Stir-Fried Bitter Gourd

Also known as bitter melon, this pale green vegetable has a distinctive, warty skin. It has a sweet and fragrant smell, but a rather bitter flavour. Look for the large Chinese gourds, around 30cm/12in long, rather than the smaller ones often found in Indian and Caribbean stores. Salting the raw vegetable helps to remove some of the bitterness and promotes a crunchy texture. Cooking it with hoisin and oyster sauces and a little sugar also helps to offset any astringency. Prawns are often add