black bean sauce bitter gourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

i did a black bean sauce bittergourd with sliced pork today on 29.1.2016. ^^

this the 3rd time i am doing a dish for the friday breakfast community meal at teban gardens community service centre (CSC).

the centre was started in 2002 after much effort & challenge by our RI friend who is a pastor of pasir panjang hill brethren church (pphbc) which owns & runs the CSC.

i was told by A, the deputy executive director, that for the last 2 times, attendance were 88 & 82 respectively. today the crowd looked even more, so maybe it would be near 100.

black bean sauce bitter gourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

black bean sauce bitter gourd is a common teochew (& my cantonese friends said cantonese) dish & a popular dish at zi char stalls, very commonly with pork ribs or fish.

some examples –

1. sliced fish with bitter gourd in black bean sauce at keng eng kee (KEK).
2. pork ribs with bitter gourd at hong kong street (sin rong) at blk 325 clementi ave 5.
3. teck kia fish (leather jacket) with bitter gourd in black bean sauce at ah orh at jalan bukit merah.
4. black bean bitter gourd pork ribs at 香港街珍记 – Hong Kong Street Chun Kee Commonwealth Crescent

the dish can also be done standalone just as a spicy black bean sauce bitter gourd at many teochew muay stalls. i also do that for my homecooked teochew muay makans for friends. 🙂

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

why i called it “fake kurobuta”?

recently 6 of us RI friends toured hong kong together, a “hong kong eat & hike adventure 10 to 14jan2016”.

one interesting & enjoyable dish was the black beans bittergourd with kurobuta we had at yue bo 鱼宝食馆.

after returning to singapore, i got my friends together to reminiscence/relish the enjoyable food fun moments in singapore, so i recreate the dish. ^^

yue bo 鱼宝食馆’s black beans bittergourd with kurobuta

yue bo 鱼宝食馆 used kurobuta which was unusual. most eating places with pork ribs, sliced pork, fish.

the dish was quite well done. kurobuta was marbled & tasty.

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

i used a frozen pork collar (S$9.90/kg from sheng shiong) instead of lean pork for the marbling to give amore tasty pork.

pork collar of course has more connective tissues (collagen) & is tougher. so i placed it (in a water bath) in a 90degC oven for 2 hrs to help convert the collagen to flavourful gelatine.

i did all these the night before & kept the pork in the fridge.

black bean sauce bittergourd with fake kurobuta (pork collar)

next morning, i was up early. i cooked the bitter gourd (which had also been cut, washed & soaked in a salt & sugar brine so it would not be bitter) the usual way.

then i cut the pork collar in very thin slices…by cutting very thin, we severe the connecting tissues & thus tenderise the meat.

it was a very tasty dish & suitable for these community meals – no bones, meat were very tender & tasty, & so was the bitter gourd.

c.h.e.f andy