Braised bittergourd with chicken

This dish is popularly served in food stalls of almost all coffee shops in Kuala Lumpur. Being a bittergourd lover I love the taste of this dish and whenever I come back to my hometown in Kuching there is always the crave of eating, but sadly it's no where to be found ~ sigh ~

This morning as I was opening my fridge and wondering what to cook for lunch, then all of a sudden I remember I still have a medium-size bittergourd in there somewhere.  Then I told myself "why don't I try a hand on this bittergourd dish!"  With some leftover red carrot and chicken thigh it should be enough for the ingredients, not forgetting ginger and a couple of other seasonings I am in to prep and finally, here's the dish which I'll continue to cook in my home kitchen.  I should say that the taste is there, just that I didn't like black pepper, so I omit it, which in actual fact the one I eat in KL, they use a lot of cracked black pepper, which makes the dish spicy and not to mention they also use lots of sliced ginger.

Ingredients:
1 medium bittergourd
1 chicken thigh
some red carrot slices
8 slices of ginger (can put more if you love ginger)
water, for braising
oil, for deep-frying

Seasonings:
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp Shao Hsing wine
1/2 tbsp salted soya beans

Methods:

1. Wash and cut the bittergourd into strips.
2. Wash, cut the chicken thigh into pieces and marinate with 1/2 tbsp of light soya sauce for at least one hour.
3. Heat enough oil in a wok, deep fry the marinated chicken for 1 minute and dish up.
4. Next, put in the bittergourd and deep fry for another minute, then dish up.
5. Remove the excess oil, leave 1 tbsp. of oil in the same wok, saute ginger slices till fragrant. Put in the red carrot slices, stir and follow by the fried chicken and bittergourd.
6. Add in the seasonings and stir till well combined, add in the water, stir and cover with lid to braise. Open up and stir often to ensure that the sauce is not too dry.
7. More water can be added if the sauce is starting to dry up or if you prefer more sauce for the dish.
8. Once the bittergourd is cooked to your liking, off the heat, dish up and serve with white rice.