“Don’t hate bitter gourd. It’s nutritious and delicious. Best to cook and have it at home with my Secret Recipe!”
This is one of the few dishes which have been my favourite dinner dishes to be cooked at home over the years. Just because I cook these for many times, I have to vary the cooking method of these dishes with some new ways, sometimes.I cooked stir-fried bitter gourd with black beans, and now, I would like to introduce another fragrant and delicious bitter gourd dish here. Don’t look at this bitter gourd dish that way, please~ This bitter gourd dish tasted so good and NOT bitter at all! Yup, this dish was delicious, soft and fragrant in the palate, with a secret addition, the raw salted duck egg.
I did not use the usual chicken egg to create the egg drop effect in my bitter gourd dish. A ‘preserved/ salted‘ duck egg was used. Need not to pre-boil the salted egg, but use it straight from raw egg, after washing away the layer of muddy salted charcoal coated on the shell. And no worries, this duck egg will not make the dish too salty like tasting the hard boiled salted duck egg. Instead, adding of duch egg makes the dish much more fragrant. Duck egg white was smoother, and its yolk was more moist and fragrant in the palate while chewing it together with the bitter gourd.
This recipe was suggested by my parents. Thanks to dad and mum!
And so, to avoid any disappointment by having very bitter-tasted bitter gourd in this dish, I will tell you how to choose bitter gourd which is less bitter taste (smile), in case you are not sure.
Ingredients
1 arm-lengthed bitter gourd, washed, removed seeds and thinly sliced
1 raw salted duck egg
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Pinch of salt and sugar
½ cup of water
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Method
1) Soak whole bitter gourd with salted water for 15 minutes. Slice bitter gourd into halves, remove seeds using metal spoon, and thinly slice the halves, crosswise or diagonally.
2) Heat wok with oil over high heat. Add garlic and stir-fry till golden. Reduce heat to medium fire. Add in bitter gourd and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add water and cover wok with lid to simmer for 3. Remove lid, add salt, sugar and oyster sauce. Stir fry to mix well before cover wok with lid again. Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until water almost dries up (bitter gourd should appear slightly darker green and softened now).
3) Break raw salted duck egg in a bowl and pour on the bitter gourd in circular motion. Quickly stir-fry to combine egg and bitter gourd for 30 seconds and heat off. Let the remaining heat to cook the egg further before dish up. Serve.
Tricks: How to choose less bitter taste of bitter gourd?
Choose bitter gourd with pale green in colour and less wrinkles.
Tips: Turn the heat off when 80% of the egg white turns whitish (some remain runny) and yolk is almost harden with a little runny and still moist.
6 Responses
Hi Patrica…
For this dish, can I use chicken egg instead of Duck egg? Will it still tastes just as good…as in not bitter!?!?
Thank you
Anne
Hi Anne,
Chicken egg is fine, but it wont taste as fragrant without the duck yolk, to some people. However, it had nothing to do with bitterness of the gourd.
Hi, can I cool the dish with cooked salted duck egg instead of raw one? because i can only find the cooked one here, thanks!
Hi min,
Hmm… That will turn to a different taste at all…
If you have to use a cooked one instead, try to melt the yolk with some butter on the heat first… However, remember, using cooked yolk means the dish will be adapted to another dish and taste entirely new, and not this recipe anymore.
It should still be nice though… :)
The raw salted egg yolk is hard right ? So do I have to cut into smaller pieces before I add to the bitter gourd
Yes, or chop it with your spatula in the wok while cooking. It will be mashed and disintegrated easily.