A Dish With Undercooked and Overcooked Veggies
By hereandthere
@hereandthere (45628)
Philippines
August 22, 2016 10:42pm CST
The veggies involved here were yellow squash (kalabasa) with green skin, followed by sitaw (long string beans), ampalaya (bitter gourd), then talong (eggplant).
The squash would have ended up completely squashed if not for the green skin, while the rest were still half-cooked that I just gnawed and sucked the nutrients before spitting them out. Hahaha!
For those who cook with these veggies, was my sequence correct?
Also, how do you remove or minimize the bitterness of ampalaya?
For those who are not familiar with these vegetables, have you ever cooked a dish that accidentally ended up with both overcooked and undercooked ingredients in it?
16 people like this
16 responses
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Aug 16
When cooking with multi-veggies, the harder veggies are first in line - to the softest in the end. The timing is the tricky part, which depends on the dish. I have cooked with all those veggies before, but not together in one dish. My mom sliced up bitter gourd and lightly stir fried it . . . then she had some kind of miso sauce to go with it. My parents liked the bitterness of it and actually wanted to retain that taste.
3 people like this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
23 Aug 16
i cooked this with chicken and coconut milk. yeah, i miscalculated the time, panicked and ended up putting the rest like less than 10 seconds apart! hahaha!
is bitter gourd with miso a japanese dish? yes, my parents prefer it bitter, too.
1 person likes this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Aug 16
@hereandthere Oh yum - that almost sounds like a stew! I think when I first started cooking regularly, I relied upon a cooking chart in a book that had the approximate cooking time for various vegetables depending on the method (steamed, boiled, baked, etc), so eventually I "got" the timing of when to throw in veggies (well, most of the time). I still don't always get it exactly right after all these years of cooking.
I just remember my parents saying that bitter gourd is what "old people" ate . . . and somehow as my parents got older, they wanted to eat it (otherwise, I didn't see it or eat it when I was growing up). I am pretty sure my mom got this miso recipe from one of her old Japanese cookbooks - but I don't know if it's any sort of "traditional" dish.
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
23 Aug 16
@much2say i was honestly winging it. i just wanted to use up the 2 packs of powdered coconut milk. that's an impressive cooking chart. i think some people are guided by color, sound and smell while cooking.
bitter gourd has that reputation here, too. most of us don't like it growing up, then learn to like it when we're much older. i think miso is usually cooked with fish here.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
24 Aug 16
how do you make ampalaya less bitter?
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
24 Aug 16
@AkoPinay that's what i remember, too, (water with salt) but it was still bitter 
1 person likes this
@AkoPinay (11496)
• Philippines
24 Aug 16
@hereandthere Wait... I lost my English and Filipino "vocabulary" 
put sliced bitter gourd in water with salt, leave it for few minutes or tightly squeeze 
put sliced bitter gourd in water with salt, leave it for few minutes or tightly squeeze 1 person likes this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
29 Aug 16
That sounds like a horrible meal!
I think if you stir fried the ingredients, you can taste them before you switch off the fire.
In this case, you are not likely to have both overcooked and undercooked ingredients in one dish.
Some people cook the vegetables separately before mixing them into the pot.
They do that so that they can get more crispy vegetables.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
29 Aug 16
it also had chicken and coconut milk.
1 person likes this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
29 Aug 16
@hereandthere Then you definitely can try to stir fried the vegetables before adding into the soup.
That will make the vegetables more crispy and retain their taste rather than get diluted with the taste of chicken, and coconut milk.
1 person likes this
@epiffanie (11327)
• Australia
6 Sep 16
I cook them separately and then just mix them all up at the end .. that way, they're all evenly cooked..
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
23 Aug 16
yes! I find that sometimes ( like baked chicken and potatoes) you have to bake sep and combine towards the end, or stuff is tough and stuff is raw
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
23 Aug 16
i think it happens when you use a crockpot, too, and put the veggies with the raw meat
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
23 Aug 16
@hereandthere or everything is just overdone if not careful
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
23 Aug 16
it was hard to chew, so when i reheated it, i took out the chicken and squash to let the rest cook some more
1 person likes this
@JustBhem (70555)
• Davao, Philippines
23 Aug 16
@hereandthere
But when it comes to pork or chicken or beef, well it should be well cooked or else your stomach will upset. lol
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
25 Aug 16
After cutting soak the ampalaya in water with many salt, then after some 15 minutes discard the salty water and wash. It will help minimize bitterness. To avoid overcooking, it is better to cook altogether squash and sitaw then after a little while add the bitter gourd and when these veggies are already almost done add the talong that cooks just easily and after few seconds l your dish is done.
@marguicha (230334)
• Chile
25 Aug 16
I have come acquainted with the veggies I use (I don´t know about bitter gourd). When I cook a vegetable stew I never place all the veggies at once in the pot.
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
23 Aug 16
it means you're a good cook. i'm not really good at it.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
26 Aug 16
of those 4, i'd eat the ampalaya last. i treat it as unpleasant medicine. what i don't like are okra, upo, patola, and saluyot.
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
24 Aug 16
marlina said she'd puree them and make a soup, which is a good idea, too.
@thelme55 (79311)
• Germany
25 Aug 16
I have cooked these veggies too but the hard veggies came first to the frying pan before the softer veggies. I don't get off the bitterness of the ampalaya. I love it bitter. You can squeeze salt in the sliced ampalaya, wash them before you cook them. That was how my late mother got rid off the bitterness of this veggie.
1 person likes this
@kaka135 (14994)
• Malaysia
24 Aug 16
I do not know about much about squash, as I have not cook them before. I usually cook them separately, then only put them altogether at last and cook for awhile more, then add some seasonings. I am not sure if this is the proper way to cook, but this is how I do.
As for minimizing the bitterness of bitter gourd, my mom told me to use the salt to rub them, then rinse it off. I don't do that as my husband and I like the bitterness. I read this technique from Internet too, so perhaps it works.
Since I always cook the vegetables separately, so I rarely have some undercooked and overcooked in one dish.
@sallypup (69161)
• Centralia, Washington
24 Aug 16
Lentils can be boiled with some crunchy undercooked parts if a person isn't careful.
