Black Beans With Bitter Melon and Meat

Hubby and I love beans, like pinto, navy, mungo, white and black beans. We love variety so we don't get tired eating the same beans, lol! I love beans mixed with veggies like malunggay, squash flower and bitter melon leaves or the fruit. This time, I cooked black beans with sliced bitter melon mixed with the leaves. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups black beans

1/2 lbs pork, sliced (but I used ground beef instead)

10 cups water


4 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 root ginger, sliced

1 pork boullion
 cube

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 medium pcs of bitter melon, sliced

cooking oil

1/2 tsp salt

How to cook black beans with bitter melon:

1. In a pot, sauté onion, garlic and ginger in cooking oil.

2. Add the meat.and salt. Saute for another 3 minutes.

3. Then add water.

4. And the black beans.

5. Bring to a boil. Stir occasionally. Remove scums as it rises.

6. Add the pork or beef bouillon and the fish sauce.

7. Simmer until the beans are soft.

8. Add the sliced bitter melon. Simmer for 5 minutes.

9. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Mixed Veggies

Once again, I cooked my favorite veggies which I love and I won't get tired eating. It's a combination of squash, okra and bitter gourd mixed with ground beef. I taught my American hubby to eat veggies. Before he met me, he told me he didn't like to eat veggies. All he ate were hamburger sandwiches, pizzas, potatoes, beans, chicken fried steak, etc. But after we got married, I always cooked veggies and I introduced it to him. He began to eat and like it. He told me that the veggies I cooked taste a lot better than the veggies being cooked in the US. I have to agree with that. Hubby and I went to eat many times to buffet restaurants in the US but the veggies they serve there don't taste that good. It has a so-so taste according to hubby unlike my cooking which is so yummy and delicious.

Squash From My Garden

I harvested a lot of squash from my garden this year. The above photo of squash is just the leftover because I had given away one dozen of squash to my friends. My Filipina friends told me why not sell it to the Asian store here in our place. I was not sure if Lyn, the store owner would want to buy my squash. My hubby told me that I better give the squash away to my friends who would want it. But I have already given all of them and they don't want it no more. Yesterday, hubby and I went to the Asian store to buy lumpia wrappers, munggo beans and coconut cream. I asked Lyn if she wants to buy my squash because I have a lot of it. She said to bring it to her and she will see what kind of squash do I have. Hubby and I brought the squash to her, about 6 pieces and she paid me $11 for it. Not that much but better than just let it stay in our house and rot. Lyn asked if I have more and she will buy it. I told her no more because I gave away a bunch to my friends. Had I known that she would want to buy my squash, I could have sold it all to her and made more money. Oh well, I'm also happy that I shared my squash to my friends and made them happy. One of them cooked the squash I gave her and she gave me some of the squash that she cooked with coconut cream. I still have 4 squash left in our house. I cooked one last night and mixed it with okra, ampalaya, eggplant, tomatoes and ground beef. It was good. I ate it with rice.

My Bottle Gourd

I harvested my last bottle gourd a few days ago from my garden. I cooked it for our lunch and me and my hubby love it. My bottle gourd had made only 3 bottle gourds this time so I cooked it with ground beef.

Ingredients:

* 2 tbsps cooking oil
* a cup (200 grams) ground beef
* 4 cloves garlic, finely crushed
* 2 medium onions, minced
* 1 large (1.8 kg) bottle gourd, cut into 1"x 1/8" cubes
* 3 tbsps fish sauce
* 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
* knorr beef cubes

Procedure:

In a large wok, over medium-high fire. Put the oil and ground beef. Stir-fry until beef is lightly brown. Remove from pan the ground beef. Retain the oil. Put the garlic. Saute until golden brown. Follow with onions. Saute until soft. Put the bottle gourd. Stir-fry for a minute. Add in the fish sauce. Sprinkle the pepper. Mix. Cook until aromatic. Put the beef cube and fried ground beef. Mix well. Cover. Cook until veggie is soft.

Note: No need to put water because the bottle gourd is watery as it is being cooked.

Veggies From My Garden

I am now harvesting vegetables from my garden like string beans, okra and collard greens. I cooked them the way we cooked in the Philippines. We call it dinengdeng. It's yummy to me. My hubby likes it too. I am not harvesting as much veggies as I did last year though. I think it's because of the summer heat. It's awfully hot nowadays. The temperature has hit the triple digit mark consecutively for the past 12 days. My tomatoes got no fruits yet. They have flowers but they turned brown and die because of the heat. This time last year, I already harvested a bunch of tomatoes. Maybe the reason is that we had a mild summer last year. It wasn't as hot as it is now. I'm still keeping my fingers cross that my tomatoes will give me fruits soon.

Fresh Vegetables and Fruits

My hubby and I went to Farmers' Market yesterday and we bought fresh vegetables and fruits. Unlike the vegetables that they sell at the stores which are not fresh and the fruits were laden with wax to make it look shiny, the veggies and fruits that they sell there are feshly picked from the farm. The prices at Farmers' Market are almost the same as the price in the store but still a lot of people buy there because of the freshness of the veggies. We bought okra, green beans, tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers, onions and peaches. I wanted to buy cantaloupe but it cost much. Just for 1 cantaloupe, it costs $5. I will just wait till the price will go down a bit.