Mee Pok (Flat Egg Noodles) with Beef and Bittergourd

 



In all my years of eating and cooking, I have only recently embraced bittergourd into my cooking repertoire. I was visiting my mum and she was wondering what to do with the leftover roast pork she had in the fridge. She suggested doing a stir-fried bittergourd with roast pork dish, which I've heard of but never tried before. I can't remember if she ever cooked that during my childhood, but back then, I shunned anything that had bittergourd in it. I was a picky eater when I was young. Dare I admit that I never ate my veggies until I was in my late teens. Okay, my kids don't have to know this. Really.

Anyway, back to the bittergourd. I decided to use beef instead of roast pork in this dish, cooked with salted black beans. To make it a one-dish meal, I tossed it with some flat egg noodles (we call this Mee Pok in Singapore, though I'm not sure why) and added a splash of black vinegar, and it turned out to be a most slurp-worthy and delicious bowl of noodles.

Mee Pok (Flat Egg Noodles) with Beef and Bittergourd
(serves 2-3)

Ingredients

1 medium-sized bittergourd
Vegetable oil for frying
200g beef, thinly sliced
1 tbsp black beans, minced to a paste
2 tsp salted soy beans, minced to a paste
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped red chillies (optional)
1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar (or to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped scallions/spring onions
Sriracha or chilli sauce (optional)

300g flat egg noodles ("mee pok"), cooked in boiling water until al dente

Seasoning (combine in a bowl):
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp Cheong Chan thick caramel
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
4 tbsp water

Beef marinade:
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
Dash of black pepper
Pinch of salt and sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp water

Method

Cut bittergourd lengthwise into quarters. Remove the seeds and scrape off the spongy white part (as this is the bitter part). Slice into 6mm-thick pieces. Sprinkle with salt, set aside for 1/2 hour. Then squeeze out all the water. Rinse the bittergourd and drain well. Blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes until just tender but not too soft. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Set aside.

Combine beef with marinade. Set aside for 20 minutes.

Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a wok. Fry the beef on high heat for 3 minutes until almost cooked. Dish out and set aside.

Heat up 1 tbsp oil in the wok. Fry the minced black beans and soy beans, followed by the garlic and chillies. Add the bittergourd and fry for 1 minute. Push these to the side of the wok and add seasoning ingredients and bring to a boil on high heat. Add the beef and fry briskly to coat in the sauce. Toss the noodles in the wok and add a splash of black vinegar, more or less to taste. Add a dash of pepper, and salt to taste.  Dish out into individual serving plates and garnish with chopped scallions.  Serve immediately with  chilli sauced if desired.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thai Roast Duck Salad

Image
  So, I googled " game meat " and according to Wikipedia, " Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport".  I never knew that duck was considered game until someone told me that it is not commonly served or eaten in the United States for that very reason. Well, it makes sense now that I recall seeing duck hunting on TV (specifically the old Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck - rings a bell?). Maybe because I've grown up eating a lot of Chinese roast duck (and Peking duck during special occasions), and so I can't say that it tastes gamey at all. Or maybe duck just tastes best when it's roasted until the fat has rendered and the skin's gone all thin and crispy. The only thing I don't like about duck is that it's really boney and fatty. If you buy half a roast duck, you'd end up with half of it being bones and fat. The meat and skin however is very tasty.
Read more

Best Ever Italian Almond Cookies

Image
These are the BEST EVER, absolutely moreish and delicious Sicilian almond cookies you'll ever taste. With a thin and crispy crust outside, and amazingly soft and chewy inside, it's quite impossible to stop at one. The secret is to use roasted almond meal, which gives it a rich nutty and almost caramel-like flavour. Continue reading for the recipe. Italian Almond Cookies Adapted from Good Food Ingredients 250g roasted almond meal 3 egg whites, beaten until stiff 150g white sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 1/2 tsp almond essence Icing sugar, to coat biscuits Flaked almonds Method Using your hands or a large spoon, mix all ingredients (except icing sugar) together in a bowl and rest for 1/2 an hour. Preheat oven to 180C. Make small balls of about 3 cm by rolling them between your palms, then lightly roll them in the icing sugar. If the mixture is too soft, that's okay. Just drop spoonfuls of the mixture in the icing sugar and gently roll them until covered all over with sugar.
Read more

Pad Thai with Prawn and Pork

Image
It's hard to find a good pad thai in Sydney with the exception of Thai La Ong  where I had the most delicious pad thai with sliced pork. I've only been there once quite a few years ago, but I vividly remember the pad thai which was moist, saucy, and bursting with flavours of tamarind and the charry smokiness from the wok. Nothing like those pale-looking, bland and boring pad thais some other restaurants serve. That was my benchmark for pad thai, and today, I've got the perfect recipe that I hope you will enjoy. The only thing was that I couldn't find thin pad thai rice sticks at the supermarket. So I had to make do with the broader version which was about 1 cm wide. When the craving hits, you just have to make do with what's available! Continue reading to find the recipe. Pad Thai Serves 1 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 10 mins Ingredients 60g thin pad thai rice sticks Vegetable oil 1/4 large red onion, sliced 1 eggs 2 tsp chopped preserved radish/turnip 5 prawns
Read more