The Frying Pan - 2021-04-08

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2:12 PM

Hi. Has anyone here seen this? http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IZcJuN3EE7U/ULLYPielOSI/AAAAAAAAAig/frSwPIgA8Xg/s1600/IMG_0396.JPG

It is eaten as salad and you can cook it to eat with Indian chapati, just like curry. It's very tasty.

But strange thing is, I don't know its *real* name and very few people know about it. But when I went to bigger cities in India, I was surprised that it doesn't exist there much. Neither do people know about it.

It looks like something from the Cucurbitas family, so related to cucumbers, melons and pumpkins.

It is normal that there are plants (or variants of plants) which are eaten only locally. In general, people eat very few, standardized plants out of everything that is possible in nature.

Maybe @JourneymanGeek will recognize it and know a name.

It may even be that it doesn't have a "real" name in the sense you might be expecting - if people don't eat it, then there won't be a name they recognize, or that is recorded in cooking textbooks.

@rumtscho Here is another image, how it looks after cutting, if you could recognize. You can eat it raw:

user image

Usually, farmers sow it along with watermelons (Gigérine) in their farms along with main crops.

I probably have never eaten it - don't have much contact with Indian cuisine - so I have no chance of recognizing it.

Also, you may need a geneticist to find out if it is a type of melon or rather a type of squash, these plants are closely related.

@rumtscho Will wait for the other user you tagged :D

@rumtscho Musk melon you mean? Because clearly it isn't like Watermelon

@rumtscho Yes, you're right, it quite feels like Musk melon when you cut it or eat it, but taste is totally different.

I don't know what you are calling "musk melon". In English, there is the single umbrella term "melon", and there are dozens of varieties that belong to it. Watermelon is one of them, but there are many others.

2:26 PM

I call this musk melon. Strange you haven't heard. We know here it by this name only, in English. https://4.imimg.com/data4/UT/OJ/MY-24421102/muskmelon-1-500x500.png

I think both melon and muskmelon are synonyms

What you posted is called Cantaloupe Melon in the USA and in many European countries

It is not considered a synonym of "melon" overall, but a special subtype of melon

See for example this site, it shows 25 types of melon - although most of them are not available in Western supermarkets

invorma.com/15-varieties-of-melons-with-pictures

2:39 PM

@rumtscho Bitter Melon and Bitter gourd same things? Image look same.

I don't know if they are the same thing. Melons can look very similar from the outside and be considered different varieties.

@rumtscho I find Bitter gourd far too different thing from melons. We eat bitter gourd fried curry with Chapatti. I like it, but many my friends hate it

Even the name makes it different from other melons. Bitter

The kitchen classification doesn't have to follow botanical rules.

@rumtscho kitchen classification?

A classification is a way to group things into categories

2:44 PM

@rumtscho Anyway thanks.

so as a cook, you could group two plants together as "melons" because they look similar and taste sweet.

But maybe a botanist will group them as very different, if they have different genes.

@rumtscho But I wonder why he grouped bitter gourd with other sweet melons. According to your sentence, it's definitely not kitchen rules.

I think there are grouped botanically?

@Vikas different people like using different rules for grouping

@rumtscho Strange. I thought biology have same rules.

I don't think there is a single botanical category of "melons" actually, it is more of a cooking name which covers plants that are related to different degrees.

@Vikas no, certainly not. Biology used to have rules based on visual similarities, until genetics came along and lots of living organisms were reclassified.

Journeyman Geek

2:50 PM

@Vikas I can ask my mom in the morning

she's a botanist and a cook :D

@JourneymanGeek Wow. Thanks.

As for cooking classifications, there are many different ones between different cultures, and they overlap only partially

@JourneymanGeek When I use our local name in Google search, I find many images of the same. But there's no other language name available.

@JourneymanGeek Cool, I didn't know your mother was a botanist

lovely profession

@Vikas then probably there isn't one - if it is not grown anywhere else, people from other regions will not have made up a name for it. You can probably find the Latin name though.

Journeyman Geek

@rumtscho she studied it but is and has been a housewife for the last 40+ years

2:54 PM

@JourneymanGeek then she is a well-educated housewife

@JourneymanGeek Do younger generation females in your culture still choose to be housewife?

In India, it's still common. But new generation choose to work, which is great.

Journeyman Geek

3:07 PM

@Vikas I'm indian lol

and most of the ladies seem more qualified than me

@JourneymanGeek absolutely lol. I never expected you as Indian. So which part of India?

Journeyman Geek

@Vikas ethnic tamil, living in singapore

@JourneymanGeek Nice.

hehe, I pinged Journeyman Geek because I expected him to be well-versed in Indian vegetables :)

Journeyman Geek

It looks like a fat snake gourd

but the white flesh and shape seem off

3:11 PM

@rumtscho Now I understand.

Journeyman Geek

and while I am working nights (for the last time in a while!) I don't want to send mom a 11pm plant ID request

@JourneymanGeek It's fine. I can wait.

3:53 PM

user image

Glorious leftovers.

you took the time to make egg yolk cream and refil it? I've heard of it a lot, but never done it.

Deviled easter eggs.

mine are still gracing the table - they look better in the shell than upcycled.

@rumtscho Uh, what “time”? With the eggs already cooked and cooled and mayonnaise from earlier today? No effort whatsoever. Peel, halve, scoop out the yolks. Mash with a fork, then a bit of stirring and spooning back. Under five minutes.

ah OK, so you didn't do something special for the filling

3:58 PM

I did not do some of the fancier steps like pushing through a sieve or using a piping bag.

when you say mayonnaise, do you mean store-bought milk-protein-in-vinegar-emulsion, or homemade mayonnaise with egg yolk? Because it seems slightly weird to take egg yolk out of the egg, mix it with some more egg yolk, then put it back in the egg.

In this case, whole-egg-oil-vinegar-mustard-salt plus my trusty immersion blender.

Just because I needed some earlier and you know that I can get super fresh eggs.

I have to order a new immersion blender :(

user image

wow, that blender has seen a lot.

1 hour later…

5:15 PM

I just came across one of the most thought-provoking materials I've seen. And it is also entertaining (TED).

ted.com/talks/…

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Apr '218

The Frying Pan

Sometimes hot, always heavy. (cooking.stackexchange.com)

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