WINTER MELON TEA SYRUP

From these three ingredients, we can cook them into winter melon syrup so we can enjoy this tea whenever we wish. Here is how to prepare the syrup:

INGREDIENTS

• winter melon (冬瓜), also known as a wax gourd, ash gourd, or white gourd
• brown sugar, traditionally we use Chinese brown sugar blocks (冰片糖), but regular/dark brown sugar is a great substitute
• rock sugar (冰糖)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix winter melon (meat only) with brown sugar in a soup pot. Set aside for about 1 hour, you should see that some liquid has formed.
2. Add rock sugar and mix. Place the pot on the stovetop, turn on the heat, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until winter melon is completely transparent. This takes about 2 hours.
3. Turn off the heat. Pass the pot content over a strainer. Strain and press as much liquid through the strainer as you can. The strained liquid is our winter melon tea syrup.

Tips: Don’t throw away the leftover winter melon, you can serve it with yogurt or pancakes/waffles for breakfast!