Bitter melon may also be eaten raw when thinly sliced raw nevertheless it indubitably’s in most cases cooked. Bitter melon may also be stir-fried, parboiled, or filled.
The bitter melon picked at maturity may well be bitter. The younger, thinner, shorter and colourful green bitter melon may well be a lot much less bitter tasting.
The bitter melon harvest season runs from mid-spring by the use of late summer time.
Learn how to Choose Bitter Melon
- Make a selection bitter melons which may also be small, colourful green, corporate, and without blemish or mold.
- Glossy dark green specimens may well be a lot much less bitter tasting.
Learn how to Store Bitter Melon
- Keep the bitter melon wrapped in a paper towel in a perforated plastic bag inside the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.
- Bitter melons do not freeze well.
Learn how to Get able Bitter Melon
- Bitter melon does no longer need to be peeled if sliced thinly. On the other hand you are able to trim and peel simply the bitter melon.
- Seeds may also be removed or no longer; they’ll ship an additional bitterness to a serving in particular for the reason that gourd matures. To remove the seeds, scale back the gourd into slices and pop out each and every seeds and pith at the side of your finger, leaving a green ring, or halve the gourd lengthwise and scoop out the seed.
- Bitter melon may also be sliced crosswise into 1-inch or thinner rounds previous than cooking.
- To stuff bitter melon, halve crosswise and ream out the core of seeds and pith.
- To draw the bitterness from the bitter melon, slice and liberally salt it and set aside for 30 minutes. You are able to then press or squeeze the slices, and press yet again, and pat dry previous than using. If the bitter melon is still too bitter blanch the slices in boiling water–1 teaspoon of baking to two quarts of water–until the melon turns a colourful emerald color then plunge it in cold water, and drain previous than cooking.
Bitter Melon Cooking Concepts
- Bitter melon is not served raw.
- Deep-fry, stir-fry, sauté, braise, steam, and bake bitter melon.
- Serve diced in curries, stir-fries or pickles, or full of meat, shrimp, spices, and onions.
- Steam and serve with pink meat, onions, ginger, and black bean sauce, or in soups. Season with cumin and turmeric.
- Parboil like zucchini and serve as a vegetable.
- Season bitter melon slices with salt, turmeric, and just a little bit chili and then deep fry or remove the central pith and stuff this gourd with seasoned minced pink meat, shrimp and chopped onion, or fish paste previous than baking.
- More youthful shoots and leaves may also be cooked like spinach.
Learn how to Stir Fry Bitter Melon
- Scale back the bitter melon partly lengthwise.
- Remove the seeds with a metal spoon.
- Scale back the halves into thin slices crosswise.
- Blanch the slices for 2 to a couple of minutes in boiling water or sprinkle salt over the slices then place them in a colander to drain for 15 minutes. This may most probably remove one of the bitter taste.
- Get able seasonings comparable to chili pepper flakes, minced garlic, chopped onions or bell pepper.
- Heat a wok over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil.
- When the oil is sizzling, add the minced garlic and chili combination.
- Stir-fry briefly until aromatic about 30 seconds.
- Add the bitter melon slices and stir-fry for kind of 2 minutes.
- Splash with the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.
- Stir in a 1/2 teaspoon sugar.
- Get ready dinner until the bitter melon softens and starts to brown, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Stir in a few drops soy sauce or sesame oil if desired.
To stir fry with eggs whisk two eggs with soy sauce, pour the eggs over the bitter melon in Step 9 above about 1 minute after together with the bitter melon to the wok.
Learn how to Steam Bitter Melon
- Get able halves and then slice crosswise.
- Place the bitter melon in a steamer basket in a large saucepan, cover and let steam over gently boiling water until fork-tender, about 10 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the pieces.
Learn how to Boil Bitter Melon
- Halve the bitter melon, remove the seeds, and then slice it crosswise or boil the halves.
- Place the bitter melon in a large pot and easily cover with water.
- Get ready dinner over medium heat until clean, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Bitter Melon Style Partners
- Steadiness the bitterness with intense flavors comparable to chili, garlic, tamarind, ginger, sweet soy, miso, fermented black beans, fish sauce, dried shrimp, and curry paste.
- Have compatibility the bitter melon towards sweet vegetables comparable to winter squash, sweet potatoes, and corn.
Bitter Melon Diet
- Bitter melon is a smart provide of iron and ascorbic acid and diet C.
Get to Know Bitter Melon
- Bitter melon is regularly referred to as bitter gourd, bitter cucumber, or balsam pear. This fruit-vegetable is related to gourd, melon, and cucumber. Emerging bitter melon requires all the an identical necessities required for emerging cucumbers and melons.
- Bitter melons expand from 3 to 12 inches (7-30 cm) long on vines with tendrils that expand between 22 and 32 ft (6.7-9.7 m) long.
- The bitter melon is shaped like a cucumber with a deeply and unevenly furrowed and warty pores and pores and skin. It is mild yellow early on, becomes greener as it matures, and ripens after all to a yellow-orange-red color becoming additional bitter and acrid as it matures.
- The bitter melon has a thick, dry, pearly-colored flesh with a large number of white seeds. The melon’s over the top quinine content material subject material supplies it a bitter taste despite the fact that some review the way of the bitter melon to the citrus pith and consider the flavor cool and cleansing.
- Bitter melons produce their first finish consequence about 2 months after sowing. The fruit follows a vanilla-scented flower. The main melons may also be picked when they are as small as1-inch long. If left on the vine until completely ripe, the pulp will grow to be blood-red and the fruit will lower up into 3 sections at the flower end.
- Bitter melons are native to tropical India and Africa and have been in cultivation for centuries. The bitter melon is most up to date inside the cookery of India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and China.
- Bitter melon is most up to date in Asian cookery. There is a long-standing consider in Asia that the rest bitter tasting is very good for you and can even have healing power. Inside the Western cookery, bitter melon is reasonably of an received taste.
The botanical name of bitter melon is Momordica charantia.
