Mom’s Recipe – Pinakbet (Bitter Melon Stew)

ampalaya

RECIPE: PINAKBET (Bitter Melon Stew)

A few friends who are diabetic were asking me how to eat bitter melon because they heard that bitter melon (we call it “ampalaya”) is a natural insulin … that is, it lowers blood glucose and A1c levels immediately upon consumption. Trouble is, these folks barely knew about bitter melon, let alone ever tasted or cooked with it. So, I shared Mom’s recipe, which my Dad dearly loved.

First, take a trip to the Asian food aisle or the local Asian Market, like Ranch 99, Island Pacific or Seafood City, and pick up a couple of ampalaya, one bunch of Chinese Yard-Long Beans, a small Kambocha squash, a pound of pork shoulder and a small bottle each of Fish sauce (Filipinos call this amber-colored condiment “Patis” and it is also widely used in Thai and Vietnamese cooking) and shrimp paste (we call it Bagoong). An additional veggie you might want to add is Chinese eggplant. An additional ingredient you might want to add is half-pound fresh shrimp. These are ingredients that are integral to Filipino and Southeast Asian cooking, so enjoy the experience!

Over medium heat, saute in 1 TB coconut oil 1/2 chopped medium-sized onion, 1 large tomato (the more tomato, the less bitter the dish becomes), 2 cloves minced garlic and saute’ until the onion is transparent. Then, add small cut-up chunks of pork and saute’ until meat is tender and just cooked through. Season with 1 tsp. of Fish Sauce. Stir in Chinese long beans snapped in 2″ pieces, Kambocha squash (peeled and cut into 1″ chunks), shrimp, eggplant and 1 TB of shrimp paste with 1/2 to 3/4 cup water. Put the lid on the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Open the lid and add 1/2 cup of bitter melon cut into 1″ pieces (remove the seeds) on top of the stew, then close the lid and allow the veggies to steam and gently cook into this stew for about 5 minutes. Uncover and gently incorporate the bitter melon pieces into the stew and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Don’t overcook, or your dish will become too bitter. (This is the secret to making the dish tasty, but not overly bitter … lots of tomato and cooking the bitter melon on top and mixing it in towards the end of the cooking time.) Serve with hot Jasmine rice. This is a very popular aromatic dish in the Philippines. Enjoy!

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