Watermelon Granita. Got a Blender or Food Processor? You can Make This Easy.

 Since it's been in the 100s up here in Sonoma this last week with 105 expected for Labor Day..it's not exactly cooking weather. So I decided to bring back an Oldie But Goodie which is a perfect cooling dish for any holiday festivities you may have planned. I made this just last week for the CocoaPlanet gang and it was such a hit I bought another watermelon to make one for the gang at home.....so return with me now to the days of yesteryear...back back to 2012 and Watermelon Granita.


This all started when I bought a watermelon for a Labor Day Barbeque at our house. I'd had so much fun making Watermelon Mousse that I decided what this house needs is more watermelon!! I was catching the tail end of the season here for good local watermelon but I secured one and decided that I'd make the watermelon mousse again for our Labor Day guests, but then I got lazy, one thing led to another and I decided on my crowdpleasereverybodysfiveagain desert for holiday cook outs, homemade vanilla ice cream and boxes of various types of cones. Make your own ice cream cone with sprinkles or... whatever. It always works and it's always fun to see people revert, and yet I had this watermelon just sitting there taking up space in the fridge. What to do?

   I decided to juice it. A bunch of friends have recently gotten themselves fancy juicers and blenders but I've still got my trusty old Oster. No fancy bells and whistles but it works. I chunked the watermelon into the blender and  juiced it. I mixed it with some iced green tea, fizzy water, a dash of lime juice and chia seeds. I figured that everybody would be hitting the beer and I'd be the only one drinking my watermelon concoction. Boy was I wrong. I barely got any. They liked it that much. I did what any other normal person would do. I bought more watermelon and juiced it. So there I was with a pitcher full of watermelon juice and nowhere to go. There had to be something else I could do with this stuff. Something like say.....granita?

   Granita, the perfect lazy individuals dessert. Pour stuff in the freezer and stir it with a fork every now and then. It does not get very much easier than that. Want this? Grab your watermelons and you can be enjoying this within a couple of hours.

Watermelon Granita

Here's What You Need:

1 seedless watermelon
a 13 x 12 glass baking dish..or smaller if you wish
1 Tbs of sugar

Here's What To Do:

Chunk the watermelon and blend it to juice in a blender or food processor.
Pour it into the baking dish.
Stir in 1 Tbs of sugar. I do this because I want to  keep the juice from freezing into a solid mass and sugar helps prevent that.
Rake the mixture with a fork after 30  minutes breaking the juice up into icy crystals. Keep doing this at 30 minute intervals for about 2 hours or until it's icy enough to scoop into a bowl.

   While I was waiting for my juice to freeze, I was wondering just what I could do to zip things up a bit. I figured that a lot of people (okay my family) has always sprinkled their watermelon with salt. But I didn't just want any salt. How about smoked salt? How about full on barbeque mesquite smoked salt?? Why not? Couldn't hurt. So I smoked some salt in a stove top smoker. It took 20 minutes.

 
   Light, refreshing, and above all easy, I dished up the combo of watermelon granita with a smokey dash of mesquite. Did it work? Yeah, it worked. For real.  More cool dishes for hot weather coming...meanwhile follow along on Twitter @kathygori

The Mango The Avocado and The Pom Part 3. The Anti (oxidant) Cocktail

   One thing I've learned living in Wine Country is that not everyone drinks. Or at least not everyone drinks all the time, everywhere. There are events, occasions, and reasons to want something cool,  refreshing, and non-alcoholic. I always welcome a party that offers me something more than the conventional soft drink as an alternative. I drink a lot of water, and as I've mentioned before, I wasn't brought up with the soda habit so any soft drink I'm going to be interested in had better bring the tart and tamp down the sweet. Which brings me to my final quick fix for those hot weather holiday parties. A Pom Anti-Cocktail.

   I might call it the  Anti Cocktail because it's a virgin (blush blush) that is, no alcohol. Or I might call it an Antioxidant Cocktail because pure pomegranate juice is packed with antioxidants. Either way this one hits the spot, and when there are all those random traffic checkpoints on The Fourth of July  weekend, you'll be glad you chose this.

