Franfogel wrote:

My husband bought a bitter melon at the Chinese grocery by accident--he thought
it was something else. What's the best way to use it? Thanks.

Fran

If you are bitter melon virgin, be sure to soak it in some salt
solution, and use it as part of a dish. I'm used to stuffing it with
masala, trussing closed with thread and very slowly panfrying it with
plenty of oil.
I don't have the time to go over the making of a single serving of
masala, but I'll cut and paste how I make it now, in bulk. BTW, I
learned the bitter melon recipe and the masala from my ex-ILs, native
Panjabis.
begin paste
(By masala, I mean the cooked-to-a-mash concotion that is the flavour
base of Panjabi sabjis. One 'unit dose' is about 3/4 Cup of this cooked
paste, and can be put in a sauce pan with many kinds of veggies...a
smallish head of cabbage cut into strips, an equivalent amount of green
beans cut into 1" lengths, cubed potatoes, cauliflower florets, peas and
carrots, etc.)

Ingredients:
9 cups of minced onion (I do cuisinart, but stop before it's mush)
1/2 C minced garlic...not crushed
1/2 C fine diced (not shredded or 'rubbed' on those Japanese ginger
graters...this method with make the ginger stick on the bottom) ginger
1/4-1/2 Cup minced serrano chilis (I use the miniprep for the serranos
and garlic)
3 T salt
4-10 T ghee (if you use the smaller amount, you have to watch the pot
more carefully)
4 or more teas of turmeric....Penzeys takes about 4 teas, more of a
lesser quality turmeric
3 T whole cumin seed
3 T garam masala made with cumin and coriander (some isn't)

Get the above started. I start with the onion and ghee and spices and
have it simmer while I prep the other fresh produce.
Cook on medium until 'dry', stirring regularly. Add about 2 cups water
and let this cook down again, using a potato masher (I have the kind
that looks like a metal spatula bent at a right angle) to break up the
membranes in the onion etc. Cook, stirring often until the moisture in
the bottom is clear oil colored with the turmeric, not a cloudy, watery
moisture. This might require the addition of more water for more than
one 'cooking down until the oil returns'.

At this point I divide it. I put a bit more than half in one pot and a
bit less than half in another. To the smaller amount (which I am
estimating started with 4 cups of onions) I add 8 cups of fine diced
tomato. Becuase it is getting more tomato than the other portion, I add
one extra serrano at this point. (This masala is bound for making DAL.
One adds 3/4 cup of the final product to a pot with 2 cups of rinsed
mung dal, lentil, cooked kidney beans, etc and 6 to 8 cups of water,
depending on how watery you want it. Add a handful of chopped cilantro
almost at the end of cooking.)

To the other portion, which is the decendent of 5 cups of onion, I add 5
cups of fine diced tomato, and start the cooking process all over, until
the contents of the pot are a dark, roasted smelling paste, and 'the oil
has returned' when the spoon is drawn across the bottom of the pan.

Let cool, wrap in baggies, and freeze. I double bag. Alternatively, you
can keep this in a container in the fridge. I've used it as long as two
weeks out.
end paste
HTH
don't be surprized if you don't really like the bitter melon, as it
is...well, bitter.
blacksalt