Ground Pork with Pickled Melon over Rice - 瓜仔肉飯

My all time comfort food.

Ground Pork with Pickled Melon over Rice 瓜仔肉飯-


Ingredients?

Cooked white rice
1.5 lbs of ground pork (or two packages from the grocery store)
1/2 cup of Chinese pickled melon (chopped)
1/2 cup of Chinese pickled melon juice
2 stalks of scallion (chopped)
2 big shallots (chopped)
Extra virgin olive oil
Brown sugar
Soy sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Water

How?

Prepare a deep pot, drizzle some olive oil and turn the heat up.
Toss in chopped shallots and sprinkle some salt over it,
Cook till the color turned translucent, toss in chopped scallions.
Keep cooking till the shallots turned a little bit brown on the sides.

Add the ground pork,
Do not use lean pork, we want semi-fat meat for this dish.
Traditionally, some people even use lard instead of olive oil,
I kind of modified that part for health concerns,
But don't get me wrong, the taste is still wonderful.

Add some freshly ground black pepper while searing the ground pork,
Keep stirring till the pork is fully cooked,
Now we add chopped pickled melon and the juice from the jar,
You can find it in Chinese grocery store, in the canned food aisle.

Also add about 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1 1/2 cups of water, and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar,
Give it a stir and bring to a boil,
Turn the heat to medium low and simmer it for 30 to 45 minutes.

Don't forget to taste it,
See if you need to add more soy sauce, brown sugar, or water.
Some people like it dry,
Just keep simmering it till all the juice is absorbed by the pork,
Then you'll have a "condensed" ground pork with pickled melon.
I like it with a lot of sauce,
Not only for drizzling it over the rice,
I can also use it as a sauce base for noodles.

Besides rice and noodles,
There's also an alternative way to enjoy this dish.
Simply boil the green vegetables (preferably bak choy) and drizzle the sauce over it.

Hope you like it!

Cindy's Rating: 7