Another great YouTube video find. I made this using a vid posted by "startcooking." I think it really turned out great. If you want to view the vid, it can found here Chicken with Broccoli

Bitter melon is an odd little vegetable. Most don't know what in the world to do with it. Even it's appearance is a bit...well...odd. Imagine a cucumber that has erupted with the worst case of warts you've ever seen. Don't believe me? See for yourself.




My favorite method of cooking this mysterious "melon" is by stirfrying it with pork and garlic. It's a recipe one of my mother's Chinese friends taught me, and I've loved eating it this way ever since. Plus, it's super easy to do.

The first thing you need to do is clean and blanch the melon in a couple of changes of water. This softens the melon and also takes some of the bitterness out of it. They don't call this vegetable bitter melon for nothing. I always like to compare the flavor to the white inner pith of a grapefruit. Imagine chowing down into that for fun. Some cooks prefer to simply sprinkle the raw bitter melon with salt to get rid of the bitterness...that works too, but I like my melon softer than usual, so blanching works best for my preferences.

Next, cube some lean pork into bite sized pieces. If you prefer a more pork to melon ratio, I'd suggest using ground pork, which thoroughly covers every piece of melon when cooked together. Also, make sure you have some finely minced or crushed garlic. Use fresh as garlic powder won't taste anything like the real thing in this recipe.




Add oil to a hot wok or skillet. Add your pork, then the garlic and stirfry until pork is almost done. Add bitter melon and stirfry some more until pork is done and melon reaches desired consistency. I don't like mine falling apart, but I like it softer than al dente. There should be very little to no resistance when I bite in.

All done. Pardon the fuzziness. It was still hot when I took this shot, and the steam kept fogging up my camera lens.

Love, love, love my wooden boxes. I'm using my two-tiered cedar box here and the furoshiki just folds beautifully around it. Here, the tab peaking through has two frisky little rabbits leaping along. Very joyful and cute!




What has these rabbits so ecstatic is obviously the contents: homemade shrimp stirfry, apples sharing their space with a sirracha pig, and piping hot rice. Yum! My only regret is that the glorious stirfry which I had put up earlier in the week has lost most of its beautiful color. Maybe it was the reheating, or maybe it was the refridgeration process, but as you can see, it's no where near as vibrant as the original pic below (taken shortly after making).

Working for a short while at a Chinese restaurant, I was shocked to discover that some of the most complex looking dishes were actually extremely easy to make and didn't involve lots of foreign ingredients. Fried rice, beef with broccoli, and stirfried vegetables in white sauce all utilized ingredients I can find at my local Walmart these days. My favorite by far is the white sauce, which curiously enough is just chicken broth thickened by corn starch. All you do is stirfry your vegetables in a little oil on high heat...my favorite combo is chinese cabbage, carrot matchsticks, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and baby corn...until the cabbage becomes barely limp (around 2-3 min.) Then add chicken broth until a small pool forms at the bottom of the vegetables, reserving some cold broth. Mix together cornstarch with the reserved broth; the amount varies on how big a batch you're making but if you've ever made gravy you now how to eyeball it. If you're a gravy newbie, I'd start with around a tablespoon to begin. You can alway add more later if it's not enough. Continue to stirfry until veggies are coated with a sumptuous, creamy glaze. I immediately freeze mine in smaller batches without any meat. Then when I defrost, I simply stirfry the meat first, then add the vegetable stirfry mix, and stirfry until hot. My favorite meat "garnish" is shrimp, but chicken is also a good choice. Or you can eat just plain as I did here...with just a squirt or two of sirracha to add a spicy kick.




If making to eat immediately, use the same formula as if frozen. Stirfy the meat first until done, remove from wok or pan, stirfy vegetables, then add meat back in. Do not cook them together as the meat requires more time and you will risk overcooking your veggies or eating undercooked meat. Gross! Also, searing and cooking the meat in the pan first creates beautiful flavor which it then imparts to the veggies afterwards.

Tonight I made my first attempt at shrimp stirfry. I love shrimp with chinese vegetables, and I've always wanted to try and reproduce a version at home. I tried to recall my days of working at the House of Hunan and remembered that the majority of the sauces were a simple mixture of stock and thickener...so here's the results of a morning's experimentation. I'd post a recipe, but I really didn't measure anything. All I can do is describe the steps.

First I peeled the shrimp. You should de-vein them, but I forgot to this morning (ick). Then I heated up my non-stick "wok" and drizzled in some olive oil. When that got hot, I added my shrimp, cooked until firm, and removed from pan. The shrimp didn't soak up that much oil so I didn't need to put in more. Keep the pan hot and then drop in your cut veggies. I used bok choy, baby corn, mushrooms, and sugar snaps...but to each their own. I tossed continuously, but I don't know if that's the canon or not. After some wilting, I added chicken stock. And because I'm a lazy singleton without a large family to feed, I used canned stock. Let it reduce some more depending on how you like your veggies. Season with spices if that's your thing...I used just a little bit of pepper and maybe a touch of salt. Mix together some cold stock and corn starch *not too much here or you'll end up with clumpy Thanksgiving gravy* and add to the veggies. Toss, then put shrimp back in, toss some more...then plate. Viola. A far cry from the sumptuous fare I experienced at the House of Hunan, but a very tasty first attempt if I may say so myself.