Did you miss the home-cooked meals made by your mother when you have to go to work tomorrow after the weekend? In the southern part of the country, the climate is like spring all year round, and many fruits and vegetables can be eaten throughout the year. My mother often grows bitter gourd in her own vegetable garden. Since it is grown at home, she doesn't give much fertilizer or management to it. The bitter gourds don't grow very well. Some of them even rot on the vines when they are still small. However, I picked a few to bring home. Many people don't like the bitterness of bitter gourd, but the bitter gourd I am going to cook today is not only not bitter, but also very appetizing.
【Benefits of Bitter Gourd】
1. Clearing heat and detoxifying: Bitter gourd can relieve internal heat and eliminate toxins from the body. The best way to eat bitter gourd is to eat it cold. Cold dishes can retain the vitamins in bitter gourd. If you stir-fry it, these vitamins will be lost in the process, and the oil content is higher after stir-frying, which will intake more fat and cannot achieve the cooling and fire-clearing effect.
2. Beautifying the skin: Eating bitter gourd regularly can enhance the vitality of the skin and make it smooth and beautiful. Fresh bitter gourd juice or soup is a good auxiliary dietary therapy for liver heat, red eyes, stomach pain, and damp-heat diarrhea. Applying crushed fresh bitter gourd externally can treat boils and carbuncles. Children are prone to prickly heat in summer. Rubbing the bitter gourd slices on the prickly heat can speed up recovery. Bitter gourd can be boiled in water or made into delicious food to dissipate heat and relieve summer heat.
3. Lowering blood sugar: Bitter gourd and clam soup is a top-grade food for lowering blood sugar. Bitter gourd extract contains substances similar to insulin, which has a significant effect on lowering blood sugar. According to traditional Chinese medicine, bitter gourd has a sweet and bitter taste and a cold nature. It can clear heat, relieve restlessness, and quench thirst. Clam has a sweet and salty taste and a cold nature. It can clear heat, nourish yin, relieve thirst, and promote diuresis. When used together, they can clear heat and nourish yin, suitable for diabetic patients with stomach yin deficiency and heat.
4. Nourishing blood and liver: Bitter gourd has a bitter taste, cold nature when raw, and warm nature when cooked. Eating it raw can clear heat and relieve summer heat, and relieve fever and restlessness. Eating it cooked can nourish blood and liver, moisturize the spleen, and supplement the kidneys. It can also dispel evil heat, relieve fatigue, clear the mind and brighten the eyes, and invigorate qi and strengthen yang. However, when eating bitter gourd, you should also pay attention not to damage the qi of the spleen and lungs. Although the weather is hot in summer, people should not eat too many bitter foods, and it is best to eat them with spicy foods (such as chili, pepper, onion, and garlic) to avoid bitterness affecting the heart and help to replenish lung qi.
【How to Make Bitter Gourd Not Bitter】
This way, the bitter gourd is not only not bitter, but also very appetizing.
1. Wash and dry the bitter gourd after picking, and cut it open to remove the seeds.
2. Cut the bitter gourd into short pieces and place them on a plate.
3. Then soak the bitter gourd in a pickling jar for three to four days, adding an appropriate amount of salt (pickling jar is almost found in every household in our hometown, and there are some pickled vegetables in it all year round, such as ginger, garlic, green beans, vegetable stems, etc. When eating, you can use a special pair of chopsticks to pick them out)
After pickling, this dish has a unique flavor. It tastes great when paired with pickled pepper. The bitter gourd prepared in this way is not bitter at all. The sour taste combined with pickled pepper when stir-fried is incredibly delicious.
