Stir Fry Bitter Gourd Slices with Fresh Glass Prawns & Baby Corns

Most people I know frown whenever I mention the word Bitter Gourd - BITTER is all they can remember of this fruit (or vegetable).

Actually contrary to many, bitter gourd can be as tasty as any other dish. It depends on the types of ingredients and preparation of the dish.

In fact, bitter gourd has one very well known benefit of being a cooling dish - it is known to have the ability to dispel heat from our body. (For the benefit of those who are not sure when your body gets too 'heaty' - that's when ulcers start to appear in your mouth or redder tongue. Frequent late nights can cause heatiness too!)

So here's my version of the not-so-bitter version:

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
1 teaspoonful of chopped garlic
6 glass prawns, washed and peeled
6 young corns, sliced into halves
1/2 of standard size bitter gourd, washed. Cut open and remove all seeds and slice them as thin as you can
(The standard size is usually 1 1/2 or 1 time the size of the length of a human palm. Alternatively, there are also small bitter gourds in supermarkets, which are normally pre-packed into 3 in a pack. For such, you can use 1 1/2 of them for this dish).
1 tablespoonful of cooking oil
1 dash of salt
3 tablespoonful of water

Method
1. Fry the chopped garlic in the heated cooking oil until golden brown.
2. Add in the prawns and stir fry them until they turn red in colour.
3. Add in the bitter gourd and young corns and stir fry them, and add 3 tablespoonful of water and cover lid. Lower fire and let it simmer for 1 minute.
4. Add a dash of salt to taste, and dish up to serve.

Note: As I typed, I realise it can be even tastier if you add in fried bacon bits. How to prepare them? Easy. Cut 3-4 slices of streaky bacons into small pieces and fry them till crispy. I don't recommend in oil, as the oil from the bacon will be released as they are fried. Sprinkle them into the cooked dish as garnishing.