monicaSPEAK

Bitter Melons...I can handle bitter.

Green Plum Cooking School – Saturday, June 26^th, 2010

As I walked outside this morning to see what the growers had brought to the market today, The Secret Garden had an unusual but beautiful item:  bitter melon. I’ve never cooked bitter melon before but I want to use it for today’s class, so I get a quick schooling from the Leungs.  Apparently, the white melons are less bitter than the green ones.  I turn to Lisa and wisecrack, “I’m pretty bitter….”

We also get some amaranth — the leaves, not the seeds — and some pretty leaf spinach that is lighter in color than the spinach we are used to seeing.  Also, amongst the bounty of the day, a woman attending the class, named Carolyn, gifts me some beautiful eggplant, peppers and tomatoes from her garden.

What a gift! Thank you, Carolyn.

My plan was to make a cherry tomato dressing.  Now that I have eggplant, I am going to pan-fry breaded eggplant and top it with the tomato dressing.  Today, I have some young assistants helping me with the tomato prep.  At some point, Carolyn (who is sitting in the front row), asks if I ever need unskilled labor to help out.  I think about this for a second and respond, “That’s all I’ve got!,” and look over at my sous-chef/volunteers who are proceeding to smash the cherry tomatoes rather than cut them in sixths or eights as I had instructed.  The boys were having fun, though, so I changed the title to Crushed Cherry Tomato Dressing.  There’s always a bright side, right?

Eggplant with Crushed Tomato Dressing

With this dressing, the juice from the tomatoes acts as the acid.  We don’t add any vinegar.  I’m hoping that while the boys are pulverizing the tomatoes that the juice stays in the bowl and doesn’t spill onto the table and floor.  I add garlic, sliced thinly, then extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

This has been a week of change for me – I have a new laptop computer (I am now happily living in the right world – the intuitive Mac world!) and a new cell phone (I don’t even know what 4G’sdoes for me, but I like it) – and I don’t like change.  But we all have to adapt, right?  And now I am trying to cook a new food – bitter melon – in front of a full class.  As I slice it, I remark that it looks a little like a cucumber.  Lisa Googles it and tells us that bitter melon IS in the cucumber family.  Aha!  This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened.  It’s almost as if I am vegetable-omniscient.

I then poll the Asians in the room to find out where they are from and if they have ever eaten bitter melon and if they like it.  Most said that, yes, their parents made them eat it and, yes, it is indeed bitter and it needs to cook a long time and it needs something to offset its bitterness.   I want to taste the bitter melon at every stage.  At Phase I (about 10 minutes into cooking), the first bite is extremely bitter.  At Phase 2 (about 10 more minutes into cooking), my second bite is more palatable, almost creamy.  Google tells us that bitter melon is most often used in Vietnamese soup.  This information prompts me to tell a story told to me by Mimi, one of my bartenders at Boulevard Bistrot who was with me for many, many years.  Mimi is Vietnamese and her father used to carry a small red shaker with him – all the time, everywhere – and he would sprinkle its contents on everything he ate.  He finally tells her what is in the little red shaker….cockroach urine.  This punch line elicits a groan of disgust from the audience and gasps from the Asian contingency.  No one believes it but, my hand to God, that’s the story she told.

Sauteed Amaranth & Spinach

While everyone is digesting that one, I proceed to sauté the spinach and amaranth.  We serve up all three dishes.  I really thought I bit off a little bit more bitter than I could chew this week, but it all worked out.  I have to say, very few people actually liked the bitter melon, though, even with some red curry sprinkled on it.  Maybe I should ask Mimi to send me a little red shaker for next time.

Good Things Come in Threes...

NOTE: The recipes used in my Green Plum Cooking School classes can be found in my online cookbook, “Eat Where Your Food Lives,” available for purchase at www.ChefMonicaPope.com