Sautéed Bitter gourd with beef and egg

I know what will be your reaction, yucks! Most of us don’t like bitter gourd obviously because it was bitter. I don’t even push hubby to try it since he was not used of eating bitter gourd. I do know why I like this recipe but this has something to do with influence.

Our parents brought us up to eat veggies and that includes bitter gourd. I used to remember my grandmother who cooks this veggie with tofu and pork while my mom sauté it with chicken and sotanghon (bean thread noodle). I also like bitter gourd in braised beef and sometimes we just cook it with an egg. I also like Pinakbet (Ilokano dish) which includes bitter gourd.

So during my childhood days, I don’t have any problem eating bitter gourd and that is why it is important for me to influence my children (to-be) to eat veggies and not to be choosy in food. I have learned that convincing your kid would also help aside from telling them those stories about how nutritious the food they eat. I also remember how my mom says she likes this veggie and for us kids, we do like to imitate our parents and also like what they like. Sautéing is the easiest thing to do with this recipe although I just included egg and beef bouillon cube. Here is the recipe for Sautéed Bitter gourd with beef and egg:

Ingredients:

Medium size bitter gourd
1 medium size onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 beef bouillon cube
Soya sauce
Salt
Ground black pepper
Water
Oil
1 egg

Preparation/ Method on How to Cook Sautéed Bitter gourd with beef and egg:


Bitter gourd anyone?





Step 1: Wash the bitter gourd in running water. Cut it in half lengthwise and remove the seeds by using a spoon and shovel it off. Cut the bitter gourd looking like half ring, not too thick and not too thin.

Step 2: On a heated pan, put oil and once your oil is hot, you can now sauté garlic and then onions. Put some salt to cook your onions faster. After this you can now put the beef bouillon cube, stir well to blend with your garlic and onions and now you can put the bitter gourd.

Step 3: Stir the bitter gourd with the sautéed garlic and onions with beef bouillon and put soya sauce for about 2-3 tbsp. and then add some water 4 tbsp. only, not too much water since this veggie will also produce water.

Step 4: Put the flame on medium heat and wait for 3 minutes and sprinkle some ground black pepper. If you think the taste is enough, don’t add more salt; else if it is too salty for you just add some tablespoons of water but not too much water. Again, do not overcook your veggie. The last is crack an egg and stir it well together with the bitter gourd. Stir it properly and make sure that the egg is cooked well (not gooey) before you put the stove off.

Egg Curry

No options left since it is almost end of the week and hubby’s off will be by two more days so I won’t be able to go to the grocery to refill our food stock. What was just left in the fridge were dozens of eggs so he decided to cook me an egg curry for lunch.


Egg Curry for Lunch!



I was really not in the mood to cook since I have difficulty eating what I prepared so good thing hubby gets up earlier for a haircut and then cooked our food. I was just the one who boiled the eggs and prepared cutting the necessary ingredients like onions, garlic, preparing the masala, placing the remaining coconut milk and then the rest is for my dear to cook it.

At least it wasn’t that spicy hot unlike the mutton curry he prepared. Some egg curry would just include yogurt, but this one, we did not put any since we need to use the remaining coconut milk so that it won’t get spoiled. Now if you can see some seeds in there, they were mustard seeds and jeera or cumin seeds. The rest of the leafy parts would be the curry leaves and coriander leaves.

After boiling the egg for ten minutes remove the shell and cut the egg into half before frying. This will make the egg hard enough not to mush on the curry itself. But when you need to get the creamy part done, be sure you have included enough masala and coconut cream for the right taste. This means adding salt is up to you. By the way, hubby grinded the onions and green chili until they become like a paste to give more texture to the curry.

Some curry will be reddish in color due to red chili powder that was included although we didn’t put much and the turmeric gives more of the yellowish color which embeds the coconut milk. So the end result when cooked was that it turned yellowish. Egg curry is great to combine with papad, lentils or chana masala dish... Bon Appetit!