Karela or Bitter Gourd is one of those vegetables which you either love or hate. There is no in between stage. But looking at the medicinal properties in this vegetable, I think we should eat it once in a while. Actually, Karela is from the same family 'Cucurbitaceae' as that of cucumber, but the bitter juice in it's fruit makes it very unique in taste as well as quality. It has high content of vitamin A,B,E,K, Zinc, Magnesium and very useful in the treatment of diabetes. Bitter gourd is widely used in Asian and African countries.
The recipe that I am giving today is a very simple recipe of crispy, spicy slices of bitter gourd. Try it out if you don't like karela. You never know, you might like the taste!!
Ingredients and Recipe-
Bitter Gourd 3-4
Roasted peanut powder 1/2 cup
Salt, Sugar, Red Chilly powder, Coriander powder as per taste
For tempering- Oil 2 tbsp, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, Turmeric and Asafoetida
1) Wash and pat dry the bitter gourds and slice them as thin as you can.
2)Remove the pith from each slice. This is the most time consuming part of this recipe. I normally get this done while watching television.
3)Next, people who don't like the bitterness of Karela, can at this stage add some turmeric and salt to the slices and leave it for half an hour. After half an hour squeeze the slices in your palm and all the bitter juice will wash away.
4) I don't remove this bitter juice because that's the juice which has got all the medicinal properties of this fruit. Also, we both like Karela a lot, so we don't mind the bitter taste.
5)Now, heat the oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric and asafoetida. Add sliced bitter gourd to it ans sauté on low flame till the slices become crispy.
6)Now add salt, red chilly powder, sugar, coriander powder and roasted peanut powder and mix well.
7) Turn the heat off at this stage, but leave the curry in the same pan and the heat will make it even more crispy.
These crispy karela slices taste amazing with rice and daal as a side dish or on its own if you are a karela fan.
No comments :
Post a Comment