MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Crispy Karela(Bitter Gourd)

Crispy Karela (Bitter Gourd)

The crispy karela is a dish of its kind, very tempting and sinful. I had tasted this at a Bengali friend’s place and liked it a lot and was quite surprised to know that it is such a simple recipe and did not involve the procedure of removing bitterness of the bitter gourd. Considering its irresistible taste, it is okay to indulge once in a while in this deep fried delicacy. It is a deep fried recipe, so health conscious people please beware. Actually, it is not as oily as it is made out to be, does not take up much oil while frying and one can drain the excess oil on paper. This recipe is slightly time consuming as frying takes a lot of time.

Bitter Gourd/Karela/Karle is one vegetable that is not liked by many people as it tastes bitter. It is a seasonal vegetable and comes in late summers and stays through the monsoons. It has many nutritional and medicinal benefits and should be consumed when available during the season. It can be prepared in many varied ways as fried chips, dry vegetable and semi dry with masala, masala filled karela or as fresh juice too. Mostly, many places the bitter gourd is rubbed with salt and left for about an hour or half and then washed with water to remove the bitterness. Some people boil it in water for about 10 minutes and strain the water to remove the bitterness. My mother also used to follow similar procedures to remove the bitterness. Over the years, I found that many of my friends used the bitter gourd directly and the prepared dish did not taste bitter at all. So, now, even I make my bitter gourd vegetable directly. Many people remove the central pith too along with seeds, but, I learnt to use that too as per one of my aunt’s recipe. The bitterness of bitter gourd is reduced by adding tamarind/lemon and sugar/jaggery to the vegetable preparation.

Ingredients

Bitter Gourd - 250 gms

Onions - 3 medium sized

Oil- Approx 150 ml

Salt - As per taste

Red Chilly Powder- ½ teaspoon

Powdered Sugar - 1 teaspoon

Method

Slice onions lengthwise and chop bitter gourd into thin roundels. Heat oil in a kadahi (pan) and fry onion till it turns crispy and golden brown. Drain excess oil on paper. Now fry the bitter gourd roundels till they turn crispy. Drain the excess oil on fry. The frying needs to be done on a high flame and you need to keep turning the onion and bitter gourd pieces occasionally so that they do not burn. Finally, mix all the fried onion and bitter gourd and sprinkle with salt, chilly and powders. Crispy Karela is ready to be relished, tastes good with roti, chapatti and rice or can be eaten just like that