Pumpkin spice and everything nice.
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It’s Gourd season here at Sourced and in this newsletter we’ll be looking at gourds and identity crises along with a recipe for Luffa Gourd and Clams from the new cookbook Made in Taiwan authored by Sourced contributor Clarissa Wei.
This is a free issue of our paid newsletter, we thought we’d share what a paid subscription looks like for some of our new free subscribers. Paid subscriptions go towards paying contributors to the website and as a bonus thank you Chloe and Anna share an essay and a recipe each month.
A few events to announce: Catch Anna on 24 October discussing what ‘local food’ means with Adele Jones of Sustainable Food Trust at Natoora’s Earthrise Evenings.
Saturday 28 October Anna and Chloe will join Angela Hui, Emma Hughes and Bre Graham to for ‘Women Writing About Food’. Grab your ticket here we’ll be bringing a few free copies of our zine with us
What is a Gourd?
Chloe-Rose Crabtree
We could make up a reason as to why we chose Gourds. We could say that we felt an affinity for their feminine shapes or use in folklore or delicious flesh. In reality we just thought ‘gourds’ sounded funny.
After we finished giggling about the way our mouths clumsily rounded over the word, we realised gourds are also full of stories. They are vessels, instruments, decor, health tonics, symbols of abundance and destruction.
By definition gourds are the fruit of the family Cucurbitaceae. They have a hard skin, thick flesh and lots of seeds. Gourds are believed to be the first domesticated plant, their use as a carrier vessel made it possible for people to carry water and travel further from home base. This domestication has also lead to soft-skinned gourds like courgettes and pattypan squash or seedless versions of watermelon.
In our research into this season we found it difficult to pin down what a gourd is which also makes it a really exciting season to commission for. In our next free newsletter we will share our syllabus and commissioning info for the season.
But as a teaser, this season we will really be thinking about the question ‘What is a gourd?’ and what that search has to show us about the way food and drink can shape our world. The broadness of the term has got me thinking a lot about identity and how it seems the term ‘gourd’ has an identity crisis of its own.
What I love about Gourd season is that its ambiguity gives us time to consider how its identity developed in different contexts and why the need for a catch-all term was developed. This season I am most looking forward into what gourds can teach us about the ways we build identities around ourselves as well.
This issue we have a guest recipe from the new cookbook Made in Taiwan by Clarissa Wei with Ivy Chen. This cookbook relied on a lot of research into what makes up the identity of Taiwanese cuisine. Available in the US and the UK
Luffa Gourd with Clams
絲瓜蛤蜊
Sī Guā Ge Li
菜瓜蚶仔
Tshai Kue Ham A
SERVES 2
This is a recipe from my friend Acer Wang, who, in case you were wondering, was indeed named after the Taiwanese electronics company. An engineer by day, he’s a marvelous cook and showed me his version of this classic luffa dish after a lovely stroll through his neighborhood wet market. Luffas are vibrant, jade-green summer gourds and taste like a cross between a zucchini and a cucumber, though they get quite tough and fibrous as they ripen on the vine. Sometimes they’re grown until they’re old and stringy and made into sponges for bathing. Keep in mind that luffas are a warm-weather vegetable, so they might be a bit more difficult to source in colder months.
1 pound (450 g) fresh Manila or short-neck clams
2 teaspoons fine sea salt, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons canola or soybean oil
1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger (5 g), peeled and cut into matchsticks
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds (680 g) luffa gourd, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch (1.5-cm) half-moons
1/4 cup (60 ml) low-sodium chicken broth or water
1⁄8 teaspoon ground white pepper, plus more to taste
In a medium bowl, combine the clams with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Add water to barely cover the clams. Cover and set aside in a cool, dark place, and let rest for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours. This process purges sand and grit from the clams. Scrub the clams with a brush, drain, and set aside.
Set a wok over medium heat, and swirl in the oil. Add in the ginger and garlic, and cook, stirring until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add the luffa gourd and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and stir-fry until the edges of the luffa begin to brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
Slide the clams into the wok and increase the heat to high. Pour in the chicken broth around the perimeter of the pan. Cover and cook, shaking the wok occasionally until all the clams are completely opened up, 3 to 4 minutes. Pick out and discard any clams that have not opened up. Season with the white pepper, adding more if you’d like.
Turn off the heat and transfer the luffa and clams to a rimmed serving plate. Enjoy immediately.