Pictorial: Stir-fried Bitter Melons, foo yu

[hzrt8w]

Stir-fried Bitter Melons with Foo Yu

My wife and I love bitter melons. For some people, the taste of bitter melons may take a bit of getting used to. To us, the bitter taste is their attractiveness.

Get a few bitter melons. Wash well. Trim both ends. Slice each melon into halves. Use a serving spoon to scoop out the seeds and pith. This step is absolutely essential. The seeds and pith are too bitter and taste nasty. Slice the melons in cross cuts.

The sauce is very simple: minced garlic with foo yu (fermented bean curds) and nam yu (fermented red bean curds). (The two kinds taste slightly different). If you have one but not the other, that is fine too.

Heat up the pan to very hot, add cooking oil, add garlic, foo yu and nam yu. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Crush the bean curds with the spatula. (Optional: add a pinch of salt. Note: foo yu and nam yu are already salty.)

Add the sliced bitter melons. Add some water (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup). With lid on, cook for about 15 minutes in medium/high heat. Bitter melons take a little while to cook. When cooked, they turn soft and dark-green.

The finished dish.

Variations: Bitter melons are very good to be stir-fried with beef or chicken. Marinate your meat separately (with sesame oil, white pepper, light soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine and corn starch). Parcook the meat separately. Remove. When bitter melons are about done, re-add the meat and stir-fry some more with the melons.

Edited September 17, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[mizducky]

Cool!

For those of us who are wimps with regard to full-strength bitter melon: I have read in some cook book that pre-soaking the sliced-up melon for awhile in salted water can help leach out some of the bitterness. I haven't tried this myself, though. Have you ever heard of this method, hzrt8w?

[torakris]

It took me a long time to learn to love bitter melons (goya is the Okinawan word and nigauri the Japanese). I had heard that rubbing them with salt and letting them sit for a bit would help ease the bitterness, as would parboiling them. I usually do both. I don't know how much it really helps though, but since I enjoy the bitter flavor now I am not sure why I still bother.

Last year in Japan I found a white bitter melon they called a salad goya and it had almost no bitterness at all, I didn't see it this year though....

now that foo yu could take some getting used to....

[hzrt8w]

For those of us who are wimps with regard to full-strength bitter melon: I have read in some cook book that pre-soaking the sliced-up melon for awhile in salted water can help leach out some of the bitterness. I haven't tried this myself, though. Have you ever heard of this method, hzrt8w?

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I heard of those methods before but I have never practised them because we like the bitter taste. I think parboiling them (may be with a pinch of salt) would definitely help. But then again, parboiling vegetables also gives the taste away a little bit.

[hzrt8w]

now that foo yu could take some getting used to....

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And so are the miso paste and wasabi.

[Tepee]

Parcook the meat separately.  Remove.  When bitter melons are about done, re-add the meat and stir-fry some more with the melons.

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Yes, this method makes a 'neater' dish (in terms of appearance and taste)...but I'm guilty of skipping this part...too much time on the 'puter, too little time left for cooking!

p/s I always soak the melon in salted water for at least 15 minutes, if not the children can't take the bitterness.

Edited September 17, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[PPPans]

Oh, this looks good! One variation I'm familiar with is to cook with salted black beans.

[Dejah]

Oh, this looks good! One variation I'm familiar with is to cook with salted black beans.

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In black bean garlic sauce, beef or chicken is how I usually cook bitter melon. I love it! This is great with rice or rice noodles (haw fun).

With rehydrated dried oysters, pork neck bones, a WHOLE BIG CHUNK of pork butt, chun pei and ginger, "cooling soup"...

I haven't tried cooking it stuffed with ground pork, but I love that too!

[jo-mel]

hzrt -- How simple ---- a couple of ingredients abound with flavor! Looks tasty, too.

That bitter quinine taste is supposed to be refreshing in hot humid weather, isn't it?

I've usually stuffed it and steamed it with a black bean sauce, but I must give this one a try.

[hzrt8w]

Oh, this looks good! One variation I'm familiar with is to cook with salted black beans.

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Yes, the black bean sauce is more popular for cooking fu gwa (bitter melons). I chose to illustrate my cooking with the lesser-known way of using foo yu and nam yu.

Using jo-mel's grand-motherly, kind voice: "I love them both equally!"

[misstenacity]

The first time I had bitter melon was in Shanghai, in the form of an egg-white omelet. It was salty with soy sauce and oh-so-yummy.

To get children to eat the melon, removing some bitterness is probably essential, but for we intrepid gastrophiles, the whole POINT of eating bitter melon is the bitterness, which is supposed to do nice things to your GI. So, the bitter-er, the better-er.

Bitter Melon benefits for blood sugar

I just bought one yesterday so I might make this dish for lunch today with some stir-fried chicken bits. Yum.

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[AzianBrewer]

The Taiwanese either stuffed them with meat for the soup or stir fried it with salted egg and pork. Very similar to the Okinawan's Goya Chanpuru without the tofu.

[mudbug]

For those of us who are wimps with regard to full-strength bitter melon...

Another option utilized by other cuisines is to allow the fruit turn yellow. Just as green peppers turn to different colors and become more mild when turning yellow, red, and orange.

Did you know?

The bright red seed coating around the seeds is edible and resembles the taste of cherries?

Edited June 22, 2006 by mudbug (log)