Bitter Gourd with a tried and tasted recipe

Scientific name: Momordica charantia Linn

Bitter gourd are nutritious vegetables but unpopular to children because of their bitterness taste.
 A friend of mine, an experienced gardener, advised me to avoid planting these plants next to my fruit trees otherwise my fruit tree, will taste bitter too. It seem the bitterness of this gourd  plant can spread the surrounding of the soil and thus other plants are affected. I have no problem with that because i have enough space to plant my bitter gourd in the herbal corners surrounded other herbal plants.

Bitter gourd plants produces yellow flowers, male and female. These flowers get pollinated with the help of  insects like the ants, bees and butterflies. If there are no pollinators, the flowers can still be pollinated manually  known as hand pollination. The best time to hand pollinate is in the morning.

The seeds will germinate in about 2 weeks. A prennial plant which need a full sun and well drain rich in organic matter soil to grow well. They grew well in pots too and are great climbers for the fences and trellis.

As long as the soil is evenly moist they will grow very fast and produce a good yield.

To encourage the plant to produce better yield, the side shoots must be removed leaving the plants only with 4-6 side shoots. Removing all tips when the shoots reached the top of the trellis/fence will encourage more fruits to appear.

a healthy bitter gourd plants with big leaves

Male flower has bright yellow top end stigma

Female flower has yellowish green top end stigma

Difference between male and female bitter gourd flowers

Female flower has little "belly" at the base of the base of the stem and the top end of the  stigma is pale yellowish green

Male flowers don't have a "belly" and the flower is bight yellow. 

A Male and female bud

Male bud

Female bud has a little "belly"

If there are no insect to pollinate the female flowers, you can manually pollinate them.

This method is useful for those who stayed in apartments, away from nature.

Take the male flower, removed the petals, exposing the stigma with the pollen and brush it gently on the stigma of the female flower.

The pollen in the male flower will stick to the stigma of the female flower.

Then the female flower will withered and dropped off and gourd will start to grow bigger

Matured bitter gourd-  a good yield

Bitter gourd harvested - this one was 425gm

Cripsy salted egg yolk bitter gourd fritters

Ingredients and Method..........

1)  Preparing the Bitter Gourd:

Half bitter gourd, cut into 2-3mm size thick. Rub 1 tablespoon salt into it and leave for 15 mins

Rub salt in and leave for 15-20mins. Salt will extract the bitterness taste from the gourd. Wash and drain well.

I am a sweet person so in my experience I rub in a teaspoon of sugar.

Rub the marinated bitter gourd into the flour ( 2 tabsp plain flour+ 1 tabsp corn flour+ 1/2 tabsp rice flour)

Prepare Add flour (2 tabsp plain flour + 1 teasp cornflour

Deep fried the coated gourd, drain the fritters on a greaseproof paper and set aside.

2) Preparing the Salted egg yolk

Steamed 3-4 salted egg yolk (can get this easily from supermarket)

Steam for 3- 5 mins.

Mash the steamed yolk and leave aside

3) Ready to cook:

Heat 80-100 gms butter in a wok.

Add in the garlic and mashed steamed salted egg yolk 

When it became bubbly, add in the curry leaves

Add in 1 tabsp sugar, according to individual taste.

Add in the fritters , stir fry 1 min 

Tada!!! DONE !

 I can't stop eating this snack😋😋 It's so so yummy!