Bottle Gourd and Spinach Stir Fry

Last time I had posted a Guisadong upo recipe but we used just half of it as these vegetables are really huge in size.  The average size of a bottle gourd would be around 2 feet in length but in places that these are common you tend to find smaller ones but I guess here in New Zealand you don’t have much option, so I have to buy the whole thing and use it in two separate occasions.  Now I was left with the other half and I want to do something different and use this as the main ingredient, now the problem is that I know only one recipe for this wonderful ingredient and perhaps most of the Filipinos do, apart from adding this as an ingredient in Misua or Tinola. So it’s time to search online for recipes that use bottle gourd.

This vegetable is a bit uncommon so when you search the results only shows Indian curries, there’s a few for Guisadong upo and there is one that is stir fried with spinach leaves. I was interested in the latter as we have some spare spinach leaves to use, and according to the author of that blog post it was of a Chinese origin which definitely ticks my box as me and my wife loves Chinese cuisine. Now I made some revisions to the recipe due to the ingredients available to us currently and here is my version.

Bottle Gourd and Spinach Stir Fry

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Raymund
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 35 mins
• Yield: 3 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Cuisine: Free Style

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 100 g minced chicken
• 100 g minced beef
• 50 g hibe (dried shrimps)
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 1 big bottle gourd (about 15 inches in length), sliced 1 cm thick and 5 cm wide
• 150 g baby spinach
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp sugar
• oil
• salt
• pepper

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Instructions

1. In a wok sauté garlic and onion cook until onion is nearly transparent.
2. Add minced chicken and beef then cook for 3 minutes.
3. Add the sliced bottle gourd and hibe, Stir fry for 2 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock, light soy sauce, salt and sugar and simmer for 7 minutes
5. Add the spinach, gently toss and turn it with the vegetables, let is cook for one more minute
6. Season with pepper and serve

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