Bittergourd with Salted Egg
With leftover raw duck salted eggs from mooncake making, I cooked this fast and easy bittergourd (bitter melon) with salted egg stir-fry (苦瓜炒咸蛋). To me, cooking with salted egg is always welcomed, because I know whatever I cooked with it will most definitely turn out well, and I don’t have to worry about how to season the dish.
See Also:
The salted egg is the only seasoning in this dish, since it is deliciously salty on its own. If you prefer to cook this with normal eggs, do check out the bittergourd with eggs recipe. This dish goes very well with porridge.
If you are concerned about the bitterness of bittergourd, you can select bittergourd which is light green (pictured above) rather than dark green, as the former is inherently less bitter. I do not bother with preparations to reduce its bitterness (cooking tip on page two on how to do so), since I do enjoy the natural bitter taste. The salted egg also masks the bitter taste so one can hardly detect any bitterness. By the way, I have sliced my bittergourd very thinly as my family love them this way, but it is easy to overcook the slices if you are not quick with the wok. You can slice them to 1 cm thickness, instead, if preferred.
Ingredients for bittergourd salted egg – from left clockwise: finely chopped salted egg yolk, chopped garlic, sliced chilli & salted egg white.
Bittergourd with Salted Egg Recipe
Tip for choosing bitter gourd: In general, dark green bitter gourd is more bitter and light green is less bitter.
Ingredients:
- half (lengthwise cut) large bittergourd (bitter melon/苦瓜)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 raw salted duck egg yolk and white separated; egg yolk finely chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- half red finger-length chilli de-seeded and sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine optional
Directions:
- Using a spoon, scrap out and discard the white pulp and seeds from the bittergourd. Slice bittergourd thinly.
- Heat oil in wok and stir fry garlic for 20 seconds, or at the first sight of browning.
- Add bittergourd slices, stir fry until they start to turn translucent.
- Add salted egg (yolk and white), water and chilli. Stir to coat the bittergourd evenly in the egg, then simmer briefly on low heat, until the egg yolk is cooked. Drizzle Chinese wine at the sides of the wok and turn off the stove when you smell the aroma of the wine seconds later.
Noob Cook Tip
If you want to reduce the bitterness of bittergourd, rub a small amount of salt on the halved bitter gourd and leave for a few minutes, after which rinse away the salt with water before slicing. I personally enjoy the bitter taste so I omitted this step.