Stuffed bittermelon
Bittermelon stuffed with minced meat, with black bean and chilli bean dipping sauces
- Cooking time2 hours
Calories505kcal
In this episode of Pasher Barir Ranna, Jessie Yung—chef and co-founder of Jessie Yung’s Kitchen in Calcutta—makes something she grew up eating in her Hakka home—bittergourd stuffed with minced meat (釀苦瓜).
As it turns out, the Chinese love their bitters just as much as their Bengali neighbours. The bitter gourd is perfectly cooked, tender but not mushy, while the mince filling is bursting with savoury juices. It is a perfect adult snack for those who are not averse to a little bitterness.
In the episode, Jessie also shows us how to cook two basic sauces to go along with the stuffed bittergourd. The first sauce is one most Calcuttans will be familiar with—black bean sauce (豆豉酱). You will usually see this on the menus of most old-school Chinese restaurants in the city. Jessie’s version is much bolder, as you will notice if you give the recipe a try.
The second sauce that she makes is Doubanjiang (豆 瓣醬) which is more savoury and spicy. The recipe uses a readymade doubanjiang (or toban djan) paste, but jazzes it up with a few other ingredients. Both of these sauces are fantastic recipes to have in your arsenal because they can be used in many other recipes.
Jessie runs her much-loved cloud kitchen, Jessie Yung’s Kitchen, in Calcutta with her husband Peter and her two children. Started during the pandemic, Jessie’s takeaway-only menu has a dedicated following. They intentionally steer clear of usual Chinese restaurant fare, choosing instead to feature Hakka and Cantonese homestyle dishes, as well as dishes from the different parts of China and South East Asia that Jessie learns on her travels.
This dish uses a few ingredients which may not be in your pantry, such as the doban jiang, oyster sauce, dried shiitake mushrooms, etc. These are all readily available in New Market. We purchased them from Nasiruddin Sardar who runs Shop no. 39A in the spice lane inside New Market.
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Ingredients
- 500 g large bittermelon
- 1 egg (beaten; to apply the filling)
For the filling
- 300 g minced pork
- 50 g carrots (diced fine)
- 35 g spring onions (chopped fine)
- 25 g dried shiitake (rehydrated and diced)
- 35 g cornstarch
- 20 g plain flour
- 3 g salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 20 g light soy
- 25 g oyster sauce
- 1 egg
- oil for frying
Option 1: Chilli bean sauce
- 15 g vegetable oil
- 3 g sliced garlic
- 18 g minced garlic
- 5 g minced ginger
- 8 g minced green chillies
- 30 g Toban Djan (chilli bean sauce)
- 10 g light soy
- 10 g dark soy
- 10 g sugar
- 75 ml water
- cornstarch slurry (to thicken)
Option 2: Black bean sauce
- 15 g vegetable oil
- 3 g sliced garlic
- 18 g minced garlic
- 5 g minced ginger
- 8 g minced green chillies
- 15 g Chinese dried, salted black beans (minced fine)
- 10 g light soy
- 5 g dark soy
- 10 g sugar
- 75 ml water
- cornstarch slurry (to thicken)
Method
- Wash the bittermelon thoroughly. Halve them, divide them into 5-cm segments, and scoop out the seeds.
- For the filling, first, rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 15 minutes. Then wash them thoroughly using salt as an abrasive. Squeeze out all the water, and chop them fine. Also finely dice the carrots and chop the spring onions.
- In a mixing bowl, add the minced pork, shiitake, carrot, spring onions, corn starch, flour, salt, pepper, light soy, oyster sauce and an egg.
- Combine everything, stirring in one direction to achieve good texture and binding.
- Beat another egg in a small bowl. Apply some egg to the insides of the bittermelon, and then apply the pork mixture to it.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large wok. Fry in batches on medium heat (~150°C) for 5 mins, until the pork is brown and fully cooked through.
- Serve with chilli bean sauce or black bean sauce.
For the chilli bean sauce
- Slice 3 g garlic, mince 18 g more garlic, mince 5 g ginger and finely chop 8 g green chillies.
- Heat vegetable oil in a pan. Start by adding the sliced garlic and frying until golden.
- Then add the minced garlic, ginger and green chillies. Fry for a about a minute.
- Add the Toban Djan sauce, light soy, dark soy, sugar and water.
- Bring it to a boil, and thicken with a corn starch slurry. Simmer the sauce for another minute before removing it from the heat.
For the black bean sauce
- Slice 3 g garlic, mince 18 g more garlic, mince 5 g ginger and finely chop 8 g green chillies. Also finely chop the Chinese black bean.
- Heat vegetable oil in a pan. Start by adding the sliced garlic and frying until golden.
- Then add the minced garlic, ginger and green chillies. Fry for a about a minute.
- Add the black bean and fry again for a few seconds.
- Add light soy, dark soy, sugar and water.
- Bring everything to a boil, and thicken with a corn starch slurry. Simmer the sauce for another minute before removing it from the heat.
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