Non Alcoholic Pomegranate Cocktail

Here's What You Need:

A bottle of PomWonderful pure pomegranate juice
1 or 2 Tbs of Kaffir Lime Simple Syrup use one to start with and check for sweetness
Ice cubes
Plain mineral water
Lime wedge (optional)

Here's What To Do:

Pour about 1 inch of pomegranate juice into a tall glass.
Add in the Karffir Lime syrup.
Drop in some ice cubes.
Gently pour in the mineral water.

Top with a lime wedge.
It's kind of cool to serve it this way as I like that blend of colors from dark to clear, but definitely stir it up before you drink it.

   Tall, cool, not too sweet, and it'll definitely keep you out of trouble this holiday weekend.
 Wishing my fellow USA'ers a Happy National Birthday and I hope everybody who's celebrating this week has a great time. I know we will.

   Coming up next , a very fast, gluten free, Indian alternative to the usual pasta or potato salad served at Summer Cookouts. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

The Mango, The Avocado and The Pom Part 1. Three Quick Fixes for the 4th of July

   I don't know how it happened so fast, but it seems like the 4th has just come up out of nowhere ready to bite me on the ass! We've been working hard to get the revisions on our pilot script turned in before all the stuff that's going to hit the fan next week involving my mom's surgery and assorted parent wrangling. I've actually found myself wondering what day it is. Not like" is it the 29th or the 30th," but like in days of the week.  Monday Tuesday, Friday. That sort of thing. This usually happens when work gets intense and we're burrowing away.

   What also happens at those times is I go on a simpler cooking schedule. I look for things I can do quickly and  easily to pep up plain cooking, always welcome since when work gets hectic, the first thing to suffer can be the menu. I cook lunch which is our main daily meal, about 6 days out of 7. Cooking an Indian menu, there are endless variations and twists, but sometimes (like now)  there's not always time for that.

   It's been hot around here too after a relatively cool summer, so there's that to take into consideration. Who wants to run a hot stove,which leads to running air conditioning.  So even though I've got about 5 or 6 new Indian recipes I'm eager to write about, I figured I'd share these very simple things one can do with just a few seasonal ingredients and almost no cooking.

   One of my mom's favorite movies is The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover .

 Now this is a movie that's definitely not for everyone, and I include myself in that category. But Fran for some perverse reason, loves it. Here's a sample.



   I love most of the films of Peter Greenaway, and of course anything with Helen Mirren, but I've just never been able to dock with this one. Fran thinks it's freaking hysterical. Maybe I need to give it another shot. After all, what can you say about a film whos costumes were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. It'll take you right back to those late 80's Madonna, Grace Jones videos. What I do love about it though is the title, which I'm lifting here, and why I'm calling this little excursion into fast dishes The Mango, The Avocado, and the Pom.

Part 1.

Balsamic Mango Salsa

 
Here's What You Need:

1 large mango or 2 small mangos
1 jalapeno pepper finely diced
3 Tbs of  chopped fresh cilantro
I small red onion finely chopped
3 Tbs of Mango White Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste.

Here's What To Do:

Peel and cut the mango into bite size cubes.
Mix it together with the  other ingredients.
Let it sit for a bit before serving.
That's it.

   Now if you've never heard of Mango White Balsamic Vinegar before, you're not the only one. Neither had I before I ran into one of the guys from this local company  Sonoma Harvest at coffee one morning. He had a bottle of coconut oil with him, and of course anybody carrying a bottle of coconut oil around Sonoma is definitely gonna get a look see from me. We got talking and he ran out to his car and started bringing in stuff for me to taste. There were some unusual and interesting flavors and he gave me some products to take home and play with.

   I loved the idea of some of the flavors I use in my Indian cooking turning up in vinegars. The salsa was the first time I used it, and it added a nice, acidic layer to the sweet mango and hot chili. I'm definitely going to be doing further experiments. I also love the idea of supporting a local business. Some of our neighbors up here in Sonoma make some of the best edible, drinkable stuff you'll find anywhere. Right now these products are available in RL only on the shelves of Sonoma Market here in town or online, but they tell me they may be coming to a town near you soon. If you can get your hands on some I recommend it as a change from regular balsamic.

   Coming up next I move along to the avocado as dessert. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Pumpkin Koftas, Meatless Meatballs For Meatless Monday

   Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays. I used to love the cold and foggy dark of San Francisco nights where I could barely see my candy bag in front of my face. Halloween as a kid meant the rare thrill of being out after dark, and the ability to run wild with a gang of neighborhood kids for a few magic hours.  It meant flickering candles in the mouths of shrieking jack o' lanterns, the sighing of the fog horns, the running slap of tennis shoes on the damp sidewalks and the barking of the seals on nearby Seal Rocks. Anything might happen on a night like that.

