This recipe, Bitter Melon, Chorizo and Egg, is a variation on one of my very favorite recipes of all time – Bitter Melon and Egg – Mara Pad Kai. Admittedly, bitter melon might be an acquired taste, although I’ve liked it from the start.

Generally, I don’t like the idea of “fusion” food – the word confusion springs readily to mind. I think cuisines are already fusion foods – they’ve been created from ingredients at hand and when new ingredients show up, the cuisine changes. We’ll have a blog post down the line by Kasma titled “Thai Food is Fusion Food.”

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

I make the Bitter Melon and Egg recipe frequently and one day as I was getting out the ingredients to make it, I happened to see a package of chorizo sausage and decided to add it into the recipe and see how it went. The chorizo I most prefer is bought from The Fatted Calf. It is a Mexican style chorizo (loose sausage, like hamburger) made from pasture raised pork, organic garlic, red wine vinegar, organic herbs, sea salt and spices. It is very good. That’s what I used in the recipe.

The recipe is simplicity itself. After cutting the bitter melon in half lengthwise and taking out the seeds, I cut it (diagonally) into slices. Before cooking I took the sausage out of the package and beat some eggs lightly. Then I heated up some lard in a wok (lard is a marvelous oil for stir-frying), cooked the bitter melon a bit until it began to turn a little bit translucent, added the chorizo and cooked it until the sausage was almost cooked, then added the eggs and cooked until done. From start to finish can be about 10 minutes. Serve over rice, if you want a starch, but with a good chorizo, the dish is good enough to eat by itself.

I’ll include a more formal version of the recipe below but it’s so simple you really can just wing it. For tips on buying bitter melon, read Kasma’s Notes and Pointers from her Bitter Melon and Egg recipe.

Feel free to vary quantities any way you’d like. The pictures I’m including here actually used a pound of chorizo to one bitter melon and I used three eggs. If you like it with chorizo, try it with another loose meat or sausage.

You might also enjoy Kasma’s article on Bitter Melon on the website.

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Bitter Melon, Chorizo & Egg Recipe

Recipe by Michael Babcock
Adapted from recipe by Kasma Loha-unchit

Ingredients

• bitter melon about 8 inches in length
• 2 eggs
• 2-4 Tbs. or lard (peanut oil will do)
• 1-2 tsp. fish sauce (optional)
• 1/2 pound loose Mexican chorizo

Cut the bitter melon in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and slice each half crosswise in thin pieces. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

Heat a wok until its surface begins to smoke. Swirl in the lard or oil and let heat 10 to 15 seconds. Add the bitter melon and sauté in the oil for about one minute. If needed (this will depend on your chorizo), sprinkle with fish sauce and continue to sauté for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the melon starts to soften.

Add the chorizo, break up so that it is loose, toss amongst the bitter melon and cook until nearly done (1 to 2 minutes).

Spread the mixture thinly over the wok surface. Pour the beaten eggs evenly over the melon pieces. Let eggs set about half a minute, then flip the mixture over to cook the other side. Cook until eggs are set and lightly browned.

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Written by Michael Babcock, June 2009.

Tags: bitter melon, egg, recipe

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