Food for thought and the palate

I have been sitting on a couple of blog posts that I wanted to expand upon since they appeared on 3 Quarks Daily  on the same day in the beginning of March. Both pertain to food, both are written by Indian born authors who muse on Asian food habits and their relation to religion, culture and the versatility of the human taste buds. 

The first article is written by Namit Arora who is familiar to our readers through his comments and blog linked on A.B.  Namit took his readers through the eating habits of two large Asian countries - India and China, geographic neighbors with ancient histories and vastly disparate culinary cultures.  He focuses on the prevalent natural, religious, and philosophical climates that may have influenced the choice of food of the two peoples, in particular, meat eating and vegetarianism. Read the article and comments below and see if you find the arguments convincing. Although Namit did not address the morality of eating meat in this article, I know that he had the thought in mind (he admitted to me as much in an email) as I myself do occasionally. If I were to ponder this issue, the practice of killing animals for food or other consumer products, I will have to answer some of the following:

• Is it an "all or nothing" proposition?  Is killing another sentient being for our comfort and appetite immoral under all circumstances?
• Does the mere fact of eating amount to immorality or is the suffering of the animal the more important issue?
• Does eating less meat and therefore killing fewer animals count for moral Brownie points? Do waste and over indulgence count towards immorality of meat eating? (the US population will fail miserably)
• Does the "life" of the slaughtered animal matter - (free grazing vs factory farmed) as much as its death?
• Do "compassionate" killing methods count in alleviating the moral pangs?
• If we ate the meat of an animal that died "accidentally" without any affirmative killing agent involved, is that ethical?
• Why can't we eat our dogs and cats but can slaughter the chicken and cows in the backyard who too can become like our pets when we take care of them?
• Should we look upon ourselves as biologically inclined meat eaters like many other carnivores / omnivores and merely accept our place in the food chain? Or are humans, as highly evolved beings with ethics and morality a significant guiding principle in the thought process, be able to buck our "natural" inclinations and formulate our eating habits to accommodate the rights of other animals?

As an animal lover I have oftentimes grappled with the above thoughts. I have answers to some and not to others. But I continue to eat meat. If some day, the fact of another animal dying (being killed) for my food starts to weigh too much on my conscience, I will indeed become a vegetarian. And if I do, one particular veggie will definitely figure prominently on my menu. That vegetable is bitter melon or karela (in Hindi),  a delicacy in some parts of the world, mostly in Asia. Not everyone can stand the taste of it, some not even when it is disguised with spices and other ingredients. The second post on 3QD is about this very same bitter item of food. Author Aditya Dev Sood waxes philosophical on why some among us would choose not only to eat but thoroughly enjoy something that by normal standards of palatability, should be quite unpalatable.

Karela is a truly bitter vegetable and the taste is somewhat acquired or perhaps one has a genetic predisposition to enjoying it or not. I myself have loved it from early childhood, when most children reject bitter, to the astonishment of adults. I enjoy almost all the ways the vegetable is prepared. I can even eat it plain, just boiled with a sprinkling of salt. My husband on the other hand, can only consume a few mouthfuls even when it is spiced up. If any uninitiated reader would like to try it, I will present here a few tips and recipes for consuming karela. 
 
First, a quick guide to karela buying. There are two varieties of the vegetable. The Chinese variety features larger, smoother gourds which are less bitter and less delicious to my bitter loving palate. It is more widely available both in Asian markets as well as in the produce section of large grocery stores. The Indian variety is smaller, crunchier and more bristly looking (see photos of both varieties in the Wiki link).  Usually, only Indian or Pakistani stores carry the Indian variety. Also, the Indian bitter gourd  is decidedly more bitter and truer to the karela taste that I crave. If you have never tasted the veggie, you may wish to begin with the less bitter Chinese variety.

Recipes follow.

Okay, here goes: (all the spices are available in Indian grocery stores) You can use a non-stick or stainless steel fry pan or saucepan for cooking this dish. I am providing the recipe to prepare only a small quantity so that you don't use up a whole lot of ingredients and time and then are unable to eat it. 

