Pork stuffed bitter melon

Name: Pork stuffed bitter melon
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: En
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; 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

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Main Dish

Very Easy

25 min

Preparation

Preparation15 min

Cook time10 min

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.