Bitter gourd is my favorite choice for summer soup. Though the name indicates bitterness, when you are familiar with the taste and like that bitterness, you don’t feel it bitter at all because what you feel is a sweet bitterness.
The soup made with bitter gourd is often very mild and fresh. Small ones are our preference. I do not often cook with the large bitter gourd. The prawns in these soup not only add flavor to the soup but also the firm crisp texture as well. I do not use any fat in this soup, so the broth is very clear and gentle. During hot summer days eating too greasy food is not so pleasant to the mouths. Actually, I can have this soup several times a week without getting bored.
Read the rest of this post >>
My simple chicken soup with bitter gourds and young pineapple chunks.
Cooking for two people, I used only two chicken wings. Using the boned parts of the chicken offers better stock to the soup. Also, I only prefer the very small bitter gourds with dark green color to cook with this soup.
Read the rest of this post >>
I used the fish stock from the head and bone of the sea bass I made last time to cook this soup with bitter gourd and fish balls. The home-made fish stock was always much better. Especially in this dish when I needed the flavor of the fish to be dominant, the fish stock was really wonderful.
Small bitter gourds are my family’s favorite. These ones offer many nutritional and remedying benefits to the health. I heard many people saying the more bitter the taste is, the better. What great is that this is a kind of pleasant bitterness. Once people can eat and like bitter gourd, they often prefer the more bitter ones.
This soup is very simple to make and the taste is wonderful. I felt really comfortable when enjoying the soup. A typical Vietnamese meal sometimes is served very simply with just steamed rice and a bowl of soup. Fish balls can be bought easily from Asian supermarkets in small packs. I prefer the home-made fish balls which I make with the fish fillet and spices. These super-market fish balls are far different from the home-made ones, so a good-quality fish balls can be fine with this soup when making fish balls myself is much more expensive. Anyway, these fish balls still add another texture to the dish.
Read the rest of this post >>
