Stir fry Bitter gourd with Dried Split Fish and Oyster Sauce
Ichi's Fusion Recipes: stir fry bitter gourd with dried split fish and oyster sauce - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
Hi all of you, how's it going? Well, I bet you are not excited with my recipe today as it is a bitter gourd. Like its name, it has a bitter taste as well.😁 However, we can make it much a tasty menu on the table. Moreover, it is good for your health to control your blood pressure.😉
Bitter gourd was not my kind of thing in the past as I was scared of the bitter taste. People in my hometown had known this gourd was good to reduce high blood pressure. However, not everyone felt happy when we were talking about the taste, including me. As a child, the bitter gourd was only for adults who had a health issue. Because of this reason, I had never touched stir fry bitter gourd on the table.
I started to consider picking bitter gourd as my menu after getting married. When I lived in Indonesia's capital city, one of my neighbors gave me the advice to add salt before cooking the bitter gourd. After peeling and slicing them, I added salt and mix them well then left them for about 1 hour. My neighbor had believed this process would reduce the bitter taste. I followed her instructions step by step yet the taste was still awful as it was becoming too salty for my liking. And I just thought that it was the wrong way to cook bitter gourd.
Nowadays, I am a master to cook bitter gourd, at least that is what I hear from my husband as he doesn't have a feeling with stir fry bitter gourd that is sold in the food stalls. He says stir fry bitter gourd from a food stall is like eating a fresh leaf.🤣😅 But after I make a homemade bitter gourd dish, he just captivates with it especially when I combine it with tempura tempeh. Of course, it has still a bitter taste, however, the taste is much better because of the season I put into it.😉
If you are following The Journey of Ichi's Family, the last article I wrote is about a healthy lifestyle that we can start from home. I mentioned if you are not keen with vegetable, then you need to find out how to make them tastier, and cook them in your way. That is what I did about bitter gourd. If I do not like a vegetable, then I must find out how to cook it more delectable, including bitter gourd. After some attempts with fail and error, finally, I got the right recipe. Let's check it out!
Ingredient:
- 4 babies bitter gourd - peel and slice them
- 1-2 tbsp of oyster sauce
- 50 g of dried split fish or anchovies
- 4 cloves of garlic - chop them
- 1 big red onion - chop it
- 2,5 g of onion powder
- 2,5 g of garlic powder
- 100 ml of water
- Prepare a pan, add garlic and red onion that you chopped. Pour about 30-50 ml of olive oil. Turn on the stove on medium-low flame. Saute for about 3-4 minutes
- Add bitter gourd and dried split fish. Wash dried split fish before use. Stir them well and pour water. Let it cook for about 7-10 minutes or until the water is dissipated. During this process, we have to stir a couple times so that the bitter gourd is fully cooked. This step is crucial, if we miss this process then the result is you will have undercooked bitter gourd; as my husband mentions that the taste is like eating the fresh leaf. Another thing is by adding dried fish (dried split fish or anchovies), will enhance the taste of bitter gourd.
- Add oyster sauce, garlic, and onion powder. Stir them for about 5 minutes and turn off the stove
Ichi's Fusion Recipes - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
- I do not need to add salt as I get the salty taste from the dried fish. However, if you want to put salt it's your call!
- Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Do not copy this article without permission
- Do not reuse these photographs anywhere else without permission
Comments
Post a Comment