Stewed Pumpkin

Stewed Pumpkin

　　Stewed Pumpkin Before the 1960s, the variety of vegetables grown in Fugu was quite limited. After spring spinach and spring cabbage came pumpkin and eggplant. The irrigated fields around the county town were planted with pumpkins everywhere—some weighing over ten pounds, others as small as six or seven pounds. On the window sills and back areas of the auditorium at Fuzhong Middle School where I studied, many pumpkins were stacked. In the county town, both farmers and residents stored pumpkins at home or in their yards. Aside from using them to cook bean congee, pumpkin and eggplant were the staple vegetables for Fugu people in summer and autumn. Wash the pumpkin, chop it into sections, scoop out the pulp and seeds, then slice it into pieces about one centimeter thick. Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Stir-fry them in oil in succession, add an appropriate amount of salt, pour in water, and simmer until cooked. This dish can be served with rice. Tofu can also be added and cooked together, similar to a stewed vegetable dish. In the eastern part of the county, it is called "Stewed Bottle Gourd."