Bitter Melon. Please discuss.

My doctor recommends bitter melon as a healthy food. So far, I've salted a la eggplant, let drain a while, then simmered in water a while, then added to a stir fry. Not bad. Edible. Well, my husband's portion mostly went on my salad for lunch the next day. What am I missing?

Nora
  • Posted by: Nora
  • December 12, 2011
  • 2759 views
  • 6 Comments

6 Comments

gingerroot December 31, 2011
I've also soaked sliced pieces in lime juice before cooking to remove some of its bitter flavor. It is delicious cooked with chorizo and egg (scrambled all together).
 
candicecanandwill December 13, 2011
It is wonderful sliced and sauteed with a bunch of garlic the way my mom does it. I'm salivating just thinking of it. Alternatively, she'll wok it in a bit of oil, broken-up Chinese salted eggs, and a couple small dried red chili peppers. The salty eggs is a great contrast to the bitter melon. I've seen bitter melon with black bean sauce as well but am not a great fan of that prep. BM is definitely somewhat of an acquired taste. My sister and I couldn't stand it when we were kids and now we fight for cold leftovers.
 
Nora December 13, 2011
Thanks for the suggestion. I can imagine it in s hot spicy broth with lots of other things!
 
susan G. December 13, 2011
Nora, I was thinking of winter melon, but a quick check gave me some cookbook links for bitter melon:
http://www.eatyourbooks.com/bookshelf#q=bitter%20melon
(disregard the last one -- it doesn't seem relevant)
 
susan G. December 12, 2011
Also check Chinese sources -- classic for soup.
 

Voted the Best Reply!

Panfusine December 12, 2011
I had written a blog post on bitter melon, its not exactly the kind of vegetable that one gets hooked on to, but one way to deal with it is to slice it thin, salt generously, squeeze out the liquid, rinse & pat dry. layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil and bake into chips at 400 F, there are other traditional SOuth indian recipe that make use of it, but here's another recipe. Hope it helps!
http://www.panfusine.com/2011/10/thursday-tutorials-call-me-melon.html
 
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