   Of course forgetting the costume and free candy part, that was what most nights in the Sunset district of San Francisco (otherwise known as The Outside Lands) were like. It was a sort of Bronte growing up, and it left me with a permanent soft spot for dark, dank nights when the clock falls back, lying in bed listening to the bark of seals, Halloween, and Jack O' Lanterns in the raw, aka Pumpkins. Yes, I'm a pumpkin freak. I admit it. The fruit/vegetable that can be sweet, savory and also scary? Dude, that's what I call versatile! I'm talking Justin Timberlake-acting-dancing-singing versatile. Except Justin Timberlake isn't vegan cause he, like the rest of us is technically made of meat.

   Well, we're smack in the middle of pumpkin season and there are a lot of things that can be done besides going all Nip and Tuck on them, Jack O' Lantern style. Now I happen to have a few (make that a buttload of) pumpkins around. I'd planned on carving and candeling them for Halloween but got too lazy, and so when Halloween rolled around, it was just Alan and me and Patsy the Husky and Johnny Depp (the neighbors cat) and nothing got done.

   So something had to be done with these pumpkins, and fast. Last year I'd had a similar intention and decided to store my extra pumpkins in the garage. Well, one thing led to another and I located one of the pumpkins sometime in the spring. Okay, I didn't exactly locate it. You couldn't miss it. Only it wasn't quite a pumpkin anymore. It was more like a pumpkinish  bathmat, all orange and fuzzy.

   This year I was determined that wasn't going to happen again. I had no excuses for neglecting my gourds because pumpkins aren't just for carving anymore. There are a whole raft of other  things  that one can do with them besides let them rot in the garage. One can make pies, and pasta sauces, breads and cookies, purees and gnocchi. One can also make  meatballs. Well, not really meatballs, more like meatless-balls otherwise known as koftas.

   Koftas are delicious, little puffy bites. Koftas can be made of anything, spinach, flour, bread, potatoes, yams, you name it. The ingredients are mixed with chilies and spices and a bit of garbanzo flour (besan). Usually they're deep fried, but in the name of holiday sanity and health,  I decided to saute/fry mine in a smaller amount of vegetable oil. Serve koftas in a sauce, or on a platter as finger food with a spicy dipping sauce. They're easy to make and perfect for the holiday season ahead.

Pumpkin Koftas

Here's what you'll need:
  1 small sugar pie pumpkin (about 1 and 1/2 lbs or 4 cups) peeled and grated
  2  fresh green serrano chilies seeded and stemmed and finely chopped
  1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
  1 tsp of salt
  1 Tbs of fresh lime juice
  2/3 cup of chickpea (garbanzo flour)

Here's What To Do:
 Peel and grate the pumpkin in a food processor and set it aside.
 In a bowl, combine the pumpkin with everything else.

  Pour in the lime juice for moisting.

  Get your hands in it and mix it all around. Massage that pumpkin.

  Roll it into little 1 inch balls.

  Cute.

  Heat some vegetable oil in a kadhai or wok. I used enough to come halfway up the little koftas but not enough to cover or deep fry them.
 When the oil is very very hot, add in the koftas.

  Roll them around until they brown and crisp up. Then take them out with a slotted spoon and set them on a plate with a paper towel to let them drain.

   These should be served with a sauce, either for dipping or poured over the koftas. The sauce I  used for the pumpkin koftas was a spicy spinach sauce. Since pumpkin is mild, this sauce hots them up and makes the flavors pop. And since the koftas must be served and eaten hot, the best thing is to make the sauce ahead of time, and this spinach sauce can be made a day ahead. Keep it in the fridge and heat it up before using.

 Here's What's In It:
  1 bag of fresh  baby spinach
  4 Tbs of vegetable oil
  A  2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and chopped
  2 fresh green serrano chilies slit up the mmiddle
  1 bunch of fresh mint
  1 and 1/2 cups of water
  1 tsp of salt

 Here's What To Do:
  In a skillet or wok or kadhai heat the oil.
  When the oil is hot, toss in the chopped ginger and chilies. Stir all that around and saute it a bit, then add in:
  The spinach

  The mint.

