Karele ki sabji

I never ate or cooked bitter gourd before this trial of my recipe. I always consumed bitter gourd in the form of juice or boiled pieces. Mainly I had it because few of my family members have diabetes and it is thought to be effective in controlling sugar. Bitter gourd vegetable is good for people with sugar problem as it does not have sugar content.

I could never eat bitter gourd sabji before this. My experiment to cook bitter gourd sabji was just too good to be true. I love to share this recipe with you and hopefully you will also get hooked eating bitter gourd in sabji form. If you have never tried bitter gourd, try cooking with 2 bitter gourd 1st.

Ingredients:
Bitter gourd: 5
Ginger garlic paste: 2 tbs
Garlic paste: 1tbs
Onion: 1 small
Imali / tamarind paste: 2 tbs
Chili powder: 2 tbs
Coriander powder: 1tbs
Cumin powder: 1tbs
Turmeric: 2-3 tbs
Jaggery: 1-2tbs
Garam masala: 1/2tbs
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tbs
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Oil

Preparation:
Wash and peel the skin of bitter gourd. Cut them into rings. Take each ring and de-seed them.

We will marinate these rings for 4 hours. This will take off lot of bitterness off and enhance the taste of bitter gourd.

Add salt to taste, little bit more than usual, 1tbs of turmeric, 2 tbs of ginger garlic paste to rings and mix well. Place the lid and keep aside for 4hours.




Heat large bottom pan. Add oil enough to shallow fry/ roast bitter gourd to golden brown on both sides. Keep aside. Take a taste of bitter gourd ring, they taste absolutely delicious at this point :).



Alternately you can roast bitter gourd ring in oven for 20-25 minute by sprinkling oil on top and bottom to make it low fat. Roast till bitter gourd ring is crisp.




Take 2 tbs of imali and soak it in boiling water for 10minutes. Make paste by pressing the pulp of imali and removing skin or seed from it in the same water by hands. Be careful of water being hot.

Take 1-2 tbs of jaggery and melt it in water. Keep the water aside for later use.

Peel and chop onions into slightly bigger piece and heat the pan.

Add 1tbs of oil, add mustard seeds in hot oil and asafoetida once seeds starts to crackle.

Add red chili powder, turmeric, coriander seed powder, cumin seed powder, garam masala in the oil and stir for 20-30 seconds. Add turmeric paste. Add garlic paste 1/2 tbs. Keep stirring. Add onions and stir well. Add more water if gravy starts to dry out. Add jaggary water according to taste, some people do not like it sweet. Gravy should be thick enough to be able to coat all bitter gourd rings. So add water accordingly. Cook until onions are soft and gravy starts to leave oil.

Add salt to taste enough for masala and onions. Now add bitter gourd and mix well. Cook with close lid for 5minutes.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot with soft chapati.