SWEETENED KUNDOL OR WINTERMELON

Kundol is winter melon, it  is very much available locally specially in the countryside of the Philippines. Many old folks desire the sweetened version of eating this vegetable rather than the delicious soup version of some Chinese home cooks which is also a healthy preparation of this gourd-like farm produce.

I found these kundol in Orani Town Public Market during one of my vacation sprees in Bataan, my home province. These kundol are hard to find in Manila so when I saw them I bought plenty and made them into a delicacy like in the photos below. Of course I shared them with my old friends who delighted in them. You too, can make this at home. It's very easy.

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RECIPE FOR SWEETENED KUNDOL:


Ingredients:

kundol or winter melon
white sugar
alum or tawas
limestone paste or apog
pandan leaves

 
Procedure:

Peel the kundol, remove the seeds and cut into matchstick slices, about 3/4 inch long.
For every 1 liter of water mix in 1/2 teaspoon limestone paste or apog. Soak the kundol slices
into the the limestone solution for 3 hours or overnight if you do it late in the day. Remove the 
soaked kundol and wash very well, until no more trace of lime.

For every 1 liter of water mix in 3/4 teaspoon of alum, bring this solution into a boil and remove from stove. Add kundol and remove them when they appear transparent. Wash them thoroughly.

Weigh the kundol to determine the amount of sugar you need. Sugar should be 3/4 the weight of the kundol. Mix together the kundol, sugar and some pandan leaves if you like pandan flavor. Leave them until the next morning and syrup would have formed. To finish the whole process, put the whole
thing into boil and stir like stirfrying the kundol in the syrup that formed until all the water has evaporated and  it is dry and coated with a white thin layer of sugar just like in the photos above.

Note:

* tawas makes the kundol transparent and white
* apog makes the kundol crispy and plump in texture but too much will result in a yellowish product