Farm Recipes - Sugar-Glazed Striped Gourd

I love striped gourd with its creamy texture and subtle taste.  Most of the time, I tend to prepare it as a savoury dish.    I have roasted sliced gourd coated with a bit of salt and olive oil, diced them and used them in a vegetable soup, added it to dalca and just had them boiled in salted water.
The current plants have produced a substantial number of gourds so I started thinking of how it can be prepared.  Thus, recently I decided to try preparing it as a sweet tea-time dish, calling my dish Sugar-Glazed Striped Gourd.  To my delight, I loved it and so did my testers.
It is very easy to prepare and takes under 30 minutes to prepare.  The sugar glaze is prepared with a bit of blended margarine hence it adds that creamy taste to the glaze and less sugar is used and does not dry out.  I love adding cinnamon to it as it not only adds to the taste but also gives a nice aroma to the dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 striped gourd
• 2 tablespoons of margarine or butter-blended margarine
• 1 tablespoon of sugar – preferable raw or brown sugar
• Salt (not required if using salted margarine)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional)
• 3 tablespoons of water

Method:

Peel, slice and remove the seed of the gourd.  Using a flat pan, melt 1 tablespoon of margarine and cooked the slices of gourd until tender and brown.  Remove from heat.  Using the same pan, melt the remaining margarine, add sugar, cinnamon and water.  When the sugar has melted, dip the slices of gourd and plate it.  Pour the remaining glaze over the slices and gourd and serve.