“Locky”, the sign said above this beautifully shaped light green vegetable. Or I assumed it was a vegetable. I love trying out something new, so I could not resist. I just had to try it, I would find out what to do with it later.
After some research I found out it was more often called Lauki or Calabash and used a lot in Indian recipes. When I saw the reference to Calabash, I remebered I once bought a very exotic looking handmade instrument called a calabash drum somewhere on the roadside in South Africa. Unfortunately I had to leave it behind as customs would just not let that through. I had never realised you could actually eat them!
But there are lots of recipes with young Lauki. Curries, salads, stirfry’s. I decided to use it in a vegetable soup. It’s very nice and light in taste, almost like a slighly less watery cucumber. You peel it, scrape out the soft core and cut the rest of the white flesh in pieces to be used. I mixed it with carrot, swede, jerusalem artichokes, onion, garlic, some ginger and some cabbage, a good vegetable stock and cooked it for about 20 minutes in my pressure cooker. Served with some homemade garlic bread it was a pretty worthy end to this Locky foodadventure!
Hi,
I’ve never heard of this vegetable but you have made me curious. I’ll look for it in our grocery stores.
Visiting from the A to Z Blog Challenge 2015.
Shalom,
Patricia at Everything Must Change
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I can’t resist new fruits and vegetables either 🙂 It sounds delicious!
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the great thing about a multicultural city like auckland where i live. always something new to find! thanks for connecting
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