Bitter melon
Hello, and welcome to our newest members!
We just got back from Taiwan and are catching up on CSA tasks, like this newsletter.
For years, bitter melon has scared me. I don’t remember my grandparents ever cooking it for my sisters and me, or ordering it at restaurants. Even during two seasons of enthusiastically growing it — I love how the vines smell deliciously nutty — I couldn’t bring myself to try it. It didn't help that Steven told me he ate it as a kid and detested it. When he asked his dad how to acquire a taste for bitter melon, his dad told him, "Eat more bitter melon."
Then, last week, Steven and I stayed with friends in Tainan, and they had just bought a dark green, bumpy, beautiful bitter melon at the local market. It had so much character, I could have kept it for a pet. We decided to follow a recipe from this Taiwanese cookbook, chopping and blanching it, then sautéing it with scrambled eggs, salt, and white pepper. (The Woks of Life has basically the same recipe here, by the way.)
I think we undercooked the bitter melon, because its crescent-shaped pieces had some serious chew to them, but blanching eased much of its bitterness, to my relief. I’d eat bitter melon again, and good thing, too, because we’re growing five times as much of it this season as we attempted to last year.
Still, I wasn’t brave enough to try bitter melon juice, available at juice stands wherever we went:
Cheers,
Elizabeth