Comments on Thai Food by SheSimmers: Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup Thai-Style (แกงจืดมะระไส...

I love bitter melon too!! I had a boyfriend who m...

2012-01-27T03:27:13.211-06:00

I love bitter melon too!! I had a boyfriend who made it for me the first time - he stuffed it with pork Chinese style and I was hooked. I make it for myself now and have turned many people on to it. I feel that the sweetness of the pork makes a perfect balance with the bitterness. I have cooked out the bitterness but I try not to any more. I find I crave the bitter flavor too.

My mum makes delicious bitter melon omelette. A fe...

2011-11-16T14:46:32.287-06:00

My mum makes delicious bitter melon omelette. A few eggs beaten with very thinly bitter melon, coriander leaves, green onions, seasoned with salt and pepper and a splash of fish sauce. Sometimes she also adds a bit of chopped up salted dikon (salty and crunchy!). My sisters and I love it with rice porridge! You can hardly taste the bitterness.

It is one of those things, you either love it or y...

2011-10-03T22:49:50.456-05:00

It is one of those things, you either love it or you don't. It is amazing how similar our food is, Leela.

I love bitter melon. It is like crack to me. I cra...

2011-07-01T00:40:14.125-05:00

I love bitter melon. It is like crack to me. I crave it every couple of weeks. I never liked it as a kid but now I love it when stir fried with salted duck egg. Look for the salted duck egg at any Chinese market. You just mash up the egg and stir fry the bittermelon first until it turns slightly brown and add in the salted duck egg! I love it! I think the saltiness counteracts/complements the bitter. Delicious combo!

cool

2010-09-01T16:42:26.260-05:00

cool

My mom seeds and washes it, then chops it up and s...

2010-02-17T15:58:52.809-06:00

My mom seeds and washes it, then chops it up and sautes it with tomatos,onions,garlic and ginger and pours it over rice.It isnt' my favorite thing, but she loves it. I love all of your suggestions. I have seen recipes for stuffing it with ground shrimp too.

my grandfather was from the philippines and would ...

2009-12-16T00:59:54.283-06:00

my grandfather was from the philippines and would slow boil a whole chicken chopped into large pieces (bones and all) with bitter melon, fresh ginger and garlic. I'm sure there was some soy sauce in there somewhere. He would serve it over white rice. To this day my family swears that it is a health tonic and the very best way to knock out a cold. I love to eat it this way and cook it on occasion in his honor.

i LOVE bitter melon. i used to hate it but now i ...

2009-11-24T07:29:34.258-06:00

i LOVE bitter melon. i used to hate it but now i can dig it. i've had it this way and also, just scrambled with eggs. to fight off the bitterness, i blanch it first and then cook it.

I've never tried bitter melon, been a wooze, b...

2009-11-07T20:36:48.275-06:00

I've never tried bitter melon, been a wooze, but maybe I'll brave it if I can be guaranteed results as you described. I've just heard such horror stories that its got me scared silly.

I grew up eating this with the exception that we s...

2009-11-07T08:40:00.641-06:00

I grew up eating this with the exception that we season it with fish sauce instead of soy sauce. We also don't eat it as a soup. We dip pieces in fish suce with chillis and eat it with rice. My kids don't eat bitter melon so I make extra seasoned meat logs and add it to the the rest half way through the cooking time. Recently I started cooking extra meat and slicing up extra bitter melon. After we eat the meal I add the bitter melon slices to the broth and cook til done. Then I add the extra meat, some shrimp, rice, and scallions to make a soup for my lunches for the week :)

I've never tried bitter melon, would love to f...

2009-11-06T08:31:59.580-06:00

I've never tried bitter melon, would love to find it somewhere to try! Your soup looks fantastic!

How creative! I've never tried bitter melon ei...

2009-11-05T21:37:05.700-06:00

How creative! I've never tried bitter melon either - looks good

I don't think I've ever tried bitter melon...

2009-11-05T17:22:00.939-06:00

I don't think I've ever tried bitter melon, but I'd like to try it exactly like this!

Used to hate bitter melon but love it now! I usual...

2009-11-05T14:39:03.391-06:00

Used to hate bitter melon but love it now! I usually braise it with chicken though, this is new, looks and sounds great!

I love love love bitter melon, seriously. When I p...

2009-11-05T13:29:46.440-06:00

I love love love bitter melon, seriously. When I prepare it, I don't do any of that salting, squeezing, washing stuff to take away any bitterness--I WANT the bitterness!

My favorite bitter melon dish is a Filipino dish called Pinakbet. I wrote about it here: http://burntlumpia.typepad.com/burnt_lumpia/2007/08/pinakbet.html

Oh my parents tried to impress on my siblings and ...

2009-11-05T08:52:39.340-06:00

Oh my parents tried to impress on my siblings and I the wonders of bitter melon, from earth (very large garden) to table. It would be the only bit of local eating that I ever disliked and that was almost 25 years ago.

That said, like Tangled Noodle, I have been taught to seed and prodigiously scrape it before cooking. I have not cooked it in years. Maybe purging with salt like eggplant will make it edible...

The only time I found bitter melon palatable was stir fried, but sweetened with sugar to counter act the bitterness. The stir fry was prepared by a dear friend and she paired the bitter melon with strong tasting lamb. I vaguely remember tasting black bean in the sauce...

i love this, unfortunately no one else does in my ...

2009-11-05T08:12:13.087-06:00

i love this, unfortunately no one else does in my household !

Oh dear, I can't think of a scientific explana...

2009-11-05T07:41:57.546-06:00

Oh dear, I can't think of a scientific explanation either! (But if I had sufficient resources, I'd test it...)
I'm not a fan of ampalaya, unfortunately... I taste it maybe once a year to see if I'm "mature" enough to handle it, but maybe I'm a supertaster (heh) and I can't take it!

I'm not a big fan of bitter melon, but I do ea...

2009-11-04T22:58:26.089-06:00

I'm not a big fan of bitter melon, but I do eat it every once in a while. There's a dish in the Philippines called ampalaya. I think is sauteed with some other veg. I'd be interested in trying in soup.

We normally eat stir fried bitter melon & shor...

2009-11-04T22:17:11.584-06:00

We normally eat stir fried bitter melon & short spare ribs/beef/squid with black bean sauce here. Also we drink white bitter melon juice with lime and honey.

My one and only attempt at cooking bitter melon (a...

2009-11-04T21:52:51.875-06:00

My one and only attempt at cooking bitter melon (ampalaya in Tagalog) was a failure of epic proportions. I did everything my mother told me to remove the bitterness - seeded it, scraped off the pith/white parts, sprinkled with salt and let sit - but to absolutely no effect. It was so bad that I've been put off from trying it again. Perhaps your recipe could convince me otherwise . . .

With that said, I love eating it when it's prepared by others! 8-)

While I lived in southern Japan, they would prepar...

2009-11-04T21:05:47.380-06:00

While I lived in southern Japan, they would prepare bitter melon as a stir fry called Chanpuru. It wasn't so bad. I've tried to make it myself at home and haven't had very good results. Always ends up too hard or too bitter. 30 mins in chicken stock looks like a good way to fix that! I will have to try it out.
I actually went to a bitter melon festival there, and got to try it cooked like 10 different ways, including pickled and chocolate covered!!