Bottle Gourd Curry

One of the things we love most about the connection between our gardens and our kitchens is the fun challenge of incorporating local, seasonal foods you don’t often find at area grocery stores.

For example? All summer long, a vine has been working its way up, over and all around the trellis entryway to the Woodmont garden behind TNFP’s office. Through the window of our kitchen, cooks and meal prep volunteers have been watching this slow progress for months — and finally, last week, walked the 20 feet from the back door of the kitchen to harvest the huge, rounded fruits: bottle gourd!

Tomato & masking tape for size reference!

Bottle gourd — also known as calabash, white-flowered gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean and long melon — comes in lots of different shapes and sizes, but generally can be either harvested young to be eaten as a vegetable or harvested mature to be dried and used as a container. This is a great example of a plant that can provide a lot of health benefits. Not only does it have a cooling effect in the body, but it’s also said to help maintain a healthy heart and blood pressure and even helps reduce sleeping disorders.

So… what do you cook with bottle gourd? While there are lots of options, we decide to feature it in a curry dish on menus at different meal sites throughout last week. We also grated it to use as a replacement for zucchini in zucchini bread.

Try it out our version of a bottle gourd curry with the recipe below!

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Bottle Gourd Curry

 

Makes 4-6 servings

 

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil, and as needed

• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

• 1/2 cup chopped onion

• 1/2 cup chopped tomato

• 2 cups cubed bottle gourd

• 1 tbsp red chili paste

• 2 tbsp garam masala

• 2 tsp cumin

• 2 tsp turmeric

• Salt to taste

• 1 can of coconut milk

• Coriander to taste

• 2 tsp brown sugar

• Rice (optional to serve)

Directions

Wash bottle gourd under running water. Peel the skin and chop to bite-sized pieces (we found this article helpful for more detail on cleaning and preparing bottle gourd).

Pour oil to a wide, heavy-bottomed pan. Then add ginger-garlic paste, and saute chopped onion. Once soft, add tomato, then bottle gourd and spices (red chili paste, garam masala, cumin, turmeric and salt). If you have other seasonal vegetables on hand, you could add those as well.

Fry on medium to high flame for 3 to 5 minutes; keep stirring to avoid burning. If the gourd is not tender or less juicy, cover the pan and cook until the gourd is fully cooked. If tender, continue to fry without covering until it is fully cooked. Careful not to overcook!

Add coconut milk and stir well to mix. Last, add coriander and brown sugar. Serve curry over cooked rice.

Based on recipe from Indian Healthy Recipes and notes from TNFP volunteer cooks Mary Dionne and Meera Sardessai.

Salmon Cakes

Much of our food recovery efforts are through ongoing Food Donation Partnerships with local grocers, farmers, markets and restaurants. Every day, we’re astounded by the generosity and creativity of these partners in support of our mission to alleviate hunger and cultivate community.

A great example is our partnership with our neighbors at Green Hills Grille. On their menu is an incredible salmon filet served as a square portion. The restaurant cuts off all of the trimmings, but instead of just throwing them away, they freeze them and drop them off with us each week. We cook them up and use them for meals like our delicious salmon patties, an all-around favorite at our meal sites! Try it out for yourself with the recipe below.

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TNFP Salmon Cakes

 

Makes 50-60 cakes

 

Ingredients

• 12 lbs poached salmon

• Olive oil

• 3 c mixed color bell peppers, very small dice

• 2 c celery, very small dice

• 1 c chopped parsley

• 5 T capers

• 1 T hot sauce

• 2 T worcestershire sauce

• 1/4 c Old Bay

• 10 c bread crumbs

• 4 c mayo

• 3 T dijon

• 6 eggs

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Saute diced vegetables until soft. Allow to cool. Add to gently flaked salmon. Mix remaining ingredients and add to salmon mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Portion in 3-4 oz servings about the size of a deck of cards. Shape and place on lightly oiled baking sheet, spray tops lightly with additional oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes until firm and lightly colored. Alternatively, pan fry in olive oil for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden and crusty.

Hummingbird Cake

A hummingbird cake prepared by truck volunteer, Doug, for long-time Vine Hill Towers resident, Milton.

There may not be a more beloved dessert here at TNFP than hummingbird cake. This is one of those recipes that just keeps following us through the years, with different hand-written versions tucked away in kitchen drawers -- it has been an undisputed crowd favorite.

It's especially popular at a Friday lunch at Vine Hill Towers, where the note "Please send hummingbird cake!" is relayed to the kitchen almost weekly, a request from the same long-time resident, Milton. Last month, long-time Vine Hill truck volunteer Doug decided to answer by personally preparing and sharing a hummingbird cake for Milton (pictured above) -- just because he knew it was his favorite.

We say a lot that food has the power to bring people together in powerful ways. But sometimes these stories happen in small, ordinary ways that we don't see or hear about. Like this hummingbird cake, shared between friends.

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TNFP Hummingbird Cake

Cake Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup pineapple puree
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh pineapple, small diced
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Frosting Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4 oz butter, softened
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl, cream together eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift all dry ingredients together and add to egg and sugar mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Combine all wet ingredients and add to mixture until fully incorporated. Fold in pineapples and pecans, then pour into a paper-lined full sheet tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip, then bake for another 15 minutes.

To prepare frosting, cream together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. When cake is baked and cooled, build layers with icing.

A pick-up version of the recipe we love to use for events! Same premise, just cut small circles out of the sheet cake before layering.