Simple Labu Air (Calabash) Chicken Soup Recipe

Labu Air or Calabash (Lagenaria siceraria) in English belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. They come in many shape and sizes. The one on the photo is the most common type and they are easily available in Malaysia. The bottle gourd is widely used as drinking water container and you can see many Chinese Deities statue or photos carrying this magical gourd. Labu Air itself is tasteless and we need to enhance the flavour by adding other ingredients like garlic, dried prawn or chicken stock. They can be fried or made into soup. I bought this medium size labu air from one of the hypermarkets and decided to cook soup with it.

Ingredients
Chicken Bones, from 1 whole chicken
Garlic, 3 pips, chopped finely, sauté in oil until brown
Labu Air (calabash), 1 medium, remove skin and cut into bite sizes
Water, 5 bowls
Salt to taste
Ang Cho (Chinese dried red dates), 5 pcs

Pour water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add in the chicken bones and ang cho(Chinese dried red dates) boil for around ½ hour. Put in the labu air chunks and boil for another 20 minutes. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle the garlic over the soup. Serve while still hot.