Hairy gourd soup (毛瓜煲汤)

Ingredients

1. 200 grams pork soup bone or pork ribs
2. 1 hairy gourd
3. 2 litre water
4. 8 dried red dates
5. 5 dried oyster （蚝豉, 蚝干）
6. 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Using a knife, do a scraping motion to scrape off the skin of the hairy gourd.  The more you scrape, the deeper you get, but I like it just slightly below the surface, ie the end product is still light green in colour and not totally white, which is the colour of the flesh of the gourd.
2. Cut hairy gourd into big chunks, by first cutting across the cross section at about 5 cm interval, and then splitting into halves.
3. Wash all other ingredients.
4. This is an optional step to have a clearer soup (less cloudy due to blood from the bones).  Put the pork bone or pork ribs in a bowl. Boil some water and pour over the pork bones.  Stir a little and leave it for 1 minute.  Blood clots will emerge from the bones. Pour away and rinse the pork.
5. Put all ingredients 1-5, and 2 litre water in a soup or stock pot, and put to boil.  Turn down flame to very small and allow to slow boil for 3 hours.
6. Add salt to taste and serve.