Bitter But ...Bitter Sweet

Bitter..But..Bitter Sweet

We are enjoying summer with warm sunshine, loving friends, families, relatives and farmers markets. It is like a tradition to meet all the families every summer. One morning, It was last summer at the farmers market, a lady was asking about how to cook that biter gourd ( Bitter Melon). At that time, I would love to explain, should she believe me. But I stayed quiet as she was asking the shop owner and my instinct of being a teacher had to stop at that moment.

  Actually, that type of vegetable is really bitter and we were not able to eat when we were  small because of its bitterness. Our mom cooked this dish frequently as a side dish to pair with Fish curry for the family.

As we get older, we can bare the bitter taste and sometimes love to consume. For me, I love the way my mom cook that bitter melon into two methods.  It can be cooked in different methods depends on the  different country.There are two types of bitter melons.  One is more bitter than the other. Both are available at asian store.

Bitter Melon has different natural medicinal value . We could google it anyway. It is a common belief that this vegetable can control the blood sugar level and good for the diabetic patients. It can also be used to treat respiratory infection and chronic cough. But whatever it is, may be one day, medicine can be manufactured from bitter melon.

As for me, I will make two types of side vegetable dish for main entry. One type is stir fry with dry shrimp . The other one is meat stuffed Bitter melon . Hope you can come up with  your own idea to make fusion bitter melon dishes to stimulate your own taste bud.

Wish you all have a sweet life forever.

 Stir Fry Bitter Melon ( Serves 2)

Ingredients

2 cups  Sliced Bitter Melon
1/2 cup Chopped Sweet onion
1 tsp     Chopped garlic
1 tsp     Chopped green chili or red chilli
1 tsp     Fish sauce
1 tbsp   Chopped raw shrimp or dried shrimp
2 tbsp   Canola oil
1/2 tsp  Turmeric powder

Instructions

1. In the stir fry pan, add oil and heat the pan on the stove top with medium high heat.
2. Add chopped onion and garlic then stir till translucent.
3. Add shrimp and fish sauce, stir for one minute and make it fragrant.
4. Add Sliced Bitter mellon and add just enough water. Then cover the pan to make vegetable be soften.
5. Add salt to your own taste. When the water are evaporated  and the vegetable is soften t it is ready to serve.

Meat Filled Bitter Melon.

Ingredients

1 cup Ground Meat ( either Chicken or Pork)
1/2 cup Ground Shrimp
1 tbsp  Chopped Garlic
3 tbsp  Fine Chopped Onion
1 tbsp  Corn Starch
1 tsp    Ground Black Pepper
2 Tbsp  Canola Oil
1 Tbsp  Light Soy sauce
1 tsp     Salt
1 tsp     Fish Sauce
1/2 tsp  Turmeric Powder

Instructions

1. In the mixing bowl, add meat and ground shrimp.
2. Add Salt, ground black pepper, corn starch, soy sauce,chopped garlic, onion leave one tbsp for cooking. Mix it well to blend everything together.
3. Cut the bitter melon into crosswise, cut 1 inch thick and remove the seeds.
4. Fill that bitter melon slices  with meat mixture.
5. After preparing all the vegetable, add into the pan( 2 qt size ).
6. Add the rest of the chopped onion, fish sauce, turmeric powder, oil and 1 cup of water.
7. Cover the pan and Cook on the stove top with medium high heat.
8. When the water is evaporated , see if the vegetable is soft.
9. Cook all the water are gone and fragrant.
10 . It is ready to serve.

Summer is Here ... Farmers are Happier

As I have been living in Minnesota for more than 15 years, I feel at home and I do not really mind the season changes or hash cold winter with bundle of snow. But if there is the question of which season is my favorite, then it is summer in Minnesota. Beautiful flowers blooming, warm sunshine and Birds singing playfully.

Another beauty of Summer is Farmers Market. Yes! of course most of the fresh vegetables that we long for whole winter are available, to our excitement. We always feel excited about the fresh summer vegetables available at every farmers market.
At the market, Cauliflowers are fresh and taste is totally different from the local grocery store. They are flavorful and sweet. It is also tradition for me to make cauliflower preserve as we grew up eating it.

In Burma when winter come, in the month of November and December, winter vegetables are available and fresh too. In those days, my mom made the vegetable preserve known as pickled cauliflower. It is resembles indian style pickled dish and we love this type of food as the seasonal favorite. Lucky me, because this summer, my in laws are here and my mom in law is happily help me prepared that pickle. She made it better than me. To honor to both Mothers I would like to share the recipe for this summer.

Cauliflower Preserve ( Vegetable Pickle)

Ingredients

1lb.     Cauliflower  ( Cut into small pieces)
1/2 lb. Carrot  ( Cut match sticks)
1/2 lb. Daikon ( Cut match stick)
1 cup   Vinegar
3 tbsp  Salt
1 cup   Sugar
1 cup   Gram masala
1 tsp    Mustard seeds
1 tsp    Red Chili powder
3 cups  Canola oil
1 tsp    Turmeric powder
1/2 cup Garlic

Instructions

1. Cut the vegetables as mentioned above. Let  them dry in the sun for 2 days to dehydrate  the vegetable. then store the big salad bowl overnight.

2. Add vinegar, sugar and salt to season the vegetable for 24 Hour to make all the flavor soak in.

3.Cut the peeled garlic into half and let it sit in 1/3 cup of vinegar for 6 hour.

4. In the cooking pan. Heat up the oil with Medium high then add the mustard and cumin together with turmeric powder.

5. Add the Gram masala and chili powder and turn down the heat to lower setting not to burn the chili and masala.

6. When the chili and masala are blended with oil add the garlic, vinegar into the pan. Then stir constantly.

7. Finally, add the vinegar soaked vegetable into the pan and stir to make sure the vegetables and seasoned oil are mixed.

8. Turn off the heat and let it cool .

9. When it is cooled down we can store the pickled vegetables in a clean and dry glass jar for a few month in the fridge.

10. We could serve directly just after it cooked. But I would recommend it after ( 5- 7 days) to make sure the flavor soaked into the vegetable.

( Note. It is also a great tasty complementary vegetarian side dish for either butter rice or biryani rice.)