I have never sighted a field marrow in Sydney in any Indian supermarkets. It was a sheer joy when Jules rang and said she would like to send across one mogem for me. It brought back memories of helping my mum prepare this vegetable in our “Elldun” kitchen. She would sing out in Konkani ‘girope and biyo borey karn kaad‘ (remove the pith and the seeds well). My mum would prepare this vegetable in many ways, but I decided to cook an easy but my all-time favourite recipe, ‘Mogem Foogath’. It’s quick to prepare with only a handful of pantry staples and makes a complete vegetarian meal with home made dhal, pickle or papads or if you want to make a feast with a vegetarian Thali. Other delicious option is to serve it with a non-veg Thali as portrayed in the image below.

Field Marrow or Mogem is a most commonly used vegetable in India throughout the year. India has a long monsoon season ranging from June to September. Most households stock up for this big wet season during summer (April/May) with certain vegetables that have a long shelf life eg., ash pumpkin (kuvalo), field marrow (mogem) and pumpkin (dudim) and my mum was no exception. My maternal grandma lived in Belman and they grew many grains and vegetables in their large acerage fields. I fondly recall making a special trip to Belman with my mum during the summer school holidays in mid-April, to see my grandma (she loved her grandchildren) who would set aside a dozen of these vegetables to be given to her daughter, as she knew her daughter had many mouths to feed! Although we struggled to transport these three sacks of vegetables to Udupi (approximately an hour by bus then!!), we certainly enjoyed the benefit of cooking them during the rainy season, when there was no fish in sight and things got scarce.

This field marrow (mogem) is a long storing vegetable and has a special feature that, this vegetable like the ash gourd/melon, can be stored for 8 – 10 months without losing its freshness. There is little wonder why our ancestors would have stored only these vegetables for a rainy day! They had good knowledge of thier vegetables I reckon!!

Storing these vegetables was not an easy task, as their shelf life had to be preserved for over 3 months in order to make it through the rainy/monsoon season. The best and the most effective way was to hang them from the exposed beams within the house. Most houses back in the day had tiled roofs and the beams were exposed from the inside. These days most houses are built without tiles and rendered throughout, including the roof. In order to hang them, the vegetables had to be properly secured so they would not have a crash landing when you visited that room. Mind you, crash landings were not uncommon on occasions when the vegetable got rotten on the inside and could no longer hang off the beams!!

Then there was the arduous task of tying them up or firmly binding each of these vegetables to secure them to the beams. The vegetables were secured by firmly binding them either with palm leaves or with coconut fibre ropes, a technique my mother had aced over the years. Thanks to my mum, she had taught me this technique too but sadly I am ashamed to say I have forgotten it. Sorry mum, can I have one more lesson please please!!!

Once they were tied, my brother would climb on to the beams and tie them in a line, almost like an overhead garden, without the foliage of course. I always wished I had a photo of these hanging gardens!!! It was also common to preserve onions and garlic in a similar way to prolong their shelf life during the long wet rainy season. It is one of the greatest methods of prolonging the shelf life of vegetables and I have little doubt this method is used even as of today in the countryside of Southern India.

It was a truly amazing sight to see these vegetables suspeneded from the beams on the ceiling, all in a line and they hung there waiting to be eaten one by one, all through the rainy season. Never seen this spectacular sight anywhere so far!!!

Life is a beautiful thing, and as I grow older I am realising that its the small things that I’ve experienced as a kid and those little memories that I have preserved that make such a big difference to it in the end!

Well, in Sydney, field marrow is an extremely rare vegetable, almost unseen and unless someone grows this vine in their backyard garden, one would never be able to put their hands on it. If you get your hands on this rare marrow vegetable, I would recommend trying out this recipe. Thanks to Jules for making this post possible for me!! God bless Jules!!!

Wash the field marrow well. Using a sharp knife, cut into quarters and remove the pith and the seeds. Then cube as in the image below.

Place the cubed vegetable, along with stock powder, jaggery and tamarind paste in a deep saucepan and add water as per the recipe below. Cook the vegetable al dente (approximately 12 minutes) on medium heat. Add salt and sambhar powder and stir to combine. Cook for a further 3-5 more minutes or until it is cooked to your liking.

While the vegetable is cooking, make the seasoning.

Heat oil in a small frying pan or seasoning dish on low-medium heat. Add the mustard seeds, when they splutter, add the bruised garlic cloves. Let the garlic impart a nice flavour and become light golden. Now add the curry leaves and move away immediately. The curry leaves will splutter when they come in contact with hot oil. When they finish spluttering, remove from heat and set aside till ready to use.

When the vegetable is nearly cooked, add one cup coconut and the prepared seasoning. Although the image is showing two cups coconut, you will need only one cup coconut for this dish. I was making a couple of different dishes, hence I have measured two cups coconut. Close the lid for 3 minutes so the vegetables capture the fragrance. Open and stir to combine. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated.

There you go. A yummy vegetarian meal awaits you. You will enjoy this simple yet homely dish with rice, some homemade dhal, roti and pickle or combine with a non-vegetarian curry for a luxurious non-veg Indian feast!!