1) Slice it lengthwise and discard the seeds in the center. Slice them thinly (about 1/4" wide), sautee them in a pan with a little vegetable oil. Stir until they're almost soften. Add a couple of scrambled eggs and keep stirring until the eggs are cooked. Add salt (or soy sauce or fish sauce) & pepper to taste. Serve.

2) Cut them in 1 1/2" to 2 ", take all the seeds in the center, so that it looks like little tubes. Stuff the center with a mixture of ground pork, vermicelly noodle (thin & clear kind, soak in warm water to soften), dry mushrooms (chopped),chopped green and/or regular onion, salt & pepper (to taste). Cook in any type of stock (chicken, pork or beef) until soften. Serve as a side soup dish. In the same preparation, you can also steam them in a steamer until the bitter melon had soften and serve.

Sorry, but I normally don't cook using measurement. Hope these helps.

Good luck to you.

Natalie

recipes for you

Here is a link that might be useful: Bitter Melon Recipes

I love bitter melon soup, just like Natalie's recipe above.

Some people boil the bitter melon quickly first for 2-3 minutes in water (after preparing them), to reduce the bitterness. Discard the water. Then proceed to make the soup in a second boiling in stock.

I like it fried- (sort of balances out the healthful aspects, huh?). Cut several in half, scrape out the seeds, slice thinly (little moon shapes), salt and let sit a bit. Squeeze off as much juice as you can (or care to) and then rinse. Fry until just turing brown. My husband, and two of my three daughters love it this way. The thinner the slices the better.

I have two bitter melon on the table getting ready for lunch - will be a stir fry today though.

Marilee

Remove seed cavity. Chop and sautee in olive oil with onion and garlic. Also you can add a little bit of chopped chicken if you would like. I add some miso paste as well as a little soy sauce. Very easy and yummy. Also if I'm in the mood I add a little egg. I want to retain the bitter taste so I don't bother with efforts to remove it. And remember bitter does not equal bad!! Enjoy.

Slice them and dehydrate using dehydrator or you may sun dry them.Deep-fry and add salt pepper or some vegie. spice of your choice.Small pinch of sugar may be added if you like it.
Dehydrated bitter melon slices can stored for long time.These can be used for soup praparation when fresh (green) bitter melons are not available.

Chiman

absolutely love it as pickled which keeps in the fridge for about a couple of weeks.

slice them, add lots of salt, squeeze them using a cheese cloth which removes the bitterness, rinse in cold water. Next boil equal parts sugar and vinegar. Let cool. Pour over the bittermelon and store in a sterilized container.

This is an excellent relish to meat and fish.

Some recipe gems here... thanks for sharing... anyone else have more?

I just finally bought one of these melons about a week ago, and I have now cooked and eaten some 3 times. I love it!

I went to web to find recipes and the first one I tried, I have used 3 times. It's very good, though I did change it right away. I have added things to it that original version, so it's now my own recipe, and I know I like it more than I would have the original one. That one called for letting cut up melon sit in lots of turmeric and salt, then rinsing it well before cooking, but I have added more to the marinade and I DON'T rinse it. I am afraid that taking away the bitterness might also take away the melon's ability to do it's job. See:
http://milonee.net/bengali_recipes/bitter-melon/bittermelon.html
and some of the links on this page for health benifits of Bitter Melon.

Here is my version of the recipe called:

Bitter Melon Saute

Cut one or more bitter melons in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and the soft centre they sit in. Then cut the melon halves into small pieces. These pieces will be quarter moon shaped. They can be any thickness, but I make them about 1/4 inch thick or smaller. Toss these in lots of turmeric,
cumin, and salt and let them sit for an hour or more.

While they are marinading, slice an onion, several good sized garlic cloves, some leek, some fresh mushrooms and some protein, be it pork, chicken, turkey, tofu or maybe even some kind of fish.

After the marinading is done, saute only the melon pieces until they start to soften, then add the rest of the ingredients and saute till the onions are clear. Depending on what protein you are using, you might want to add that a little later, but before the onions are clear.

When done, just serve on a plate. You have both protein and veggies, so that could be your meal, or you could have other things with it. I like just that as my meal perhaps with some oat cakes or other biscuit or rice, etc.

Enjoy!! I sure do.

I am now also curious and anxious to try some of the other offerings from this discussion.

Happy New Year all.

Jeanne

The following post has links to several recipes.

They also have a lot of information on growing bitter melon.

http://yourhomegardenblog.com/vegetable-gardening/how-to-grow-exotic-and-delicious-bitter-melons-on-your-backyard

Here is a link that might be useful: http://yourhomegardenblog.com/vegetable-gardening/how-to-grow-exotic-and-delicious-bitter-melons-on-your-backyard

Just joined, and 4 posts linked to a brand new blog. Hmmm...

Most of the recepies given would be to bitter, except one which uses lots of salt to extrct some of the bitter tast.

I wonder why one want to eat something so bitter?
I guess it is a tradition and growing up with it.
Bitter taste is a natural warning that "DO NOT EAT IT"

I have tried it few times. First time, after soaking sliced BM for two day in salt water, Finally I boiled it. It was stil too bitter for me. I throuw it away. The second and third times I just buried the sliced BM in salt, extracted lots of bitterness by squizing it. Then I made an omlet combined with tomato and garlic. It was ok then.

Greetings,
I have writted a post in my blog about this bitter melon, http://www.greenlandhome.com/bitter-gourd/ there are also wonderful recipes at http://creativepooja.blogspot.com/2008/04/vow-bitter-gourd-round-up-and-voting

Bitter is good for your health ;-)

Bitternes is just a signal from natue to us.
Actually it is a form of mild punishment and not a reward. It it mother nature's way to keep us away from it. We do not know, it might taste sweet to some other creatures.
It is evident that excess of most bitter things is toxic and harmful, eventhough they bight be cure for some of our illnesses.
The nature has developed this system over a span of millions of years. Of course, we humans do not go just by
our natural system of insticts and taste, because we have accumulated knowedge due to our bigger brain. So then we sometimes selectivly eat things that are bitter, like a lot of medicines. So then , bitter melon may be consumed for medicinal reasons but not because of its nutitious value.