My Challenge to All

[Nentony]

I've added hops to marinades before, good with pork. Also, a leaf or 2 in a sachet when cooking greens. A bright bitter taste. A little goes a long way. I have seen recipes for eggs using hops, but never tried it. Mostly, I use it in beer, I'm a homebrewer

Tony

[Suzanne]

Shahar -- Is there a difference in degree of bitterness between the dark outer leaves and the light hearts for romaine? I keep thinking that if I ever had to develop a soup or veg recipe for a restaurant, I'd do something with the outer romaine leaves that usually get stripped away and thrown out. Such a waste!

[shahar]

Porcini cocoa fettucini with braised venison and fungi gravy

Venison like other game meat works great with bitter aromatics. Cocoa seemed perfect to me. Than I found out of course somebody beat me to it by a few hundred years.

[tigerwoman]

sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic

the taiwanese especially love bitter melon - it's an acquired taste for most.

horseradish has a bitter edge to it

arugula mixed with greens like watercress and dressed with citrus - nice ying yang of bitter/pepper with acidic flavors

certain cheeses have a bitter tang to them which if combined with the right degree of ripeness and something to conterbalance work well and are delish - like blue cheeses, older bries, goat cheeses, sheep cheeses, sharp cheeses.

asian long beans seem to have a slightly bitter edge to them - they are not really palatable unless well cooked (definitely not to be eaten raw)


so a nice salad is arugula, watercress, fresh spinach with goats cheese, marinated artichokes and roasted peppers in a meyer lemon vinaigrette - can add grilled fish or chicken to that for a main course dish.

could also sautee the greens for a hot side or compliment to protein

another dish would be sauteed long beans with a balsamic glaze. Use fresh rosemary and garlic.

grilled radiccio adds a nice bitter component and interesting look to dishes.

[shroomgirl]

A couple of the markets are open and farmers are bringing in SPRINGTIME....amazing how many of the greens have a bitter component.

baby arugula....making an open faced sandwith with steak, arugula, goatcheese and mustard

escarole....sauteed with onions, garlic, white raisins and apple cider viniager

micro sprouts...radish...ooooeeee....buttered bread and radish sprouts
mixed sprouts....not sure what I'll do with them

Asparagus can have a sweet bitterness to it.....

Got the end of the rhubarb and the beginning of the strawberries! Hurray!

umpteen years ago a couple of ACF juniors did a smoking class for me and made dinner, they wrapped romain around parmesan and bread crumbs, braised um and they were killer. Really great.

[coolJ]

all those dishes sound interesting. here's my input for a bitter dish. Raspberry pancakes !!

[Stewey]

Does grapefruit count in this discussion? Plain cold pink grapefruit is always nice. Or, for adventure while out camping, hollow out a grapefruit skin and bake some biscuit dough in it by the fire. The range of bitterness will be from slight to strong depending on how good you hollow out the skin.

[ExpatC]

How about Bitter Oranges (maybe grill the bitter melon brushed with a mix of honey-red wine vinegar-cayenne also incorporated in the dish) and paired with a great duck breast or a slow roasted, meltingly tender whole duck?

[BombayBen]

curried butter gourd with garlic,ginger,ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and lemon juice - delicious served with a fresh hot chappati mmmmmmmm

[AndyG]

Bitter hmmmm unripe guavas

Bitter in a brew--hops

[AndyG]

Originally Posted by BombayBen

curried butter gourd with garlic,ginger,ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and lemon juice - delicious served with a fresh hot chappati mmmmmmmm

Send a hot chapati here if you can.

An Alu Paratha would be just as good.

[BombayBen]

I'll just go off and make one now

[bluezebra]

grapefruit and avocado salad on a bed of mixed greens (including either radichio or escarole) with purple onion, bacon and mustard/garlic vinaigrette.

[Blueicus]

I've been force-fed Chinese-style bitter melon since I was young and I never developed a taste for it (it's very commonly served stir-fried with black bean sauce and fish). However, I do occasionally enjoy the Indian-style bitter melon prepared with spices and dry-cooked.

In my opinion, the flavour of saffron and cardamom (especially the aftertaste) has a slight bitter component when oversteeped and I've found them pretty interesting accents in the case of dessert (cardamom ice cream and such, although I've discovered that my colleagues were much less receptive to the bitter aftertaste).

[Coregonus]

Mustard! Just love all types of it! So many sauces call for its presence.
Ultimate example: Carbonnade ala Flamande - bitterness of beer and mustard combined.

Caraway - from the same opera. Adds bitterness to German cabbage dishes, dark rye.

Juniper berries - on wild side, great on game and in gin (I vote for Gin&Tonic to be considered a dish)

Wasabi in tuna tartare, Horseradish in Cocktail Sauce and Bloody Mary

Tzatziki with extra garlic (BAM!), Za'atar on bread, Kimchee, Dried Shrimp Paste, Tahini, Tonka beans, Thousand-Year Eggs, Green Tea IceCream, Green Papaya in salad, Oil-cured olives

Kidneys of wild game and grass-fed animals

Paprika: Hungarian Goulash and Segedin Fish Soup

Norwegian Lutefisk - just smelled once but was assured it's on a bitter side

I enjoy briny bitterness in some types of oysters, cured salmon roe

Have anybody tried Mongolian milk-based drinks koumys & arza?