Stuffed Bitter Gourd with Minced Pork

Bitter gourd or bitter melon is a versatile pod vegetable, you can steam, fry, or braise the bitter gourd. The main problem here in serving a bitter gourd dish is some may not like the bitterness in the dish. My son and hubby are not fond of eating bitter gourd, however, looking at the health benefits from eating bitter gourd, I insisted they have to take bitter gourd once in a while. 

This round, I try to reduce the bitterness of the bitter gourd by soaking the sliced bitter gourd in sugar water. It works, at least my hubby ate a lot and the last piece was snatched by my son! ^^

Recipe: 
Yield 24 pieces

2 medium size bitter gourd, sliced into 1 cm thick
2 tbsp sugar
300g minced pork
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp oyster sauce + 1 tbsp oyster sauce
a pinch of black peppers
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp of sesame oil
3 tbsp of water 
200ml water
3 tbsp cooking oil
a few pieces of wolfberry or Goji

Method:
1. Prepare the bitter gourd: Wash the sliced bitter gourd and remove all the pods. In a big bowl, add 2 tbsp sugar with water enough to soak the bitter gourd. Soak the sliced bitter gourd in the cold water for at least an hour.

2. Prepare the minced pork: In a bowl, place the minced pork, minced garlic, minced ginger, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, black peppers, salt, corn flour, sesame oil and water together. Stir the minced pork mixture together using a pair of chopstick until the texture of the meat is a bit gooey. 

3. Assemble and cooking: Take a piece of sliced bitter gourd and stuff a teaspoon of minced pork in it. Level the meat with the bitter gourd thickness using the back of the spoon. Repeat for the rest of the sliced bitter gourd. 

Heat up a flat base pan with 3 tbsp of cooking oil. Arrange the sliced bitter gourd in the pan, add 200ml of water, wolfberry and a tablespoon of oyster sauce in the water. When the water in the pan is boiling, let it simmer for another min before you flip the sliced bitter gourd. When the meat turned pale or cooked, remove the pan from the heat. Serve the bitter gourd on a serving plate.