Recipes

Bittermelon

My mom has a jungle in the backyard and she grows lots of yummy things. Greens for which I do not know the name in English for, varieties of chillies, and numerous varieties of squashes and pumpkins. One thing I love- and that not many people do- is bittergourd. Sometimes in stores it is refered to as Indian bittermelon. It is more “bumpy” than its cousin, the chinese bittermelon, which is less bitter and more common. I am sure there are better names for the veggies, rather than indian or chinese– those are just the labels I have seen in local stores.

My sister would soon visit, so I wanted to practice making one of her favorite dishes. It had been a while since we both enjoyed it together and I wanted to make sure I still remembered. She first had the dish during the summer of 2003 when we traveled along the Okinawan Islands. I had some of the most amazing food I had eaten in my stint in southern Japan. Okinawan food was rich, more like what you would associate with “homestyle” cooking, and even sometimes spicy. The pride in the ingredients can be seen in these recipe cards. (I’ll scan them soon:) ) One of the prized ingredients was “goya” or bittermelon. And peppers- that had a tiny kick to them-” Togarashi”. Wow, I think I found my second home. Two veggies, I can’t live without :).

The dish my sister loved was called “goya champon”. My mom would later be pleased- because it was the only way my sister really ever enjoyed bittermelon. For my sister bitermelon was probably the equivalent to the proverbial brussel sprout- even if the taste was masked with spices and mommy’s spice love. Champon in Japanese means “a mix of” or things that are simply “thrown together”. Although, like most things Japanese- there is of course a method.

The picture I have here is the recipe I used sans pork. If you want to use the original and go decadent, use a few slices of pork belly. Other less fatty cuts of pork work, too- use what you have.

Ingredients
Tofu, weighted to drain water. Do this first and cut and prep your other ingredients
Eggs, beaten in a bowl with a few drops of shoyu and mirin
Onions
Bittermelon, seeded, halved and cut thin
Sake
Mirin
Shoyu

Cook all the ingredients separately:

Start with the pork belly to grease up your pan. (place aside)
If you want to skip the pork belly, add a small amount of oil and start pan frying your tofu. (place aside)
Add a little more oil and scramle the eggs. (place aside)
Fry your onions and add your bittermelon. Add some mirin- this will take some of the bitterness out of the bittergourd. As the water from the veggies evaporate, add some sake. Add chili flakes if you like and toss all the other ingredients back in to the pan. Heat through.

This is good with a bowl of rice and soup or just solo.

© 2008 Eat Local NC.