  Cook everything until the spinach and mint start to wilt, then turn down the heat and add in the water and salt.

  Turn down the heat, put a lid on things and let it all simmmer for about 15 minutes.
  Take it off the heat.
   Put everything into a food processor and blend it up into a puree.

  Serve it when it's done with the koftas, or pop it in the fridge to use later. Use a little or use a lot.

   I love these pumpkin koftas, vegan, gluten free, vegetarian, perfect for meatless Monday feasting. It ticks all the boxes no matter how you eat. Even carnivores love 'em. I'm not talking about Patsy or Johnny Depp the cat, but the other major carnivore around here, Alan.

   I'll be making more of these koftas over the holiday season using a variety of vegetables. I think they'll be perfect on party platters. In fact coming up next  the traditional holiday sweet potatoes get an Indian tune up. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Mission Possible... Eggplant Mughlai Style

   I've been cooking a lot of vegan food for the last three weeks as our friend was preparing for his radiation treatment /isolation period for thyroid cancer. There is a very specific non/low iodine diet that's prescribed for patients, and fortunately most Indian recipes fit comfortably into that slot. My Mission if I chose to accept it was to find interesting and taste tempting treats that could keep our friend's taste buds excited through the three weeks he'd have to be off his regular vegetarian diet and in vegan land. I love a challenge. Sexing up eggplant wasn't exactly like dropping on wires through a deadly laser trap... but for me it was close. Really.

Imagine how much more exciting it would have been for Tom Cruise if he'd had to find a new and  interesting way to fix eggplant rather than whatever the hell he was looking for on those wires.
   But why the eggplant obsession you may ask? Good question. For one thing, eggplants were on special, and most importantly eggplants have a great texture when preparing any vegetarian or vegan food. Eggplants are up there with mushrooms for providing a nice "meaty" mouth feel.
   Most of the eggplant recipes I'd been fixing had been savory with tomato playing a major part. But three weeks in, I was looking to expand eggplant's flavor profile and take it in a different direction. I looked to the north of India. I found an eggplant dish fragrant with cinnamon and cardamom, studded with raisins. I'd found a Mughal Eggplant dish.
   The influence of Mughal  cooking is strong in the North of India. There's less heat and more aroma. Paula Wolfert and I were talking at the Tuesday Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago about the similarities between Moroccan Food and Indian Food. They use the same spices and many of the same cooking technique. In fact, when we talked about some recipes, they seemed to be virtually the same. I haven't run this one past Paula yet but I'm sure she's going to tell me there's something in the Moroccan kitchen that resembles it.
   While turning out a lot of different vegan dishes regularly, I needed dishes that could come together easily with easy to get ingredients. Alan and I are also on a script deadline trying to get our latest piece of work out of the house, so there wasn't the usual amount of time. Enter Mughlai Eggplant.

Mughlai Eggplant

Here's what to do:
Wash, quarter, and quarter the eggplant again.

 Put the eggplant in a colender and sprinkle it with 4 tsp of kosher salt.

 Let it sit for about 10 minutes then rinse it thoroughly.

Pat the eggplant dry and heat 3 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
  1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
Stir fry them until the mustard seeds start to pop.

Add in:
 2 onions thinly sliced
 The eggplant slices

Stir them around until the onions start to brown and the eggplants cook through.
 Add in:
  1/4 tsp of Kashmiri chili or 1/8 tsp of cayenne mixed with 1/8 tsp of paprika
  1/2 tsp of coriander
  1/4 tsp of turmeric
  1/4 tsp of cinnamon
  1/4 tsp of cardamom

Stir it all around so that the spices are mixed into the dish, and continue cooking until the eggplant starts to brown.

 Mix together:
   2 Tbs of chopped cashews
   2 Tbs of golden raisins

Sprinkle them over the eggplant spice and onion mixture.

Stir everything together while the cashews and the raisins brown. Salt to taste.

