Thai-Style Stuffed Cucumbers
Thai cookbooks abound in recipes for geng jeut mara yord sai, or pork-stuffed bitter melon soups. “Soups,” plural, as this recipe has countless variations. Some cooks stuff cucumber instead of bitter melon; others abandon the vegetable container in favor of squid.
Yet another variation of geng jeut mara yord sai abandons the soup altogether, serving the stuffed vegetal container as a side dish. Your hostess took this route.
Every geng jeut mara yord sai recipe I tried–five or six–called for a pound of ground pork. Each left me with more stuffing than vegetable: an exact ratio of pork to gourd likely doesn’t exist. This isn’t a crisis. Just roll the leftover stuffing into patties and cook them.
So, cooking cucumbers. I thought we’d gotten past that with Julie and Julia. But Chrissy Tiegen, writing in Cravings, is moved to defend cuke cooking in all caps and large font:
“YES, YOU ARE COOKING CUCUMBERS. THEY ARE DELICIOUS.”
A few other ingredient notes.
You’re looking to balance salt, sweet, and sour flavors in the stuffing. Geng jeut mara yord sai isn’t a spicy dish.
You have a choice of salt elements: Light soy sauce, Golden Mountain Sauce, or fish sauce. Light soy sauce does not mean low sodium: it means, I am not mushroom soy sauce, I am not sweet soy sauce, I am not for seafood. If six different soy sauces isn’t your idea of a good time, regular soy sauce will work just fine.
Golden Mountain Sauce is a Thai seasoning sauce tasting much like soy sauce. Find it in Asian markets or online. Again, regular soy sauce will work.
Some geng jeut mara yord sai recipes call for coriander or cilantro root. Coriander root can be difficult to locate. Happily, it freezes well.
The coriander root is posing beside its close buddy palm sugar, which is sold in bags of the above puck shapes or in cylinders. It tastes, to me anyway, like a finer version of brown sugar. Plain white sugar or brown may be substituted.
Finally, know that the steaming is surprisingly brief–about ten minutes. It’s ready when the meat appears fully brown (not pink), and a paring knife inserted into the vegetable meets gentle resistance. Don’t overcook, which leads to dry pork, mushy veg, and a wish never to eat this fine dish again.
Thai-style stuffed cucumbers cry out for lots of rice–Three Ladies Brand is very nice, and no, they aren’t paying me–and stir-fried greens. Leftovers are delicious at any temperature.
Thai-Style Stuffed Cucumbers, a variation on
Geng jeut mara yord sai
My recipe is adapted from the following sources:
Kwanruan Aksomboom, Somchai Aksomboom, and Diana Hiranga’s recipe for “Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup,” which appears in Thai Cooking from the Siam Cuisine Restaurant
David Thompson’s “Soup Of Bitter Melon With Minced Pork,” which appears in Thai Food
Chrissy Tiegen’s recipe for “Pepper’s Pork-Stuffed Cucumber Soup”, which appears in Cravings
Serves 3-6, depending on what else is being served.
Preparation time: about 30 minutes to prep the vegetables and mix up the pork stuffing, 10 minutes to cook.
Please read the recipe through before beginning to cook. You will need a steamer to make this dish. You’ll also need something to chop/pound with: a small food processor, a mortar and pestle, or the willingness to do some chopping with a large knife.
Ingredients
One pound/464g ground pork, with some fat
1/4 cup/2 ounces/56 grams either regular soy sauce, light soy sauce (not low salt), fish sauce, or Golden Mountain Sauce (see notes)
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/8th teaspoon-1 teaspoon palm, brown, or white sugar. (See notes)
a pinch of salt
4-8 medium garlic cloves (to taste), crushed
1 coriander root or handful cilantro leaves (optional)
4-6 medium sized cucumbers, bitter melons, or a mixture
Instructions:
* denotes places you can stop cooking and take a break.
Make the pork stuffing:
Place the pork in a large bowl. Add the soy, fish sauce, or Golden mountain sauce.
*
Ideally using a mortar and pestle, pound the white pepper, salt, sugar, garlic, and coriander root/leaves, if using, into a paste. Scrape this into the pork/soy mixture and mix well with a large spoon or your clean hands. Set the bowl aside. Refrigerate if you are not cooking immediately.
Pork stuffing can rest, covered and refrigerated, up to one day.
*
Prepare the cucumber and/or bitter melons:
Halve vegetables lengthwise. Using melon baller or small, pointy spoon, scrape out seeds, taking care not the break vegetable walls. It’s not a disaster if you do–the stuffing holds together well.
Some bitter melons have red seeds. This is normal.
*
Stuff the cucumber and/or bitter melons:
Using a small spoon or your clean fingers, mound the pork stuffing into the vegetable hollows. It’s hard to give exact amounts, as vegetables differ. Just mound neatly to fit and don’t overstuff.
You will likely have leftover pork. Set it aside for now.
*
Cooking the stuffed cucumbers or bitter melons:
Set up a lidded steamer with a rack. I use a wok for this.
Lay as many stuffed cucumbers/bitter melons as will neatly fit in a low, wide bowl. I used a 9 inch/23 cm pasta bowl. It’s fine to cook in relays if necessary. Place bowl on steamer rack, fill steamer with just enough water to reach the bottom of the rack (but not the bowl), cover, and crank the heat up.
Once the water reaches a rolling boil–you’ll hear it–turn the heat down to medium high and steam for ten minutes. To check for doneness, lift lid away from you, averting your head. Steam burns are not a good time. Thai-style stuffed cucumbers are done with the meat is brown and a paring knife slid into the cucumber meets gentle resistance. Cooked bitter melon will be softer.
Leftover pork filling may be rolled into patties and steamed, fried in a frying pan, or baked in a 350F/180C oven (10-15 minutes, depending on size of patty) and served alongside the stuffed vegetables.
Thai-style stuffed cucumbers are wonderful with Thai Jasmine rice and stir-fried greens.
Leftovers keep, wrapped and refrigerated, up to three days. The pork stuffing mixture may be frozen, cooked or raw, up to three months. Vegetables will wilt in freezer.
Notes:
If you are concerned about oversalting, try mixing the stuffing with less of whatever salty element you’re using, then fry a small patty and taste.
I give a range of sugar as most people prefer more than I do.
Palm sugar is easily broken with a knife. The measurements don’t need to be exact.
Meanwhile in the yard….
