🥒🥩 Bitter Melon Beef - Hong Kong-style home-cooked dish perfect for cooling off with rice

Editor's Preface

Bitter melon beef is a classic Hong Kong dish, a favorite as you get older. Younger generations might find it bitter, but once you're back from work and working through the night, you'll realize this refreshing and refreshing dish is the perfect way to relieve greasiness and cool down! The beef is tender and smooth, while the bitter melon is crisp and slightly sweet. It's a spleen-tonifying and low-calorie treat, perfect for hot weather. Here's our ultimate secret to removing the bitterness and smoothing the beef, ensuring you never overcook beef and bitter melon until they're almost the same.

Ingredients preparation

• 1 medium-sized bitter melon (about 250g)

• 180-200g sirloin/tenderloin/beef slices (thinly sliced)

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 2 slices of ginger

• 1/3 carrot (thinly sliced, can be omitted for color)

• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce + extra half tablespoon

• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

• Pepper and sesame oil as appropriate

• 2 tablespoons oil

• Chicken broth/water 50-80ml

• Fermented black beans/fermented black beans (optional, for flavor)

Detailed steps

🥒 1. Remove the bitterness of bitter melon

• Wash the bitter melon, cut it in half, and remove the core (clean it including the white membrane to minimize the bitterness).

• Cut into thin slices diagonally, rub with salt for a few minutes, let it sit for 5 minutes, then rinse with clean water and drain.

• You can add a little sugar to rinse the water again to reduce the bitterness and gently squeeze out the water.

🥩 2. Marinated beef

• Slice the beef, add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, sugar, pepper, cornstarch, a little sesame oil and half a tablespoon of oil, mix well, and marinate for 10-15 minutes.

• Editor’s tip: Cut the beef against the grain, and use the oil and cornstarch to lock in moisture and make it smooth.

🧄 3. Stir-fry preparation

• Slice the garlic and ginger; slice the carrots; rinse the fermented black beans briefly.

🍳 4. Stir-frying process

• Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry beef until just turning brown and 70% cooked (do not cook through).

• Clean the pan and add oil, sauté garlic and ginger, add bitter melon and carrot slices, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.

• Add fermented black beans, sprinkle a little chicken broth/water, and stir-fry until the bitter melon is soft.

• Return the beef to the wok, add the remaining light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, stir-fry evenly, and add a little water to coat the beef.

• Taste and add sugar/light soy sauce if not tasty enough, then finish with a little sesame oil.

🥢 5. Serve with fragrance

• Serve immediately after cooking, hot and spicy. Add chopped green onions or scrambled eggs for a richer texture.

Editor's Tips

• The triple method of salting + rinsing + removing seeds and white membrane can significantly reduce the bitterness.

• The beef only needs to be stir-fried until it changes color and then it can be served. Put it back into the wok before removing it from the pan so that it will not turn into a shoe.

• Use with caution as fermented black beans have a strong flavor, a small amount is sufficient.

• The homemade stir-fry is generous in portion and is recommended to be eaten with rice as a good choice for weight loss.

Eating experience 😋

Bitter melon is crispy, tender, and slightly sweet, and paired with tender beef, fragrant black bean sauce, and rice, it's a truly delicious dish! Perfect for the hot summer heat, it's a great way to beat the heat and reduce greasiness.

summary

Bitter Melon Beef is recommended by both home-style and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Done well, it's a refreshing and healthy treat for the whole family. Let's try our Bitter Melon Beef tonight—guaranteed to clear everyone's plate in seconds! 🥒🥩🍚 If you're curious about recipes for bitter melon scrambled eggs, bitter melon fried chicken, or any other variations, just ask us and we'll give you our homework today!