Spicy Stewed Bitter Gourd with Porkbelly Recipe

My Mom cooked this on 16th May, Monday. All of us, me, my hubby and especially my Dad find this very delicious！ Messy, who can consider as 80% vegan, obviously don't like this. The few types of meat she eats are minced pork, fried pork and chicken that's all. Worse when she was younger！ONLY minced pork that's it！Imagine she would order a plate of chicken rice W/O chicken meat！LOL 
As for Cheeky, she's more of an omnivore but also depends on her mood. She LOVES roasted duck and chicken drumsticks, will request not to chop into smaller pieces because she says it's more delicious to hold the drumsticks and bite off the meat！ Talking about this, there was one incident that happened few months back in Cheeky's school. She bit one of her classmates on her arm while watching TV show all of a sudden with no reason！ When I reached her school, the teacher on duty told me about that and I was like "OMG！ Not again！" I asked the teacher how's the little girl, was it serious, why did Cheeky do that? She told me it's minor, she had already applied some medication for her and the teeth's mark had subsided (PHEW！I was relieved to hear that！) but still not really sure of the reason as both of them don't wanna say. Teacher also mentioned that the girl dare not tell her when it happened, instead she told her softly when she went to the toilet！I WISHED THERE'S A HOLE RIGHT THERE！Is my girl really such a terror and a big bully！?  I asked Cheeky "Baby, why did you bite your friend?" She replied giggling "I thought it's a drumstick..." "DRUMSTICK??? Are you really that HUNGRRRRY???" Still giggling "No... I just thought that it's a drumstick..." What kinda reason was that！?  I was trying very hard not to laugh out and asked for the little girl, made sure that the bite was really not serious and made Cheeky apologized to her friend right in front of everyone. Telling them if she ever do that again, Mommy will pull out ALL her teeth！
That's not the first time Cheeky bite her friends and it can be very serious, this is why I'm very scared if I ever heard any complains from the school on this. Lucky from the day on, no such things happen again. 
So sorry for my long long grandmother's story about my Cheeky. Let's go straight to my Mom's Spicy Stewed Bitter Gourd with Porkbelly now！

Spicy Stewed Bitter Gourd with Porkbelly

    Ingredients for 4-6 Pax :

• 1 Big Bitter Gourd 
• 500g Porkbelly (About 2 thick strips)
• 1 Clove Garlic (Crushed with skin on)
• 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Salted Minced Bean Paste (You can use chilli bean paste if you prefer it more spicy)
• 1-2 Small Chillies (Cut thinly) Optional
• Little Light Soya Sauce to Taste
• 1 Big Bowl of Water

    How To Cook :

1. Cut the bitter gourd into half lengthwise and take out the seeds using a spoon. Rinse clean, cut half lengthwise again and then into big pieces. Sprinkle some salt on cut bitter gourd, mixed well and leave on for about 20 mins, rinse off and drained. This is to make sure the bitter gourd is not too bitter. 
2. Boil a small pot of water and 'wash' the porkbelly inside for a few mins. Take out, use a small knife to scrape the skin (you'll notice there is some white substance on the knife) and remove hairs if any. Rinse clean and cut into 1 inch thick.
3. Use little oil on low heat in a non-stick pan, fry crushed garlic awhile, add in minced garlic, minced bean paste, cut chillies and sugar. Mixed well until browned.
4. Add in porkbelly and stir fry for about 5 mins on medium heat.
5. Next, add in bitter gourd and fry together for about 2-3 mins. If there is some liquid appear, cover for 1 min on low heat.
6. Add in 1 big bowl of water, some light sauce to taste if necessary. Transfer all into a crock pot if you have. Bring to boil.
7. Cover and let it simmer on low heat for about half an hr or until the porkbelly is tender. (Personally I prefer the skin of the porkbelly to be very tender, so usually I'll simmer for at least 45 mins.)
8. Serve hot with plain rice.

Bitter gourd is known to helps in Diabetes and according to my parents, it helps to reduce body heatiness so whenever the weather gets too humid continuously for few days, we'll cook the bitter gourd soup with some meat for some flavor in soup and beaten eggs so that it's not so plain.    

Domo Kun Bento

After making Angry Bird & Green Pigs Bento, I wanted to try making more game and cartoon character bentos！It was so much fun, more interesting, challenging and most importantly, the girls showed more enthusiasm for these characters！At least they will request what characters they want and not me who keep asking them anymore. 
I made the Domo Kun because Messy wanted to have rice with the marinated minced pork again. The meat will be brown in color after cooking so it's the best choice for making it！

Messy's Domo Kun Bento. Looks like a female Domo！Those spinach leaves & baby carrot flowers are supposed to be just a simple decor but turned out looking like the hair！

Cheeky's Rabbits in Garden Bento.