 Scatter the eggplant with:
  1 chopped seeded fresh green chili
  A 1 inch piece of fresh julienne ginger
  Chopped fresh cilantro

  There it is. Sweet, spicy (but not too) crunchy eggplant ready as the star of the table in less than an hour. Serve it with rice and some chapatti or dal and another vegetable, or go totally out of the Indian arena and pop it down next to any meat entree. I can tell you from personal experience, it goes just as well with an Italian meat dish.
   As for our friend, he had his final scan at the hospital this morning and got his all clear! We couldn't be happier. Thanks to all of you who sent me great hints and dessert recipes during the last three weeks.
 Coming up next , once again I go for The Big O for all you Okra Lovers out there. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

When Eggplant Met Walnuts

   It's been a bit nuts around here lately. We're "in the chute" as I like to say, just about wheels down on our latest project and headed for the barn. Boy howdy that's a lot of metaphors. What the deal is, is we've been working our asses off and it's just about done. Finally.
  The last couple of weeks at our house before turning a script in are usually not weeks when I want to do a lot of fancy cooking. It's generally a time for simple things, family favorites that can be up on their feet and on the table without too much trouble and too much clean up. To add to all that, I'm doing some extra cooking for a couple of very close friends who are dealing with a whole lot of medical issues right now. These medical issues have very specific dietary requirements. Luckily, most of them fit in perfectly with the Indian recipes I cook.
   But the most important thing that I'm looking for are dishes that are easy, fast, and since I'm cooking for a few more people than usual, inexpensive. And another thing is variety and spice. Since my friend is on a strict vegan diet which also temporarily excludes soy, I've been trying to make things "interesting."
   One of the cheapest and tastiest things around right about now is eggplant. Eggplant is filling, meaty and can go a long way when stretched. So, when I saw it on sale at market, I snatched it right up. I've always got to have an eggplant in my fridge. It's a basic.
  Yesterday I was preparing Punjabi turnips with tomatoes and I wanted a dish to balance things out. Eggplant was the answer. But it had to be fast... and easy. An eggplant, main or side dish that could be ready in under an hour with a minimum of fuss. I needed a dish where I didn't have to be at the stove constantly. I needed a dish which would allow me to run down the hall to the office and work for a bit. I didn't want to hold some vegetables' hand all afternoon. I didn't want any needy vegetables. Eggplant with walnuts and sesame seemed to be the answer.

Eggplant With Walnuts

Here's what to do:
 Wash 1 globe shed eggplant. Cut it in half length ways and then in half again and again until the eggplant is in wedges.

 Place the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle it with 4 Tsp of kosher salt.

 Rub the salt into the eggplant well.

Then leave it to set for about 10 minutes.
 When the time has passed, rinse the eggplant in cold running water, removing all the salt.

You can even see Alan and me in the reflection of the faucet . Hi there!
 Dry off the eggplant.
 In a large skillet heat 4 Tbs of sesame oil.
 When the oil is hot, place the eggplant wedges in the pan, put the lid on and let them roast for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then turn them over and cook them for another 3 or 4 minutes.

You may have to cook the wedges in several rounds.
Place the eggplant on a platter sprinkle them with:
  2 Tbs of chopped walnuts

 1/2 tsp of sesame seeds
 2 tsps of lemon juice
 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri chili or 1/4 tsp of cayenne mixed with 1/4 tsp of paprika
 1/4 tsp of sugar

 Mix everything together well until all the spices are blended in. Scatter 3 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro over everything and it's done.

   There it is. Simple, fast and easy to put together on a hot, Sonoma, September day. I served this with Turnips with tomato and green beans with peanut. Coming up next, a dal and potato mixture which adds a hit of protein to a vegan diet. And I went hunting for more vegan dessert suggestions from my fellow food writer friends and was not disappointed.
   I'm also putting out there that I am in the market for any sort of vegan or vegan/gluten free dessert for my friend and his wife. I'm strong on the savories but a bit on the weak side when it comes to the sweet stuff. Any suggestions are welcomed. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori  

Who's Your Umami???

