Disaster or Delicious? What Happens When You Combine Bitter Gourd With Coriander

Welcome to adulthood.

If you embrace tastes other than sweet and salty and is beginning to explore adventurous tastes of bitter and pungent flavours, you are adulting, congratulations!

First of all, let me be the first to admit that I am not a full-fledged ✌🏻adult✌🏻since I still can’t accept the sharpness of raw coriander (my cat likes it though!), but I think it is such an important element in curries. It elevates the complexity of masala mix and best of all when cooked, the pungence becomes more rounded...it is absolutely beautiful.

Bitter gourd has detoxifying qualities and is widely believed to reduce cholesterol, boost immune system, has anti-carcinogenic properties and high in antioxidants.

So one day I got a crazy idea to transform a Chinese dish I had tried at one of my favourite local restaurant into an Indian recipe hehe. Nothing ventured nothing gained 💅🏻

Here’s my recipe, it’s really good!

Brown your beef ribs that has marinated at least over 4 hours in salt, black pepper, white pepper, turmeric, ginger, garlic powders and paprika.

Remove from the pot.

Fry a generous amount of curry leaves.

Then, add your aromatics like onion, shallots and garlic cloves.

While your aromatics are reaching full flavour, boil your noodles in a separate pot.

Now, turn your attention back to your pot.

Add ginger powder, paprika (and if you like it spicier, chilli or cayenne powder), black pepper, cumin and coriander powder.

Now add that full cup of pungent chopped coriander leaves. Trust me, it will be bomb. Finally, cover it with some water and close the lid to your pressure cooker for 30 minutes.

In my opinion, this is the hardest part - just waiting. And agonizing if it’ll work 😂.

Finally, after waiting for the clock to reach 30 minutes and sweating with anxiety, open the pressure cooker lid for a taste test. It’ll be good!

Add some sea salt to taste.

Then start stirring in the bitter gourd, let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Do another taste test of the curry, it isn’t bitter right?

Tip: Add 2 tsp of salt to sliced bitter gourd and let it rest for 25-30 minutes in a colander. Then rinse it thoroughly in running water and press out the juice with your hand. Continue to let it rest in the colander to drip off excess water until you begin cooking.