A home-style Taiwanese dish of minced pork braised with chopped pickled melon, soy and sugar until the sauce is glossy and the melon has melted into the meat. A everyday side eaten over rice, the simpler cousin of lu rou fan.
Pickled-melon pork, gua zai rou, is a home-style Taiwanese dish, the everyday side eaten over rice in households across the island, simpler and less famous than its cousin lu rou fan but equally rooted. The dish is built on minced pork braised with chopped pickled melon, the sweet-salty preserved cucumber or melon sold in jars across Taiwan, which melts into the sauce during the braise giving body, sweetness and a slight tang. The pork, minced not too fine, is stir-fried to release its fat, then simmered with the chopped pickled melon, soy sauce, rock sugar, rice wine and water until the sauce reduces to a glossy, clinging gravy and the melon has dissolved into it. The result is spooned over hot steamed rice, the savoury-sweet pork and its glossy sauce soaking into the grains, a complete meal in a bowl. The dish belongs to the great Taiwanese tradition of minced-pork-over-rice dishes, of which lu rou fan is the most famous, but gua zai rou is the home version, faster, simpler, and relying on the jarred pickled melon as its distinguishing ingredient. Eaten in homes and in simple rice shops across Taiwan.
A glossy, savoury-sweet minced pork in a clinging gravy, the pickled melon having melted away to leave a slight tang and body, spooned over hot rice so the sauce soaks in. Simple, deeply comforting, the everyday taste of a Taiwanese home kitchen.
The dish is a simple braise built on the jarred pickled melon. Minced pork, belly or shoulder with some fat, is stir-fried in a wok until it releases its fat and colours, the rendering important for the glossy sauce. Chopped pickled melon, drained from its jar, is added and stir-fried briefly, then soy sauce, rock sugar, rice wine and water are poured in and the dish simmered for 20 to 30 minutes, the sauce reducing and the melon breaking down and dissolving into it. The pickled melon is the distinguishing ingredient, its sweet-salt preserving syrup flavouring the sauce, its texture melting away to thicken the gravy, and its slight tartness cutting the pork's richness. The final sauce is glossy from the rendered fat and reduced soy, clinging to the meat, and the dish is spooned hot over steamed rice, the sauce soaking into the grains. The simplicity is the point, a few ingredients cooked into a richly flavoured topping for rice, and the dish is faster than lu rou fan because the pork is minced rather than chopped and the pickled melon carries flavour without the long shallot braise.
Variations
Some add fried shallots for depth. A version with preserved radish instead of melon is similar. Chili is sometimes added.
On the Palate
Where Taiwanese Pickled-Melon Pork sits in the Taiwanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
5 steps · 15 min
- 15 min
Stir-fry 300g minced fatty pork in a wok over medium heat until it releases its fat and colours, about 5 minutes.
Watch outFry the fatty pork until it renders its fat and colours, about five minutes — that rendered fat is what gives the sauce its gloss; skip it and the braise turns greasy and dull.
- 24 min
Add 100g chopped pickled melon (drained from its jar) and stir-fry 2 minutes.
- 38 min
Pour in 3 tbsp soy, 1 tbsp dark soy, 1 tbsp rock sugar, 1 tbsp rice wine and 200ml water; bring to a simmer.
- 44 min
Cook uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes until the sauce is glossy, reduced and clinging.
Watch outSimmer uncovered until the sauce turns glossy and clings, twenty-odd minutes — the pickled melon should melt into it; a thin watery sauce means it's not reduced enough.
- 55 min
Spoon hot over bowls of steamed rice; the sauce soaks into the grains.