   There will be bitter! That's all I have to say when talking about the relatively unknown and mysterious (to Western palates) Bitter Melon. Americans as a rule don't do bitter. Sweet and salty yes. We sort of gloss over and tippy toe around the sour part and go directly to the 5th flavor, the Umami. But wait just a sec, hiding in there in the middle of all those great adjectives is the missing taste.....Bitter.
   I remember having a dinner with friends years ago. We decided to be quite sophisticated (we were like 23) and dispense with the cookies and cakes and mousse, and serve dark, bitter chocolate truffles from Los Angeles' Paris Pastry which back in the day was "the place"  for all sweet stuff. We were so proud of our early '80s selves. It was so minimalist. Dusty, dark, hand rolled truffles on a silver tray, tiny cups of cappuchino. The 6 year old at the table, one Morgan by name, squeeed with delight!! Then something dark and hard whizzed past my head and struck the wall, sticking. It was one of the bittersweet, dark chocolate truffles. Morgan had quickly reached out and jammed one in her mouth, and then just as quickly projectile-spewed it across the dining room table. Ptoooey! Bitter!!
  A couple of Christmases ago I made a tart cherry compote. I made the mistake of announcing at the table what it was. No one would touch it. From the kid's table came a frantic whispered "Aunt Kathy, Aunt Kathy, do I hafta eat that??? I'm scared of it" Don't even ask about what happened when I served them Feta cheese. You would have thought I'd put raw Iguana meat down in front of them. So I learned and learned fast that things that are prefaced by tart, spicy and bitter have to be explained.
  That is why I'm explaining Bitter Melon, or bitter gourd as it's sometimes known. It is bitter yes, but with the correct balance of spices and other ingredients in the dish and on the table, the bitter is an asset, an adventure for the tongue and the spirit. It contributes to Umami, and we all know how cool that is.
   Bitter Melon is filled with vitamins and has been used for eons as a part of traditional medicine. Scientists today are discovering ancient Bitter Melon eaters were on to something as there's a great deal of research being done on the benefits. Read all about Bitter Melon here.
  Bitter Melon is found in any Asian or Indian Market and the two main types one will find are the Chinese (big and smooth) and  Indian (little pointed and nubbly) and yes, they're both bitter.

   I've cooked with Bitter Melon for years, and most of the time its been an ingredient, part of an Indian vegetable stew, or mixed with something else. In those dishes, the Bitter Melon was an accent, a part of the big show. This time I was determined to serve it on it's own. It was gonna be the star.
  No matter what is going to be done with Bitter Melon, it has to be prepped before cooking to reduce the bitterness. There are several ways of doing this. Blanching and salting are a couple of them. I decided to salt. I was going to cook a sauteed caramelized Bitter Melon dish as a side for lunch. Here's what to do.

Curried Bitter Melon

 Prepping:
   Wash and slice the Bitter Melon thinly. Remove any seeds.

 Place the sliced Bitter Melon in a bowl. Sprinkle it with :
  1 tsp of salt

  1 tsp of turmeric

Massage it in well.

Let it sit for about 15 minutes
   After the Bitter Melon has "rested," squeeze the bitter water from it with your hands. Rinse it a couple of times and squeeze some more.
You are good to go.

Cooking:
  In a large skillet or kadhai, heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1 tbs of urad dal

 1 large green chile, seeded and thinly sliced.

When the dal and chilies start to sizzle, toss in:
 1 onion, quartered then sliced

 A handful of curry leaves.

 A pinch of turmeric

 A paste made of 1 shallot and a 1 inch piece of sliced ginger blended in a spice grinder with a dab of water.

When the onions and paste have started to brown add in:
 The bitter melon

Sprinkle in 1 tsp of ground coriander and stir it together for a minute or two. Then turn the heat to medium, put a lid on it and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so.
 Remove the lid and  continue to saute until the vegetable is cooked through.
 Add in a handful of chopped fresh cilantro

And 1 Tbs of jaggery or brown or white sugar.

 Stir it all together and let the sugar caramelize the bitter melon. Cook it down a bit further.
 Taste for seasoning. You may need to add a bit more sugar. The flavor should be slightly sweet, with a bitter finish. After all it is Bitter Melon. There will be bitter!

   I was nervous giving this to Alan as part of his lunch. He's had Bitter Melon before, but only as part of a whole dish, never on it's own. I was ready to duck in case any little green rings went flying. Surprise of surprise...he liked it!
  The trick to serving Bitter Melon all by it's lonesome is what is served with it. Rice or a simple dal is always good. A chapatti, a raita, and another vegetable that will round out the flavors. You don't need to mask the Bitter Melon but you do want to balance it. That's the key to this interesting and snappy vegetable. If you dare, if you want to walk on the wild side, if you're not afraid to show your bitter and get all Umami up in there, go Bitter Melon.
 Coming up next. I do a dinner and explore more adventurous flavors. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori