Momordica charantia is a tropical and subtropical vine widely grown in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. In some countries, it is known as bitter melon or bitter gourd because of the bitterness of the fruit while in the Philippines it is called ampalaya, and in Japan, it is known a goya (ゴーヤ).
Bitter gourd is a rich source of vitamin C, which helps strengthen the immune system to fight many diseases, encourage wound healing, and is crucial for growth and development (Alam et al. 2015). Additionally, due to its rich vitamin A and beta-carotene, which are beneficial for eye health and improved vision, bitter gourd is even found to be effective in treating dark circles under the eyes.
In the Philippines, bitter gourd is commonly consumed by diabetic patients because it is believed to help lower blood sugar levels. While in Japan, bitter gourd is part of the diet for Okinawans who live passed 100 years old. This “miracle” melon has been used in various Asian traditional medicine systems for centuries because of how it is known to prevent and treat various diseases including “asthma, constipation, colic, diabetes, cough, fever (malaria), gout, helminthiases, leprosy, inflammation, skin diseases, ulcer, and wound” (Kole et al. 2020).
Ingredients
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 red or white onion
- Cooking rice wine
- Seasame oil (or vegetable oil)
- Meat of your choice (such as these pork sausages) or an egg (for vegetarians)
- 1 bitter gourd
- Salt, for taste
Method
Step 1: Wash your bitter gourd and let it drip dry
Step 2: Peel and dice your garlic and onion
Step 3: Slice your pork sausage, or for vegetarians, crack an egg into a bowl and mix.
Step 4: Cut your bitter gourd in half, scoop out seeds, then slice into strips.
Step 5: Turn on stove boil 50mL of water in the pan.
Step 6: Once water comes to a boil, add the pork in and allow it to simmer.
Step 7: Once the water evaporates, push all the pork sausages to one side of the pan, then add the oil and allow to heat before adding the garlic and onions.
Step 8: Once the garlic and onions have browned, add the bitter gourd.
Step 9: When the bitter gourd turns a bit translucent, mix all the ingredients together.
Step 10: Add the rice wine and salt; and simmer.
Step 11: Serve over rice.
References
Alam, M. A., Uddin, R., Subhan, N., Rahman, M. M., Jain, P., & Reza, H. M. (2015). Beneficial role of bitter melon supplementation in obesity and related complications in metabolic syndrome. Journal of lipids, 2015, 496169. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/496169
Kole, C., Matsumura, H., & Behera, T. K. (2020). Medicinal Properties of Bitter Gourd: Bioactives and Their Actions. In The Bitter Gourd Genome (pp. 33–44). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15062-4_3
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