Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and Egg
The recipe that we’re about to cook is with pork and egg. And, unlike other versions, we’ll produce a soupy one that kids might also love. (Assuming that they were trained to eat vegetables).
Here, you will also learn how to reduce the bitter gourd’s bitterness slightly.
Let me start by reminiscing for a bit. I remember way back when I was a kid, one of the viands that my mom used to cook was the Ginisang Ampalaya recipe.
She cooked the bitter gourd as it is without extra preparations.
My mom’s way of cooking these recipe variants is always going with pork or egg, but never together.
Although I did not like the bitterness of the viand, I still forced myself to have some to show my appreciation for my mom’s efforts.
But for a kid like me who has a low tolerance for bitter foods and is too dry, which means there is no “Sabaw,” I did not enjoy any meal with it.
Soon when I became an adult and started to become health-conscious, I then realized what I was missing from not eating the bitter fruit/vegetable.
I’ve read an interesting article about some of the health benefits of Ampalaya. Check out their post HERE.
FunFact: The star of our recipe, which is called by many names (ampalaya, balsam-pear, bitter squash, bitter gourd, bitter apple, bitter melon), is a fruit in botanical terms, but we prepare it like we prepare other vegetables.
Now, for people who want to take advantage of the bitter gourd’s health benefits while enjoying a good meal, one must start somewhere. One must learn Hearty Tongue’s way of cooking the Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and Egg recipe!
Tools You Will Need
- Mixing bowl
- Sauce pan with a lid.
- Chopping board and knife.
- Measuring spoons and cup.
- Cooking Spoon.
- Your trusted stove.
On the recipe card, we’ll give you instructions on how to reduce Ampalaya’s bitterness.
Now that we're all set let’s go to the kitchen!
Hearty Tongue's version of Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and Egg is less bitter yet tasty. With this recipe card, we'll guide you through your cooking to achieve this for yourself.
- 250 g Ampalaya AKA Bitter Gourd (There's an instruction below on making it less bitter.)
- 100 g Pork (With some of its fat, slice it to the typical size for sautéing.)
- 10 g Garlic (It's about to cloves. Minced.)
- 25 g Onion (Medium-sized. Chopped.)
- 55 g Tomato (Medium to large-sized. Sliced and diced.)
- 2 tsp Fish Sauce
- 2 cup Water
- 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
- tsp Salt (Use sparingly.)
- 1 Egg
- Initial Prep 1: How to Reduce the Bitter Gourd’s Bitterness
If you were like me, who has a taste bud with a low tolerance for foods that causes acrid tastes, then here’s a simple instruction for you to reduce Ampalaya’s bitterness.
- After cleaning, scraping out the seeds and slicing the fruit/vegetable, place it in a bowl.
- Put one teaspoon of salt and start mixing it with the Ampalaya with your hands.
- Continuously mix and squeeze everything until you’ve squeezed out most of its juices.
- Throw away the juice.
- Put one cup of water over the Ampalaya and start squeezing it again. We’re just removing some of the remaining salts. We don't want our viand too salty.
- This time, you can use a strainer and rinse the Ampalaya in tap water.
- Our Ampalaya or Bitter Gourd is now ready for sautéing!
Adjust the amount of salt depending on the size of the bitter gourd. We used enough for a medium-sized or about 250 grams of the said vegetable in our instruction here. - Initial Prep 2: Pre-cooking the Pork
- Put the pork in the pot together with a small amount of water.
- Turn on the stove to medium flame to gradually cook the pork until the water reduces or dries up.
- Cook the pork to golden brown or until it produces its own oil.
- Stir for a bit to produce some more oil.
- After a minute of stirring, remove the pork from the pot and set it aside.
- Proceed to the next instruction.
Some people like to go straight to sautéing without removing the pork. But, for first-timers, you don't want hot oil splattering on your face while you are sautéing because of the pork's fat. Also, you will want to set the pork aside for a while to give aromatics more space for sautéing, especially if you're using a small pot. - Let's Sauté
- On the same pot, sauté garlic until golden brown.
- Put the onion and sauté until it becomes translucent.
- We'll put the tomato and stir all the aromatics for a few seconds.
- Let's put the pork in the mix.
- Stir until the tomato becomes soft that you can mash it.
- Cooking All Ingredients
- Now that the tomato becomes a bit mushy, let's put the Ampalaya.
- Pour in 2 teaspoons of fish sauce.
- Mix all ingredients, cover the pot and simmer for about 2 minutes.
- Put the water and cover the pot again.
- Turn up the flame so we can let the liquid boil faster.
- When the water starts boiling, turn the flame to medium again and let everything simmer for 7 to 10 minutes.
- Put ground black pepper and stir. From here, adding salt is optional.
- Lastly, break an egg over our Ginisang Ampalaya and immediately stir all ingredients to avoid the egg being cooked straight off. At that exact moment, turn off the stove while continuously stirring.
- Now that our viand is ready, it's time to prepare the table!
The egg might end up being poached if we'll wait even a minute before stirring all the ingredients. We want our Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and Egg to become soupy rather than having chunks of egg floating around.
Servings 3
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 145kcal
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 6.9g11%
- Saturated Fat 0.8g4%
- Cholesterol 82mg28%
- Sodium 354mg15%
- Potassium 106mg4%
- Total Carbohydrate 5.8g2%
- Dietary Fiber 0.6g3%
- Sugars 1.1g
- Protein 14.6g30%
- Calcium 2 mg
- Iron 3 mg
- Vitamin D 26 IU
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
For those who can’t tolerate the Ampalaya’s bitterness but still wants to try eating it for a change or probably wants to incorporate it into their set menus, then for starters, try our version of Ginisang Ampalaya with Pork and Egg.
Eventually, when you start to get used to eating the bitter gourd and probably want it to be more bitter than how we prepared it, then bypass the instruction above where we taught you how to lessen its bitter properties.
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