Pork stuffed bitter melon

Ingredients

• 3 shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• Large pinch of white pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornflour

For the sauce:

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1" of ginger, chopped finely
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fermented black beans, chopped and mashed
• 250 mls chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornflour, slaked
• 2 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

Preparation

• Add the pork (and prawns, if using) to a bowl with the shiitake mushrooms, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, cornflour and white pepper.
• Mix well so that it's all combined. Slice the bitter melon into 1" rounds and cut out the pith carefully.
• Blanch in salted water and refresh. Stuff the pork mixture into the rounds carefully.
• It's best to overstuff them slightly, as the meat will shrink a little. Steam the melon for 15 - 20 minutes.
• It's fine to do it in two batches, as they will get a quick braise to warm back up again.
• Heat your wok up until it's slightly smoking and add some vegetable oil.
• Swirl it around the wok, then add the ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant.
• Add the black beans, and then the stock and the sugar.
• Carefully add the melon rounds back into the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes.
• Add the slaked cornflour to the mixture and simmer it further until it's thickened.
• Scatter with the spring onions, and serve with plain rice.

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