Winter Melon with Dried Shrimp (冬瓜蝦米, Dung1 Gwaa1 Haa1 Mai5)

 

This recipe was updated on 03 Nov 2015. Some instructions and ingredient measurements were changed.

Here’s another simple winter melon stir fry dish, this time using dried shrimp. Chinese winter melon is not a melon but a gourd with what looks like a white powder covering the outer surface. It’s usually available, eaten, and stored over the Fall and Winter months. It is typically used in soups, the classic being a soup with winter melon and dried oysters either with or without the winter melon’s outer skin.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1.75 oz.	50 g.	One half of a 3.5 oz. (100 g.) package dried shrimp (haa1 mai5, 蝦米), rehydrated
½ cup	125 ml.	Boiling water to rehydrate the dried shrimp
2 lb.	1 kg.	Winter melon (dung1 gwaa1, 冬瓜), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) cubes
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
2 tsp.	10 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
4 tsp.	20 ml.	Water
		Oil for cooking

 

Instructions

1. Soak the dried shrimp in boiling water for 30 minutes in a heat proof bowl. Remove the shrimp from the water and reserve the rehydration liquid for later use in the sauce.
2. Remove the seeds and the outer skin from the winter melon. I use my hands to remove the seeds and a Chinese cleaver to remove the outer skin (some of the edible flesh near the skin will also be removed, but this is unavoidable). A 2 lb. (1 kg.) piece of winter melon after being cleaned will yield approximately 1½ lb. (750 g.) of flesh. Dice the flesh into large cubes, at least 1-inch (2.5 cm) in size.
3. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. In another small bowl, prepare the corn starch slurry by mixing the corn starch and water together.
4. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil and then the shrimp. Stir fry the shrimp until slightly browned. Add the winter melon to the wok and quickly stir fry to keep the winter melon slightly crunchy (winter melon becomes mushy if overcooked). You may need to add a small amount of shrimp rehydration liquid to facilitate the heat transfer from the wok to the ingredients.
5. Add the sauce ingredients and some of the shrimp rehydration liquid to the wok, and stir fry the ingredients together. Add the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce and mix all the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve with steamed rice.