Monday, August 31, 2009

Goya Chanpuru

I'd mentioned earlier in the month that I wasn't a big fan of bitter melon, so what showed up in our CSA box recently? A lovely goya of course. And we try to eat everything we get in our box, so I set out to try and make a palatable dinner with it.

I'd read that it helps to temper the goya's bitterness to slice it thinly, rub it with salt, let it rest either as is or in cold water, and then rinse the salt off.

So I did that and then used it to make goya chanpuru. Chanpuru is a popular Okinawan stir-fry dish, and the word itself is Okinawan for "something mixed." The dish generally contains vegetables, tofu, some type of meat or fish (ours did not), and sometimes eggs.

Let's just say that not all dinners turn out to be keepers, and this was was definitely a bust. The salting didn't seem to do anything to temper the bitterness, and I was not a member of the clean plate club that night.

3 comments:

Nikki Little said...

Bummer, sorry this dinner didn't turn out so good! You are so creative with your cooking. Maybe you can give me a few lessons when you're back. I could certainly use all the help I can get when it comes to cooking! ;)

Lindsay-Jean said...

I'd love to cook together sometime! I'm so bummed to be missing out on Thanksamagiving again this year- unless someone pulls the sweater business again, and then I'm not as sad ;)

Unknown said...

Perhaps we can figure out how to make goya beer like they had on Okinawa. Then again...that would require successfully making beer first...