a necessary cover for long-term storage.
