Stuffed Bitter Melon

Whenever I buy an exotic, never-before-tried ingredient from the farmers market, the course of events generally follows these 10 steps:

1) Ooh and ahh at the breathtaking beauty of said produce at farm stand,

2) Return home in a manic frenzy, mind rushing with great dishes I intend to make,

3) Google recipes for said produce,

4) Make mental list of additional ingredients needed and obscure grocery stores where they can be purchased,

5) Forget mental list,

6) Spend rest of the week procrastinating on cooking project and becoming progressively more intimidated by said produce,

7) Ignore said produce,

8) Discover that said produce has now rotted,

9) Feel bad about myself,

10) Eat ice cream.

So it is with this history that I bought three Indian bitter melons from the Pershing Square Farmers Market last Wednesday. Widely grown in Asia, it is the most bitter of all fruits. A narrow, pointed, oblong-shaped gourd, the fruit has a skin covered in triangular teeth that would look more appropriate on the hide of a dinosaur than a squash. Known as Karela in Sanskrit, it is prescribed in both Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine traditions to treat digestive disorders and diabetes.

But does it taste good?

They’re not called bitter for nothing, but they are an acquired taste. Prepared right, and stuffed with something yummy, they do in fact taste good.

You can find very traditional recipes for stuffed Karela online, but I will refer you to steps 4 and 5 to explain why I did not try any of those recipes. Any tangy, spicy stuffing will do. I used what I had in my fridge.

For the filling

1 cup cooked chicken, diced

3 carrots, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

turmeric, 1 tsp

garam masala, ¼ tsp

cumin, 1 tsp

cayenne, ⅛ tsp

salt to taste

Saute garlic and carrots in 2-3 tbsp of oil until carrots start to soften. Add spices and salt and stir until spices are combined with oil. Add chicken and tomatoes and simmer until liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated. Set aside until melons are ready.

To prepare bitter melons

Cut off tips and slit the bitter melons lengthwise. Carefully use a spoon to scoop out the pith. Discard the pith.

Bring 4 cups of water and 1 tbsp of salt to a boil using a deep pot. Put the bitter melons in the salt boiling water, and cook until the flesh begins to soften. Remove from water, drain and rinse under cold water.

Fill one melon half with prepared chicken mixture. Place second half of melon on top of the filled half and tie with kitchen twine. Fry stuffed melons in 3-4 tbsps of oil until crispy.

Now I have a confession to make. I stuffed two melons with the chicken filling but I cheated with the third melon and stuffed it with some leftover goat cheese instead. Of course, anything stuffed with goat cheese is good, but the tanginess of the goat cheese cut the bitterness quite well. So if you want a really easy recipe, just stuff the melons with goat cheese and wrap in bacon rather than kitchen twine.

Although these melons seemed destined for a bitter ending, luckily I got up the nerve to cook them before they succumbed to rotting in my fridge.

I still ate ice cream.