Cooking with ChiliCult: Fried Egg with Bitter Melon (Kugua Chaodan)

KuGuaChaoJiDan

Bitter melon or bitter gourd (Momordica charantia, goya in Japanese, kugua in Chinese) is one of those vegetables that are extremely healthy, apparently – and a particularly bitter medicine.

The recipe is one of the Chinese vegetable recipes that are really simple.

The combination of egg and salt with bitter melon is a great way of approaching this vegetable.

Kugua Chao Jidan
This is a version made with more eggs, of course

These two ingredients – egg, and salt – nicely dampen the bitterness, making it easier to learn to enjoy bitter melon even if you don’t have a wife making you eat it:

Kugua Chaodan – Bitter Melon Fried Egg

One of the standard Chinese ways of preparing bitter melon, good for beginners
Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese

Ingredients
  

  • 1 bitter melon
  • 1 egg
  • salt

Instructions
 

  • Half the bitter melon lengthwise, remove the seeds and pulp with a spoon.
  • Cut the de-seeded bitter melon into thin slices (half-moons).
  • Stir-fry the bitter melon slices in a bit of hot oil (just to get them done and maybe a bit softer, though they won't be really soft, nor get browned).
  • Crack the egg into the pan, stir-fry to cook and mix with the bitter melon.
  • Add salt.
Keyword bitter melon

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