White Gourd Braised Rice

This vine grown fruit which is eaten as vegetable when mature, popularly known as white gourd or bottle gourd is another one of my favourite vegetable. Normally, I will either stir-fry with dried shrimps or cook as savory soup.  Today, I am trying a hand on this one pot dish recipe.  It looks simple, but wait till you have the first taste of it, and I can assure you that you will have a new mindset on this "Simple Yet Yummylicious" dish.

Ingredients: (1 serving)

• 1 shallot (peeled and thinly sliced)
• 2 dried mushrooms (soaked and thinly sliced)
• 1 tbsp dried shrimps (washed, soaked and drained)
• 1 1/2" red carrot (peeled and julienne)
• some thinly sliced pork belly
• 1 cup white gourd (de-skin and cut into thicker strips)
• Rice (washed and drained) - not in the picture
• 1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil - not in the picture
• Enough water for cooking rice

Seasonings:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp chicken stock granules
Dash of fish sauce
1/2 tsp grounded white pepper

Methods:

• In a medium heated wok add in cooking oil, saute onion until almost brown, scrap it to the side of the wok and add in pork belly slices.
• Stir-fry the meat until it releases the oil and is lightly browned, add in the mushrooms, toss to mix and return the fried onion into the wok, add the dried shrimps and continue to fry until fragrant.
• Add in red carrot and white gourd and give it a quick stir.
• In goes the rice, all the seasonings and stir to mix until well combined for about 2 minutes. Off the heat.

• Transfer into a rice cooker, add enough water and press the Start button.
• When cooked, let the rice sits in the rice cooker for about 15 minutes before serving.

Notes: The amount of water used to cook depends on the type of rice that we are using.  I am using the normal white rice, thus as usual I need to add extra water or else the rice will not be cooked through.  As home-cooks we know our RICE best!

This recipe is adapted from Sifu Kenneth Goh with adjustments to suit my cooking and needs.