How many ways can you cook/eat bitter gourd?

Like all bitter vegetables, the humble bitter gourd or bitter melon is an acquired taste.  It's a case of you either love it or hate it!  I remember I hated them when I was young...all the way to my adult years.  If I see it at the chap fan line, I would avoid it like the plague...but I've since grown to love this vegetable! ;)

Although I would gladly pick them out from a chap fan line now or choose them stuffed in a yong tau foo, I've never cooked them at home.  The reason for this is because I was afraid they'd turn out bitter coz, first of all, I don't know how to choose the "right" bitter gourd (one that's hopefully less bitter) and, two, I wasn't sure if the "process" we had to go through to take out the bitterness would actually work.

One of the most common methods to reduce bitterness is to salt the bitter gourd generously (after they've been sliced with the seeds removed and the pith scrapped off).  Rub salt all over the bitter gourd slices and let it stand for about half an hour.  The salt will draw out water from the bitter gourd and apparently remove some of that bitterness.

So I consulted my favourite pork noodles stall in my neighbourhood and he told me you don't have to do that actually...you just need to choose a bitter gourd that has less 'teeth' or ridges (or wide/'fat' pronounced ridges).  The larger, lighter green variety with the widest ridges is the one you want as they're generally less bitter.

Armed with that knowledge, I followed his advice to a tee and purchased my very first bitter gourd which turned out just fine, not bitter at all.  So, that extra step of salting it first is a lot of baloney which you don't need to do if you chose the right bitter gourd in the first place.  Now that I know, I cook it quite often at home since bitter gourd is known to help lower blood sugar levels besides having other immense health benefits.  I now include bitter gourd into my diet regularly and cook them in the following ways.

#1 - Stir-Fried Bitter Gourd with Eggs

One of the most common and popular way to cook bitter gourd is to stir-fry them with eggs.  For this dish, I used half a bitter gourd and 2 eggs.  This is good enough as the vegetable component for 2 meals for me.  (So PH, can rival Kar Hiong's...lol! ^_~

The key is to make sure you fry the bitter gourd slices until they're well soften (I hate hard bitter gourd!), so slicing them thinly helps.  Fry slowly on medium heat, you don't want them to brown, just soften, so you'll need a good 5 minutes for that.  I add in the minced garlic about halfway through so that the garlic don't get too browned by the time the bitter gourd softens.  Once well soften, push them aside and add in your beaten eggs.  Scramble them and mix in with the bitter gourd.  Season to taste.  You may add a little water at the end.

#2 - Stir-Fried Bitter Melon with Canned Black Bean Fish

This is a great recipe if you happen to have leftover canned dace fish with salted black beans (which I do as one can takes forever to finish).

You cook it similarly as the earlier dish.  Fry the bitter gourd slices until well soften before adding the canned dace fish (break into smaller pieces) and salted black beans.  I added the sauce from the canned dace fish too for its saltiness...sorry, that's why the bitter gourd looks darkly-coloured.  If you use just the salted black beans, it'll probably look more presentable and appetising.

#3 - Stir-Fried Bitter Gourd with Anything

You can pretty much stir-fry bitter gourd with anything.  I usually do it with homemade fish cake or pork slices though I like it with egg the best.  You can also do it simply with just salted black beans or taucheo (salted fermented soybeans).

#4 - Bitter Gourd Omelette

Another dish you'd find in a chap fan line, though not as common as the earlier stir-fried bitter gourd with eggs, is this bitter gourd omelette.  It's not as popular with kids (and some adults) who love eggs but not in an omelette with bitter gourd...lol.

I used 1/4 of a bitter gourd with 2 eggs for this omelette dish.  Again, I ate this over 2 meals...since I'm the only one who appreciates bitter gourd in my family! >.<

#5 - Bitter Melon Soup with Pork Ribs

Since I'm making soup in a slow cooker with pork ribs, I can afford to cut the bitter gourd into larger chunks for both to simmer slowly till tender (the bitter gourd needs only about an hour to get soft, so slow-cook your pork ribs first).  I think the pith (the white part) contributes to the bitterness, so removing most of it (and the seeds) is critical, especially so if we're boiling the bitter gourd for a period of time to minimise the bitterness that would otherwise get into the soup.

I added some white peppercorns to introduce a bit of heat into the soup which also helps to reduce bitterness, if any.  My bitter melon soup (that only I would drink) is made with half a bitter melon and one strip of pork ribs.  Hot soup with a bit of rice is especially good on a cold, rainy evening.

#6 - Bitter Gourd Soup with Pork Slices

If I want to make a soup that doesn't need hours of boiling and simmering, I would make a quick soup by cooking it over the stove (or, in my case, over the induction cooker).  For this, I slice the bitter gourd thinly so that it softens quickly.

Once that softens (it only takes about 5 minutes), you can add in the pork slices (also thinly sliced and marinated in cornflour and some soy) as they cook very quickly (another 2 minutes).  It's just like the way they make pork noodles.

#7 - Bitter Gourd Pork Noodles

This is my favourite pork noodles with bitter gourd from my neighbourhood stall.  The bitter gourd slices are sliced ever so thinly so that it gets cooked and softened easily.  So good with my choice of yee mee.  It's pretty similar to the bitter gourd soup I make at home, only this one comes with the innards I love.

The bitter gourd he gets for his noodles have even fatter ridges than the ones I buy.  He cuts it so thinly that it's almost transparent.  Let me show you up close just how far apart the ridges are! ;)

This is one vegetable that doesn't get much love during CNY obviously because of its name....fu gua due to its pronunciation.  He hardly get any orders for it (with pork noodles) during this period, especially not from the elderly who avoids it like the plague, he says.  He may get some orders from young people who are oblivious to its connotation! ;D

#8 - Deep-Fried Snake Gourd

Side tracking a bit, I've included this snake gourd in my post coz I used to mistake it for bitter gourd initially. They're only similar to bitter gourd in looks but don't taste bitter.  This snake gourd is seldom found in chap fan lines (they prefer to cook bitter gourd instead) but commonly found in Indian restaurants where I used to eat them...either as a stir-fried vegetable or deep-fried with spices to a crisp (mmm, my favourite).  I suppose you can deep-fry bitter gourd in the same way too.

For those who like a bit of bitterness in their lives (lol), cook the bitter gourd in a soup as the bitterness tends to leak out into the soup and you'll be able to taste the bitterness a bit more.  Cook them in a stir-fry with other proteins if you wish to mask the bitterness or possibly taste none at all.

Now that you know just how simple it is to choose the right bitter gourd (that's not bitter or hardly bitter), all of us should try to eat more bitter gourd for its immense health benefits.  So, with fears of getting a bitter tasting bitter gourd allayed, I've been cooking this humble vegetable more often at home now! ^_~