2 fresh green and firm bitter melon gourds (karela), about 6 - 8 inches in length, diced horizontally into 1/2 cm thick discs.
 
1 medium white or red onion sliced thin
 
1 thumb sized stick of fresh ginger root, peeled and pressed into a coarse paste
 
1 tsp of Indian cumin seeds (lighter and longer than Mexican comino)
 
1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds (if you don't like the smell of fenugreek, substitute with fennel seeds)
 
1 1/12 tsp of hot powdered cayenne pepper
 
1tsp of powdered cumin
 
2tsp of powdered coriander
 
2 - 3 tsp of dry mango powder (sold as Amchur in Indian stores. The MDH brand is the best)

1 tsp of crushed pomegranate seeds (also sold in Indian stores as Anardaana) 
 
3/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
 
1 medium roma tomato diced
 
1/2 tsp of turmeric powder (optional but gives a good color)
 
 3- 5 Tbsp of vegetable oil (I am a bit vague on this because I use my eyes. should be enough to saute the karela) 

Heat the oil and lightly saute the bitter melon discs on medium heat until they pick up a few brownish specks and become slightly translucent. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside, draining the oil well.
 
In the same heated oil add the cumin and fenugreek (fennel) seeds. When they begin to sputter, add the ginger and onions. Stir until the oninons become translucent (don't brown). Add all the powdered spices except the turmeric.  Stir for a couple or three minutes.
 
Add the turmeric and stir for 30 seconds. Add tomato and let it blend into the spice mix.  

Add the sauted bitter melon. Stir and coat with spice blend. Let cook for a minute or two more.  Remove from heat.  Eat with steamed rice or roti (naan will do but is not the preferable bread here) and Indian lime pickle. 

If  you don't want to go to all the trouble for mere sampling, try the Vietnamese bittermelon soup.  

Cut the bitter melon into discs as suggested above. You can either use the raw gourd or if you wish to avoid the very bitter taste, saute it very lightly (lighter than for the above dish) making sure it remains slightly crunchy.  Use just one gourd for 2 servings of soup.
 
Cook some shrimp in chicken broth and water - enough for two large bowls of soup.  Add 1 tsp of crushed ginger, salt to taste, some sliced pineapples, one cubed Roma tomato and the bitter melon to the hot broth and cook for just two minutes before serving.  
 
I often like to add a few spoonfuls of steamed rice to the broth to make a heartier fare. 

Enjoy or report back to me as to how much you hated it :-)
 

Comments

[banerjee]

Re: The morality of eating meat

I believe all your questions are answered to some degree in the Mahabharata - see, for instance, the Shanti Parva at http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/index.htm

Re: Karala/Ucche

I've also been a fan of every form of Karala (except the deep fried, all bitterness wiped-out, version that's prevalent in north India). People who like the Karala flavor should also try fried neem leaves with white rice.

[Ruchira]

Ah Banerjee, you seem to be a person with identical taste buds as me. I provided a Punjabi recipe here because it disguises the bitterness - an easier fare to swallow for the uninitiated. But if truth be told, I too like the "really" bitter Bengali dishes. A particular favorite - boiled karela + potato dressed with nothing other than a few spoonfuls of mustard oil and bit of salt. And crispy fried neem leaves on plain steamed rice remain a favorite to this day. Alas, that is not possible to locate here unless I order it from a specialty farm in Florida. I particularly like it fried with diced eggplant.

[Sujatha]

I'll most certainly try out your recipe, Ruchira. I only know a very basic minimally spiced version with chilli and turmeric powder- hadn't thought of adding amchur, jeera, anardana and coriander. The adults like it, but not the kids.(though they love to drink water which seems sweet after a bite of the karela.)

[Term Papers]

Mostly many people don't like to eat coriander, but it has great advantages in it. Definitely try out your recipe.