Tangy Eats: Bitter Melon Stuffed with Pork

I am going to openly admit, that I am a fail in the kitchen (pretty much everyone knows this so its not a confession really lol) No lie, I don't even want to talk about my protein pancakes that I made, and ate, even though, it was a fail. lol. I think I instagrammed that one too.. haha anyways... I'm making an effort to start doing more things and learning more things everyday. Learning = life, especially essentials like cooking.

My mom is a master chef (I think the cooking gene skipped a generation). When she cooks, she doesn't tell me exact measurements she just knows, lol. I was so excited when I ate this stuffed bitter melon, I was like mom, I need to blog about this and share it with everyone the world. And then I had her show me how to make and cook it in 20 minutes.

This dish is a traditional Taiwanese Hakka dish. Its a super simple, and clean eat. Here is the recipe for this magnificent pork stuffed bitter melon.

Ingredients:

1 Medium/Large Bitter Melon ( Not small or else you can't really stuff pork into it)
Ground Pork
Green Onion
Ginger Powder
White Pepper
Soy Sauce
Rice Wine
1 Teaspoon Corn Starch

Makes aprox. 6-7 stuffed bitter melons.

Prep & Marinate the pork the night before ( Aprox. 10 minutes)

1. Put the ground pork, ginger powder, white pepper , soy sauce and rice wine in to mix (flavor based on your tastes, we keep it pretty light). Add a cup of water.
2. Mix the meat (we used a plastic glove and mixed it by hand, might want to just use a spoon or something) until the water and liquids are absorbed by the meat.
3. Chop the green onions. Mix in the chopped green onions, sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of corn starch
4. Once the mixture is completely mixed, put it in the refrigerator over night - to ensure juiciness, and marination.

Prior to cooking (10 minutes):

1. Wash bitter melon with water.
2. Cut the head and tail off.
3. Cut the remaining bitter melon in about an inch or so in width,  enough so that it makes 6 or 7 pieces.
4. Hollow out the inside of the melon with a spoon, make sure to lay it flat on a cutting board or flat surface, to make sure you don't break the bitter melon "cup".
5. Now using a spoon fill the bitter melon with the ground pork mixture. Lay it flat on your hand when filling it so it doesn't pop out and overflow.
6. When filling it make sure to not leave any cracks around the edge of the bitter melon and the meat.
7. Put one cup of water into the DaTung Cooker. Push it down, and viola 14 minutes and its completely cooked!
Leave it in the cooker for 10 minutes to cool off a bit.

Cook up some brown rice, and viola you gots a really yumm-o meal!

You can also use bell peppers, cucumbers or even eggplant as the shell. Its definitely a great beginner's dish to cook up! And I can't wait to learn more dishes, and share them here! :) Let me know what you think, and if you try the recipe, also email me if you have any questions!

<3 Kelly