Braised Stuffed Bitter Melon in Black Bean Sauce

Many people seems to hate bitter melons mainly because they are, well, bitter. But we will be stuffing them with ground pork and shiitake and further braised them in black bean sauce, and I promise you that the end result is a bitter melon dish that will not be bitter at all. ♥

How to get rid of bitterness from bitter melon

With the right prep work, your bitter melon will not be bitter at all. Here is how you would want to prepare them:

1. Cut to remove the two ends, then slice into 1-inch lengths.
2. Remove the seeds with a knife/spoon to get bitter melon rounds.
3. To remove bitterness from the melon, sprinkle liberally with salt and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Wash in cold water and drain.

Preparing the stuffing for stuffed bitter melon

For the stuffing, we will need:

• 200 gram ground pork
• 2 dried shiitake mushrooms. Soak in 1 cup of hot water (~ 1 hour) or cold water (~ 8 hours) until soft and spongy, then squeeze, remove the stems, and chop into small pieces. Reserve the soaking liquid for the braising sauce.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, or tapioca starch
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce. I use Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine. Try using drinking grade Shaoxing wine with no salt content if possible, but the cooking grade is also fine for this recipe
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

To prepare the stuffing, simply combine all the stuffing ingredients in a mixing bowl and left to marinate for 15 minutes.

To stuff the bitter melon, with a small teaspoon, stuff the bitter melon rounds with the stuffing mixture. Try to make the bottom part lay flat while the top part is shaped like a dome. Once you are done with stuffing all the bitter melons, they are ready to be cooked.

Braising sauce and how to cook Chinese stuffed bitter melon

For the braising sauce, you will need:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red chili, thinly sliced. Use either a cayenne chili or a Fresno chili.
• 1 tablespoon black bean sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 cup dried shiitake soaking water
• cornstarch slurry from 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water

Here is the step-by-step to cook this dish:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan on medium. Fry the stuffed bitter melons (bottom part down) for 3 minutes until browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Turn the heat to high, sauté garlic and chili until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
3. Add black bean sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil, and shiitake soaking liquid and bring to a boil.
4. Return the bitter melons into the frying pan, cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the melon is slightly translucent and the stuffing is fully cooked.
5. Pour the corn starch mixture to thicken the sauce.
6. Turn off heat and serve immediately with steamed white rice.