Tangkwa: Philippine native gourd in Bulusan's heritage recipe

Tangkwa from my garden temporarily functions as a living room accent while waiting for my non-busy days to turn the gourd into a dessert using a Bulusan recipe with pili and lemon de china.

The local "tangkwa" is a fruit in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae family), a herbaceous tendril-bearing vine that includes the cucumber, melon, squash, and pumpkin.

Grown in the backyard garden of rural homes in the Philippines including Bulusan it is the main ingredient in a local dessert with pili nuts in marmalade-sugar mix accented by lemon de china.

This recipe can be considered a heritage recipe in this noted pili-riched town for this used to be a regular and popular dessert during fiestas in Bulusan. However this is seldom prepared now. The fruit brings memories of Lola Ingga and Lola Datay serving their guests with this well-loved 'dulsi na tangkwa' in my father's ancestral home in Poblacion Sabang in Bulusan.

Detailed instructions of this Bulusan heritage recipe of  Dulsi na Tangkwa (Sweetened Tangkwa) is documented excellently in a  Bulusanon web site :pamughaton.net


Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines

Kalunggay: Moringa oleifera a.k.a. Malunggay

I personally tested the oft-reproduced characterization made many years ago by the Trees for Life organization, that "ounce-for-ounce, Moringa leaves contain more Vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more Vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas," and that the protein quality of Moringa leaves rivals that of milk and eggs.

This is good news for many of us who do not have the capacity to buy the foods mentioned as comparison. Malunggay locally known as Kalunggay in Bulusan  is multivitamins available for free usually  from a neighbor's fence. But we did plant our own sustainable supply at the back of our house.

Easy to grow. Just ask from your neighbor a wrist-sized branch of Kalunggay and let it stand for a while in a sunny nook in your yard. When the shoots are starting to show in the standing branch, this is the right time to  plant. Be sure to pick a sunny spot in your garden or fence that is open to the sun the whole day.

That is my technique. Others plant the freshly cut branch  right at once. I tried this too with the same success.
Most important factor is the sun. These plants are sun loving and like to grow on their own after planting. No need to water. Natural rainfall is enough for them.

For an authentic Bulusan recipe of Kinunot using Kalunggay as vegetable you may visit this site :
pamughaton.net

Bulusan, Sorsogon, Philippines