As for Cheeky, I just arranged her bento the way she wanted it to be : "Rabbits on the grass eating carrots" but no matter how I arranged, just can't get that image, so I rolled those imitation crabsticks to make flowers instead.
 

Kiddy Mushroom Meat Bento

The week passed so fast and it is Saturday again. Last week, Messy was still having her one week school holidays！Cheeky will sulk and complain that she doesn't has any school holidays, it is so unfair！But this time she was on school holidays too because there were too many Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) cases in her ChildCare Center. The Center need to undergo 3 days of full sanitization, supposed to go back on Friday but as more and more new cases came up during that 3 days, we're advised to keep them away until next Monday. Luckily Cheeky did not contract HFMD as I've suspected her to have it dued to her previous sore throat and one ulcer in her mouth. She ate too much fried chicken drumsticks, 2 days in a row！ *Phew* 

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS = MY BONUS OFF-DAYS FOR MAKING BENTOS.

This bento is for Messy on 22nd Mar, Tuesday when she had Chinese Language (CL) Learning Activity which is combine with all classes in the whole school and it's compulsory. As usual, I'll ask them what they'd like to have for their bentos and Messy wanted her favourite Bunashimeji mushrooms, Japanese cucumber and baby carrots with the minced pork that I cooked in the Bibimbap. The only difference is that I fried all the ingredients together with the marinated minced pork with slightly more sauce here. I also added 3 pieces of Tofu Fishcake with minced pork and minced Chinese mushroom fillings, her favourite and mine too！

Kiddy Mushroom Meat Bento

Bibimbap (Korean Mixed Rice with Vegetables) Recipe

This is my 1st attempt cooking Bibimbap when I saw NTUC supermarket promoting their new products on Korean chilli sauce, marinating sauces, instant Rice Cakes (Ddukbokkie), Starch Noodles (Japchae) or what we call glass noodles or Dong Fen (东粉） in Singapore and they did come with some brochures of recipes. As a big fan of Korean and Japanese food, I happily read thru all the recipes listed on the brochure, took one a tub of chilli sauce and a small bottle of Bulgogi Marinade (non-spicy) and bought all the ingredients needed. As there are no instructions on what seasonings to add in all the vegetables, I just added little salt to taste.  

My Korean Mixed Rice recipe from the brochure.

    Ingredients For One Serving :

• Bean Sprouts - 30g
• Carrots - 30g
• Zucchini - 30g
• Spinach - 30g
• Shiitake Mushrooms - 20g
• Minced Pork/Beef/Chicken Meat - 50g
• Bulgogi Sauce for marinating meat - 2 Tbsps
• 1 Bowl of Cooked Short-grain Rice
• Salt to Taste
• Pepper to Taste (Optional)
• Little Water
• Little Cornflour
• Korean Chilli Sauce (Optional) - 1 Tbsp

    How To Cook : 

1. Marinate meat with Bulgogi Sauce (or any other of your favourite sauce/seasonings) and put in fridge covered for half hr.
2. Cut all vegetables into strips.
3. Stir fry all vegetables separately using little oil, add little salt to taste, set aside.
4. Add in cornflour to meat and mix well. Pan fried meat with little oil until almost cooked, add another 2 tbsps of Bulgogi Sauce, pepper to taste (optional) and little water. Stir well until meat all done.
5. Use a SUPER BIG bowl (for easy mixing when served) to contain cooked short-grain rice and arrange all the vegetables on top of rice in a circle.
6. Place the meat in the middle of all vegetables and topped with the chilli sauce (optional).
7. Mixed all well and serve！

Alternatively, you can click HERE for an authentic recipe from Cooking Korean Food with Maangchi. I found this website last few days ago and I'm going to try the recipe soon！

Pan fried marinated minced pork

 

Bulgogi Marinade for the meat

The tub of Korean chilli sauce I bought

Messy and Cheeky LOVE the marinated minced pork so much and requested to have it again！As promised, I cooked the meat again the next week and was with sliced red onions, another of their favourites. Cheeky had her 2nd helpings of rice (about 1 small bowl) that night for dinner which is rarely seen unless she's too hungry (not very often either). I was happy to see her eating more than usual.

Will be updating with other recipes soon.