Discovering Bitter Melon II
I have decided to make an Indian curry with my bitter melon. I am going to adapt a recipe I found on the bitter melon fan's web page will get me started. The recipe is from a Bengali kitchen, but I will adapt the masala to something a little more southern, a more familiar style for me, learned when I lived briefly in Bangalore, back in the 80s.

Many of the web sites I read about bitter melon have stressed that it is indeed very bitter, and an acquired taste. This makes me a bit nervous; even though I like some bitter foods, I don't want to overwhelm my capacity for acquiring new tastes. No doubt I should have found out before I purchased the fruits I now have that the riper the fruit, the less bitter. In that case, I would have looked for the lighter, more yellow color and spurned the darker green ones, at least for this first bitter melon adventure. Riper fruits also have bright red seeds. Despite my attraction to the darker fruit, I did manage to buy one ripe one, as I discovered when I cut the melons open.

Several other web sites recommended blanching the melons for 2-3 minutes in boiling water to reduce the bitterness, and I decided to try this. I prepared the melons by scooping out the seeds and the fibrous core. Since I had somewhat smaller than usual fruits, I blanched them for about 2 minutes. I noticed immediately that this changed the fruit's odor, for the better in my opinion.

The curry calls for onions and eggplant to accompany the melons in their curry sauce. I used yellow onions and Japanese eggplants.

I will serve the curry tomorrow evening and will post the recipe and nutritional information along with a review of the flavors.