by Amy Saltzman
My CSA usually sends me recognizable vegetables, but this week I met my match: a mutant cucumber-looking thing that turned out to be bitter melon. What is bitter melon, you ask? It’s not an odd zombie fruit, but actually a plant of the tropics that is most commonly used in Indian and Chinese cuisine.
I learned a lot while trying to figure out what to do with this vegetable: there is a National Bitter Melon Council, proving that there really is a commodity interest group for…everything. Bitter melon is called “karela” in Hindi, so if you find yourself in need of a recipe, that may be a better Google search term than bitter melon. The bitter property is thought to be “cooling,” making it a summer vegetable, but the bitterness can be reduced by salting/resting/rinsing (like eggplant) and removing the bright red seeds. Still, recipes frequently refer to it as “an acquired taste,” “a bit of a shock,” and “best if you grew up eating it,” so I wasn’t quite sure what I was in for.
After surveying some friends, I settled on a recipe for a bitter melon coconut curry. There are lots of bitter melon curry recipes out there, but in the end, I picked the wittiest one, which referred to coconut milk as “the priest of this wedding between bitter gourd and mango.” Note: this is probably not the most sound reason to pick a recipe, but wasn’t a major misstep.
Ingredients:
1 mango, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 bitter gourd, halved, seeded, and chopped
1 onion, diced
2 hot peppers (I used jalapenos), diced
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
3 Tbsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. turmeric
1 c. coconut milk
Method:
1. Mix the chopped bitter gourd in a bowl with some salt and let sit for half an hour to remove some of the bitterness.
2. Sauté onions until soft, then add ginger and peppers.
3. Mix spices with a little water to make a paste, and add to pan when onions have browned.
4. Sauce for 5 minutes and add 1 cup of water; mix well.
5. Rinse bitter melon and add bitter melon and mango to the onion mixture. Simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Add coconut milk and taste. Add salt as necessary. Serve with rice.
So, I bet you’re wondering: how was it? Well…I don’t think bitter is a familiar flavor to the traditional American palate – or at least not to mine. The coconut milk definitely helps mellow the bitterness (trust me; I tasted the ingredients at various stages of preparation) but I felt like the whole point of the recipe was to mask the flavor, rather than complement it. I would make this recipe again – the mango and curry parts of the recipe were very tasty – but I feel like I’m missing something here. Does anyone have a better strategy for cooking bitter melon?
Amy Saltzman is an avid gardener and cook in DC. She is a member of the Lancaster County Farm Fresh and North Mountain Pastures CSAs.
Hi Amy – How unusual – and rather bold! – of your CSA to offer bitter melon. It IS bitter no matter what you do to it (part of its charm one might say) as the fruit contains quinine – an acquired taste is definitively a very good description.
I grew up on Reunion Island where bitter melon is grown and easily found at the market. Not everyone like it.
The younger the fruit the less bitter is is (but it is bitter, no matter what – have I say that yet?). Yours with its bright red seeds and orangy-flesh looks quite ripe. Maybe was harvested too late. The flesh should still be very pale in color – ditto the seeds. At least with the ones I was used.
Additionally, on Reunion Island, one not only remove the seeds but also most of the white pulp around them, scraping it down to almost just the rind. Thee say most of teh bitterness is in the seeds and the pulp. A traditional preparation is with salt cold, potatoes, tomatoes, and the usual spices (garlic, ginger, curcuma). Served with rice and sometime with a spicy green tamarind relish (the sourness of the tamarind “balances” out the bitterness… as I expected the sweetness of the coconut and mango do it too.)
What did your CSA suggest to do with it?
Amy, I just looked at the blog that you referenced, and I also see that the flesh of the bitter melon was white and the side whitish – not as mature as the one you had to work with! Definitively time to have a nice chat with your CSA… bitter melon is bitter but I think they harvested way too late.
Sylvie, thanks for the info! My CSA didn’t offer any specific serving suggestions, but it’s good to know about the ripeness issue!