If you've never had bitter melon before, it's bitter. (Really?!) Well, there's more to the story than that.
In Chinese, there are 2 words for bitter, "foo" (苦) and -- hmmm...both phoneticizations I can think of are problematic, so I'll go with the less offensive one -- "gum" (甘). "Foo" refers to the regular unpleasant type of bitterness. "Gum" is associated with a type of sweet bitterness that you taste in the back of your tongue, almost in the throat. Some very strong teas are described this way too. In Japanese, the character for "gum" in fact just means "sweet". However, bitter melon in Chinese is called "foo gua" (苦瓜) and not "gum gua" (甘瓜). Go figure.
In Chinese traditional medicine, bitter melon is said to be very "cooling", which is why another name for it is "leung gua" (涼瓜), or "cooling melon". While I'm not too familiar with the ins and outs of Chinese traditional medicine, one thing for sure is that bitter melon packs a bunch of vitamin C!
Ingredients
- 2 bitter melons
- 8 Chinese dried dates -- Not mummified potential Asian partners. Dried dates are often used to sweeten desserts or soups, which complements the bitterness in this case.
- 1.5 tbsp goji berries
- 2 of slices ginger
- salt
Method
- Cut off the stems of the bitter melons, then slice them in half lengthwise.
- Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds.
- Slice the bitter melons into 1 cm slices.
- Mix the bitter melon with a generous amount of salt and let it sit for 10 minutes. This helps mitigate the bitterness.
- Rinse off the salt and place bitter melon, dried dates, goji berries and ginger into a pot.
- Add 5 Chinese rice bowls of water. This is a standard measure in a Chinese kitchen. And when you visit a doctor of Chinese traditional medicine, they will tell you how much water to use to boil the medicine with this unit of measure. A proper standard Chinese rice bowl of course must have pictures of bald children playing ping pong or holding a peach (a symbol of longevity).
- Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a low simmer.
- Simmer covered for 20 minutes.
- Salt to taste -- about 1-2 tsp.
This is a great soup to have when you feel over eaten or have eaten too much grease. It's soothing and very healthy!
