Bitter melon curtain for shade

At this time of year, my uncle and aunt have a bitter melon curtain growing in front of their living room. As the room faces south, it serves as a shade when it is sunny. This year, the plants have grown high. From outside, the inside of the house can be hardly seen because of this green curtain. From the living room, however, you can see outside well. When I visited them last Sunday, there were some bitter melons that were already big enough to eat.

They gave me one of them. Since a bitter melon can be very bitter, I had seldom used them for cooking.

From my cookbook of curry, I found a recipe of bitter melon coconut curry. The main ingredients were bitter melon, tomato, onion, and coconut milk.

I made it as follows. It was a bit different from the book. To make curry, I usually use a wok.
1. Remove the seeds from the bitter melon and cut it into slices. Cut the onion into slices and chop the tomato into chunks.
2. Put sesame oil and some cumin seeds in the wok and heat them over low heat until bubbles appear.
3. Put the bitter melon and the onion in the wok and cook them for several minutes.
4. Add the tomato and a little water, put the lid on the wok, and heat until the tomato becomes mushy.
5. Add 100 cc coconut milk, a pinch of salt, coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric, and some water and cook with the lid (I cooked about 10 minutes).

When I make curry, I’m not very exact about the amounts of spices. They are somewhere between 1 tablespoon and 1/4 tablespoon. But I put chili powder much less than other spices. The curry looked like this.

I made curry with bitter melon for the first time. The bitter melon was bitter, but not too bitter. It was also mild because of the coconut milk. It was a good combination.

Bitter melon has been winning popularity in recent years. It is called “goya”, which comes from the dialect in Okinawa, a subtropical island prefecture. Bitter melon is one of their representative vegetables, and they have a very famous local dish called “goya champuru.” According to recipes on the Internet, it seems to be a stir fry dish and is usually made from bitter melon, pork, tofu, and egg. To make a vegan version, I prepared bitter melon, deep-fried tofu, tofu, and yam (grated later).

I made it as follows.
1. Drain the tofu and cut it into small pieces.
2. Cut the bitter melon into slices (after removing the seeds) and the deep-fried tofu into small pieces.
3. Grate the yam and add turmeric to it (substitute for an egg).
4. Cook the bitter melon, deep-fried tofu, and tofu in the wok with sesame oil for several minutes and add soy sauce.
5. Add the yam to the ingredients in 4, mix well, put the lid on the wok, and cook for a few minutes.
The vegan version looked like this. I wondered if it could be called goya champuru. Ordinary goya champuru seemed to have bonito flakes on top, but I didn’t add anything.

As with the curry, the bitter melon wasn’t too bitter. But I thought I should have added some other seasoning as well. Later, I learned that champuru means mixture, and you can mix what you like. Maybe I’ll mix tomato sauce next time.