Bitter guard soup

I was in the wet market this morning.  Overheard 2 ladies sharing their ingredients and methods of cooking soups.  I was curious when they were mentioning about cooking bitter guard soup.  I was wondering how to cook soup with such a bitter melon. I joined them to know more about this soup and wanted to try cooking it.  They were so generous that they shared with me the ingredients for boiling the soup. There are 2 main types of bitter guard in our market, the normal and the small very bitter bitter guards.

Many has turned bitter guard into capsules and tea bags dueto the medicinal use.  In fact, many Chinese has been using this melons as remedy for reducing high blood pressure and diabetic.

The ingredients for the soup

300 g bitter guard
4 medium tomatoes
150 g char choi(sichuan pickle)
300 g port or chicken
4 pieces of to fu
8 bowls of water.

Soak the char choi for at least for 1 hour.  Wash and sliced.  Wash and scald the meat for 5 minuted. Rinse and drained. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Remove the seeds of the bitter guard.  Cut into 4 cm slices.

Boil the water in a soup pot. Put in all the ingredients except the to fu.  Simmer for about 1 hour in low fire. Need not add any salt because the soup get the taste of salt from the char choi. Off the fire then put in the to fu. Serve hot with rice.

Bitter guard soup garnish with chopped spring onion and parsley

Surprisingly there is no taste of bitterness in the soup but sweet from the meat, a little of sour taste from the tomatoes, and a special taste of (kam kam).  My husband like this new soup very much and me too.