I scored a bushel of minari at the local asian market. I once made maeun-tang without it and now I need to buy white fish again lol, and by the time I do that the minari will wilt. I'd like to use it in a jjigae/tang/guk situation vs as a banchan, what is the best dish to bring out its unique flavor and scent?
Also I found some bitter melon there. I love it cooked the pakistani way (
like this) but my husband hates it. I was wondering how it is consumed in korean cuisine, maybe it will win my husband over? Probably not lol but I'd love to try the vegetable a different way.
by BohemeWinter
12 Comments
Not that I know everything about Korean cooking but I have never seen bitter melon incorporated into Korean dishes by anyone in my family so I’m interested to see responses.
Not exactly what you wanted, but I had minari jeon recently and it was very good.
As for bitter melon, I don’t know if it is traditional in Korea, but in Chinese cuisine it is used a lot in soups
look up bitter melon namul 🙂
The style of bitter melon cooking you are looking for are Chinese dishes. You will like them, but your husband will maybe not. Maybe a Chinese soup? Or a black bean sauce stir fry? Anything that dilutes or masks the bitterness
Ooooo minari is also good with pork neck stew. We did the perilla seed version.
Jeon.
I’ve seen it in jjambong.
Any summer rolls.
Mmm as moochim “like a kimchee”
Mmm hungry
I love fermented fish (skate fish? Skate wing fish??) Muchim (not the one with pork but with spicy pepper sauce. My mom always puts minari in it and that’s my favorite way.
I’ve always liked minari in water kimchi
Minari with samgyupsal is also a good combo.
Do you mean [this bitter gourd](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momordica_charantia)? It’s called yeoju (여주) in Korean and the most popular way of eating it up until the 90s was to let it ripen yellow, eat the red flesh surrounding the seeds, and discard the rest. It is also dried and boiled to make tea. The actual plant was grown more for aesthetic reasons until the fruit gained more attention for its medicinal properties. Ways to eat/cook the actual fruit can be seen more often in Chinese cuisine.
Minari can be eaten in the form of jeon, steamed with white fish or stingray, added to maeuntang in a pinch, made into muchim like [this](https://youtu.be/zNnqp0oSb7k?si=Kio7AnhYXpZ7Q_Pz) or [this (replace mushrooms with squid if you want the original version](https://youtu.be/X_gUQaIMiik?si=AmY6XZ20qGBfKCZO), or even blanched and used as the “string” for vegetable wraps or cut up and wrapped in thinly sliced grilled pork belly.
Stir fry it with pork belly and add a kick of soysauce and vinegar.
I can share the Vietnamese way of bitter melon. Slice down the center vertically and pull out all the insides so it’s just the shell. Boil it until soft, changing out the water. This will tone down the bitterness a lot. Stuff it with egg roll stuffing (Ground pork/shrimp/fungus/shredded jicama/shredded carrots/egg/salt/sugar/chicken powder). Pierce with toothpick to hold in the stuffing and boils in a pork bone broth.
The melon is not very bitter at this point and you have like a meatball soup with some soft bitter melon.
How to highlight Minari:
1. Pan fry samgyeobsal (pork belly)
2. Add minari once the belly is sufficiently cooked
3. Play/Stream Minari(2020)
4. Enjoy