Braised Bitter Gourd with Pork Belly 苦瓜焖三层肉

First, slice pork belly for about 5mm thick.  Gently fry them over slow heat till browning. 

Alternatively, can also deep fry them.  But deep fry requires a lot more cooking oil, which is not very healthy, not to mention wasteful.  So I opted for  Ongrizinal green cooking

Meanwhile, I cut open horizontally a bitter gourd.  Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and the whitish core.  Then slice them into 2 mm thick.  Thinly sliced gourd are easier to cook.  By the time the pork belly are already nicely browned, put in all the sliced bitter gourd.  

Stir for a while, then add in some water.  After its boiled, turn the flame to minimum to simmer the ingredients for about 10 minutes, or till the bitter gourd is softened.  

Add salt to taste.

The bitter taste of bitter gourd is because of momordicin.  To remove the bitter taste, some would soak the sliced bitter gourd in a salt solution.  A faster way is rubbing the sliced bitter gourd with salt.  The salt would create a higher solute concentration compare to inside the plant cells.  Thus the water in the cells moves outwards the cell, bringing along the momordicin.